G is for German

I know what happened to the three little pigs…

Whenever I tell people about our alphabet experience to date, their first question is “so what’s next?” They can’t help but work their way through the alphabet and suggest different cuisines and restaurants for the upcoming letters; I love hearing them because inevitably there are some I hadn’t thought of myself.  Please feel free to post your recommendations here too.  I also remind these people that the invite is always genuinely open to join us on as much of the alphabet adventure as they wish; an offer which was taken up by a grand total of 16 people for German.

We always knew German was going to be a big one, both in participant numbers and overall consumption.  So when I made a booking at The German Club Tivoli  for a table of 17, I had grave fears for my diet and my liver…and rightly so.

It was a Friday night in Melbourne, The Age had been tweeting all day about severe weather warnings (and tweets don’t lie), we had umbrellas, winter coats, cold noses and a hankering for some pork.

Tivoli is basically a German RSL.  You have to sign in at the door and the drinks are cheap.  Before even looking at the menu or greeting the people at the end of our 4m long table who I’d never met, we were at the bar for some $4 sour apple schnapps shots.  Lecker!

Our party then proceeded to order 3 and a half pigs worth of roast pork hock, served with red cabbage and a potato dumpling.  We also got a side of sauerkraut and a big cold Schofferhofe.  All of a sudden, it seemed like all the problems of the world no longer mattered.

Problem solving pork

The service was consistently friendly and they dealt easily with our large group.  They also managed to convince us (it didn’t take much) to have a “German Flag” – a 3 layer shot of honey vodka, strawberry liqueur and jagermeister, which ultimately ends up looking like, you guessed it, the German flag.  At that moment, we were officially tourists on Dandenong Rd.

We finished off with the apple strudel and black forest cake, both sweet and yum, before we got finished off by a tiny novelty bottle of underberg each.

“Can we please have 17 of the things that come with the cool glasses”

Underberg is a bitter herby digestif which comes served in an awesome glass (the real reason we ordered it) and it is strong enough, I believe, to fulfill its purpose of helping me digest the embarrassing amount of pork I ate.

Thanks must go to Michael, the elderly German man with an accordian and a long list of traditional songs, who was our entertainer and soundtrack for the evening.

The food perhaps wasn’t the highest quality, but with the prices, the service and the novelty factor combined, the overall experience was very enjoyable.  7.5/10

About these ads