I’d like to preface this post by saying that I am quite homesick for Jackson at the moment. I’ve been gone for six weeks and have started to feel lonely for friends and the Tetons. One of my friends and I went to the Snake River Brew Pub on my last day in Jackson–where I sipped my Discombobulator and said my goodbyes to people I love dearly and a place that acts as a home base.
Today I am in Augsburg, Germany. Bavaria is beautiful, crisp and friendly. It’s my fifth city and third country on this tour and by far the most orderly. Berlin was amazing with it’s street food (currywurst!), Toronto lovely with it’s poutine, Chicago-well, Chicago is just fantastic for food and Indianapolis surprised me with how many things they could do with a tater tot.
As for beverages, I have had a lot of beer in all of those places. Trying to stay with micro-breweries, I’ve been able to taste a bit of the cities that I’ve been in via their ales. However, I must say in a unintentionally cliche’ way, that none of those beers have wowed me like the beer I’ve had in Deutschland. I’ve tried many in the last week due to my curiosity, but most importantly because of the fact that it is 1/2 the cost of water at restaurants or on the street. A pretzel and a beer will cost under 4 euro but I paid 5.80 euro for a large water the other day!
Today, however, I am sitting in the Augsburger Hof Hotel cafe’ sipping a nice Weissbier as they call it here (otherwise known as Hefeweizen) because it is cold and raining, and frankly, I can’t eat another pretzel. This wheat beer comes from the historic Franziskaner brewery in Munich (about a half hour away) and is served sans-orange at the perfect temperature (not ice cold, but not room temperature either).
My waiter, Sebastian, recommended it and then told me to get the soup since I wanted something light and typical. To be honest, I don’t think the two go together too well, but they both were delicious.
The soup is called Swabian and is a clear beef broth with raw shaved carrots, celery, a mix of meat dumplings and savory strudel that is typical for this area. It is topped with herbs and chopped chives, and is super tasty but for some reason it made me crave the SRB Cobb. They love carbs here in Bavaria and I could really go for something green! More than that, I crave the atmosphere of the pub. Right now the Europe Cup is on and people are friendly but everything is just a little too quiet, a little too orderly and just too clean-shaven for my taste.
I am about to venture out into the damp cold streets of Augsburg to head to rehearsal and after checking the weather for Jackson I am even more homesick! Before I down the rest of this delicious beer I am virtually raising my glass to you all. Keep Jackson going strong, enjoy the Tetons and the next time you are at the pub, enjoy an OB-1 for me!
Dishing columnist Alice Bever is on a world tour right now and will write an ode to what she missing about Jackson every other Monday until she returns late this summer.
