Dust Off Your Lederhosen…

Page — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:35:08 +0000

….It’s time for Oktoberfest!

Fall = food here in Albany. Last week was LarkFest. This weekend PolishFest took place in Latham and Wolff’s Biergarten hosted Oktoberfest. And for the first weekend in October the Society for the Advancement of Philanthropy is having its second annual Meatfest fundraiser while restaurants on Madison Ave. near Steamer 10 are hosting a Taste of Madison. We’re all about the fests and the food here in the Capital Region.

The Boyfriend and I met up in friends outside of Wolff’s on Saturday to check out the bar’s very first Oktoberfest.

The street was unexpectedly packed with people. I think even the event coordinators must have underestimated how much people enjoy their German food and beer, because you could barely move down the street!

There were a few scattered vendors, plus a pony ride and face painting for the kids. There was also a polka band.

And a dunk tank filled with beer.

This poor guy looked so cold. All in the name of charity, I suppose. (Proceeds went to the Veggie Mobile and the Albany Police and Fire Station).

But the true highlights included the giant truck that housed ginormous kegs of Oktoberfest and, of course, the German food from Wolff’s.

The Boyfriend got knockwurst and bockwurst, bacon mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut, while I went simple with knockwurst and sauerkraut. Please note that in my excitement I slathered the thing with sauerkraut and mustard before considering a photo.

We also shared a Spaten Oktoberfest.

Personally, I enjoyed showing my Puerto Rican boyfriend how we Germans eat.

I Heart Albany

Page — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:56:28 +0000

Monday evening finds me content and I attribute this to a great weekend. It was full of Capital Region fun.

Saturday morning found us at the Troy Waterfront Farmer’s Market.

Definitely one of the best and biggest in the area. And year-round, which is a beautiful thing in oft-chilly Upstate New York.

I love farmer’s markets. It’s about celebrating the earth, eating well AND deliciously, and getting excited about people selling stuff out of the backs of their trucks in a non-sketchy way. I get so much more excited about food at the farmer’s market versus the not-so-supermarket. I have a whole slew of recipes buzzing around my brain. We came home with zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, green beans, peppers, cucumbers, pears, nectarines, and fresh ciabatta and bagels. What a glorious trip. I must have had quite a special childhood to get so excited about vegetables.

Saturday was also Albany’s LarkFest, the time when Lark Street shuts down and everyone comes out to listen to music, eat food, hang out, and hold on to summer before we’re all buried under a pile of snow. For those of you who don’t know Albany, first I ask, why not, and second I will explain it as the Greenwich Village of Albany. The Roommate says, “Or the Haight-Ashbury of Albany.” Basically, a fun and hip part of town.

The Roommate and I started the afternoon off with mini boxes of wine. We’re all about class.

The crowd was thick! The Boyfriend was kind enough to utilize his height to snap this photo:

We hit up the Cheesecake Machismo tent for some blueberry maple cheesecake and sampled some pizza from Elda’s (I’d long heard talk about Elda’s pizza). We shopped the tents and vendors. We heard the tail-end of Bell X1’s set and listened to Moby in the distance as we made our way down to the other end of Lark for Matt and Kim.

It’s such a sign of class when musicians are friendly and willing to meet fans after the show. Plus it was the Boyfriend’s first concert, so this was pretty cool:

LarkFest ended and we headed uptown for dinner and Apples to Apples at a friend’s apartment.

And Sunday found us here:

There is no feeling like the sense of accomplishment one has after doing heaps and piles of laundry. I didn’t count how many loads our apartment did, but it was in the double digits. Mad Lark has free Wi-Fi and Dunkin’ Donuts right next door, making it a destination laundromat as far as I’m concerned.

Expect many delicious meals and recipes as we eat our way through our farmer’s market stash!

Notes On A Page » Festival

Dust Off Your Lederhosen…

I Heart Albany