The Beer Garden Compromise

Be flexible.  That is my mantra for living in Thailand.  It seems like I need it to chant it at least once a week.  This week's chanting was prompted by our Wednesday night dinner plans.  Every so often, Jeff needs to stay at work late to overlap with people in the States, so we thought it would be nice if I went downtown to have dinner with him, and then he went back to work.  The husband of one of my friends had to stay late too, so she and I were going to drive downtown together.  We picked a German restaurant that got great reviews, and Jeff was really excited for some German beer and sausage.

Snag one happened when Jeff got to work Wednesday morning.  His late meeting was cancelled.  I said, let's have dinner out anyway, since we'd already made the plans, and then he could just come home afterwards.  He agreed.  Snag two happened a few hours later.  The other couple's two year old son wasn't feeling well, and so they wanted to be close to home and not out too late.  Jeff had driven our car in, so I had no way of getting downtown by myself.  I took a deep breath and let go of eating downtown.

Jeff's biggest disappointment was that he had really been looking forward to beer and sausages.  I decided the best way to save the evening was to give our local beer garden one more try.  This is the Paulaner Garten that we have tried to go to twice already, and it was closed both times.  It turns out the third time, really is the charm, because when I called, a nice woman answered, and she spoke enough English to assure me that they were open.  It's a ten minute drive from our house, so the other couple was in, and our dinner date was back on.

Since we had driven there twice already, getting there was no problem.  The big metal gates were finally open, and we got to walk in and check out the garten.

The weather is still relatively cool (in the eighties) and not too humid, so sitting outside was quite pleasant.  It's pretty close to the street, but there's a fountain with a bust of the man himself, and it added some soothing background noise.

Jeff went the traditional tankard route,

while I was a bit more adventurous and got the affensaft.

It's beer mixed with mango juice.  I was only brave enough to try it because one of my friends had told me it was delicious.  It was :-)  

There was actually a whole section of the menu that consisted of "beer mixes", a new concept for me.

 I don't know if I'm going to try any of the others, since I really liked the affensaft, and when I combined it with fresh baked pretzels, I was in a very happy place.

The chicken schnitzel was just an afterthought.

It was actually not particularly good.  The meat was so thin, it was almost nonexistent, so it mostly tasted like salty breading.  We had a good laugh because on the menu it was misspelled as schitzel.  It wasn't quite that bad, but I won't be ordering it again.  Jeff wolfed down his sausages before I could get a picture of them, so he was happy with his meal.

I've been fantasizing about the affensaft and pretzels, so I'm going to make Jeff take me back soon.  Elena managed to keep me distracted on Thursday though.  She's growing up so fast!  Young was helping her ride her tricycle in the afternoon, and then in the evening she was practicing her free standing skills.  Walking is coming!