The Paulaner Brewpub

Just a quick update today, as it sort of ties in with the "food" topic.

Lunch yesterday consisted of a soy-marinated then roasted whole fish of unknown species. Very good and boneless, about the upper end of my spectrum of spicy. Very very good. There I was peeling the skin off when the business partner we were lunching with, pointed out I'm supposed to eat the skin. I tried .. but the texture just wasn't for me.

In the mall next to the hotel there is a Paulaner Brewpub. They had their grand opening this weekend so I was looking forward to trying it, and I got that chance last night. Previously I had a 0.5l bottle of Erdinger Hefeweizen which ran me $13, so I wasn't sure how many brews I could afford (daily meal allowance here is about $40). I was happy to see Paulaner's brew cost a mere $6/0.5l.

So they had two choices. I was expecting a list of Paulaner's brews, like in a brewpub, but they had just two - "Lager" and "Dark". I asked the waitress which styles they are, and she replied "the lager is a yellow style, and the dark is a brown style". oooooookkaaaaaaaayyyyy. Well, she let me know she's moslem and doesn't drink. Fair enough, so I ordered the lager. It was their hefeweizen, which, if you know beer, isn't a lager. But it is yellow. And it was very good - they must brew it locally because it had that freshness that German brews lose when they cross the Atlantic or travel long distances. If you're in the US and think you like German beer, you really should give thought to a vacation Germany and try it fresh. Come to think of it ... the Euro may likely collapse this summer (think Greece, bailouts, and ripples), making it reasonably inexpensive to travel there. Not to mention that the Germans are so dang friendly and most speak english .. it's a very nice place to visit.

So anyway, I didn't get to try the 'dark' yet, which I suspect is the dunkelweizen. It could be a bock, but I don't think Paulaner brews that. I was too full from the jaegerschnitzel. Technically they called it 'escalopes' which is the same thing - pork or veal pounded flat. The schnitzel part is breading and pan frying it. An addition of a brown sauce with mushrooms makes it a 'jaeger' version - and served with kartoffeln (i.e. potatoes).