Oktoberfest explored

Stein and I just returned from an impromptu and lovely Oktoberfest dinner at Sabi & Rick's. Sabi is a Slovenian transplant, and waxes nostaligic over central/eastern European food & culture. Sabi stirred up some lovely warm sauerkraut and a marvelous twice-cooked potato dish. Simple, satisfying, and extra mmm-y with a smear of whole mustard over top of each (I was substituting for the beer-boiled-brats and polish the rest of the partygoers were wolfing down hot from the grill on rolls with aforementioned mustard).

We had fun playing "find the polka" on Pandora (turns out Weird Al's dad was truly gifted), Sabi jolted my muscle memory with a few rounds of jaunty arms-about-the-waist polka across the linoleum, and I realized that that syrupy beer that confounded us the week prior when Chuck brought it over was the perfect counterpart to this hearty meal and the growing chill in Fall's approaching air.

Stein and I returned home at a decent hour, and with this warmness in my belly and heart I begin to wonder about my own roots in this corner of the globe. Ironically, the first person I think of when I consider my own German parts is my long-passed and never-met maternal grandfather, Carl Engle. Ironic, because he was actually adopted and we'll never know his true genetic family tree. But I consider him today, and wonder what it must have been like to serve in the US Military in WWII with a name like Carl Engle. No easy feat, I imagine. Here's to you, Carl.


And there's Mary Meehling, mother of Margaret Logue, my paternal grandmother. Mary was a solid midwestern gal, born 1890 in Clark County, Illinois. As delivered to my recipe collection, Mary's culinary legacy runs more to the fried chicken than the maultaschen.

I just wonder how particular cultural branches dominate a family tree? It could be that two world wars severed my family's ties with their German heritage, and the Irish limbs won that particular confrontation. But I know that many American families survived WWII with their Germanity intact. Perhaps the 1950's USA hofbrau + polka explosion was natural fallout from a decade of cultural repression? Controversial stuff, my friends!

And with that, I leave you with an audio treat...