Shelby's Life and Whatnot

A Disappointing Evening

Well tonight was a bust. We decided to go to Alpine Village, a big thingy off of the freeway in Torrance that is supposed to be a little taste of the Old Country. They're having Oktoberfest, so why not? Well now we know why not. First we went into the small grocery store. I was heartened to see some familiar names (Haribo, for example, and Maggi) but on the whole was unimpressed. I certainly wasn't left with the feeling of being in Germany again. Plus half of the food they had were in packages with English and French on them. They did have chocolate covered marshmallows, but not Dickmann's (warning, if you click on that link there's a scary singing guy). Their wine selection was dismal and their beer selection pretty paltry though I did spot some familiar names like Bitburger (Bitte ein Bit!) (scary music on that site too).

I'd heard that they had good baked goods but they lacked some of the most German of German things--no Oma's Apfelkuchen! No Berliners! No Streuselkuchen! You call this German?

We then veered past a couple of other very scary looking shops to head to the beer garden area. That's where the horror truly began. Luckily we'd printed out free tickets from the web (5 bucks to get in!) and then we got inside. There was a pretty sad turnout despite it being 7:00 on a Saturday. There was a small stage with men in Lederhosen playing some polkas. We checked out the beer (served in giant styrofoam cups--what is Oktoberfest without a stein???) and the food. The bratwurst was $9.95 (that's 8.10 Euro for my German readers). Mein Gott! And I thought paying 4 Euro for a wurst at the Dom was expensive! We pretty much looked at each other and then couldn't get out there fast enough. Thank God we had free tickets to get it. I would have cried otherwise.

We then decided to eat somewhere I've passed a million times but never eaten at--Koo Koo Roo. I'm not sure what I was really expecting but this wasn't it. It was kind of like an El Pollo Loco without the Mexican bent. Basically fast food. I had the chicken caesar wrap and while the chicken itself was flavorful, it wasn't something to write home about. Kevin had a 3 piece meal that would have left even Scout hungry. Won't be going back there again.