Serving up Old World tastes
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DINING OUT
As the leaves turn from green to golden red, our appetites turn
from ice tea and salads to the hearty, fat sausages and warm potato
salad of the German cuisine celebrated at the 25th Oktoberfest at Old
World German Restaurant on Center Avenue between Beach Boulevard and
Gothard Street in Huntington Beach.
Old World Village, in the center of Huntington Beach, was created
by Josef Bischof and modeled after Oberammergau in his native
Germany. Here are winding cobbled stone streets and gift shops with
apartments above. The Old World German Restaurant at the east end
includes a large dining room and a smaller one with grape vines.
Covering the ceiling and one wall a mural of distant verdant hills.
It was here we decided to have lunch. From the five sausage
choices offered on a lunch platter ($8.95) I selected weisswurst, a
delicious big, fat pork and veal one, charbroiled and oozing juices.
The flavor, as in most of the dishes here, is tinged with a vinegary
tartness, but is not too strong.
Also included was a thinner wurst that looked and tasted like the
familiar hot dog of quick Saturday lunches. Cyndie Kasco, daughter of
owners Josef and Dolores Bischof, says she enjoys the flavors of the
various wursts that come from Mantern Sausage Company, a European
butcher.
Sauerkraut is homemade with slender cabbage shreds as is the
thin-sliced potato salad served warm. It’s a great lunch -- the kind
you want to linger over and savor.
But German food is not sausages alone -- its essence is really
“home style” cooking and pot roast-like Rouladen is a mainstay (Lunch
$12.95, Dinner $14.95). In this dish tender thinly sliced beef is
rolled around a filling of bacon, pickles and sauteed onions and
covered with gravy. With this plate come Spaetzle (literally
translated as “little sparrows”) which are like fat spaghetti tossed
in butter. Firm and very tasty, it is served in Germany as a side
dish like potatoes or rice. The cabbage adds a nice festive touch.
Another excellent combination of dishes is the Oktoberfest Platter
for Two, (Lunch $12.95, Dinner $16.95) which has four house
specialties: sauerbraten, beef goulash, bratwurst and schnitzel
served with potato salad, red cabbage, fried potato, sauerkraut,
potato pancake and spaetzle. Now that’s something that would keep you
busy.
The sauerbraten pot roast is marinated with burgundy wine vinegar
and spices that seep into the meat, while the crispy pork cutlet is
described as wiener art. Chef Ener Najera, who was trained by the
original chef, gets better all the time using some recipes that
originated in Austria.
Desserts may seem excessive but there are some classic ones like
the apple strudel ($2.95, with ice cream, $3.50) or the familiar
Black Forest torte($2.95), which is homemade, four layer’ devil’s
food with a filling of whipped cream and cherries. The Eisbecker
($3.75) is a dish of vanilla ice cream drenched in kirschwasser
(cherry brandy) and covered with whipped cream.
* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have
comments or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail
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