Pretzel Update - June 2008

Sorry I have been slacking off on the pretzel updates. I haven’t had the chance to eat as many pretzles as I would have liked.

More often than not, I will munch on a Super Pretzel. They are pretty good. I usually dip mine in spicy brown mustard.

I went to the movies at the Grove in Los Angeles and had a pretty good pretzel there. They take the pretzels out warm and then baste them with butter before adding the salt. I really like this method. I would have preferred some hot cheese to dip mine in, but alas, they don’t offer that.

Still, it was a really good pretzel.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the Dibs commercial where the couple is playing horseshoes with their unwanted pretzels. I find this commercial unrealistic and offensive. Nothing against Dibs, I’m sure it’s a fine product, but to me, pretzels and ice cream are two entirely different markets.

One is sweet, one is salty. I prefer salty, so ice cream would never supplant the mighty pretzel in my heart and mind.

Don’t worry pretzels, you’ll always have a friend in me, even if I get diabetes.

Epcot’s German Pavilion - Reminiscences

I am a big of Disneyland and Disneyworld, but that is a topic for another blog. I know you are here for one thing: pretzels! And I promise if you bear with me, I will get to that.

Anyway, I first visited the German Pavilion at Epcot when I was a child. Since there is no “ride” there, I wasn’t too impressed. But fast-forward 10 or 15 years and I sure changed my tune!

There is a restaurant there, which I term more of an “experience” than an actual “restaurant”.  It is called “Oktoberfest” and it is actually what it sounds like!

[ed. note - upon further research, I found the name of the restaurant is called 'The Biergarten' but the festival inside is, in fact, called 'Oktoberfest'. Sorry, my bad.]

This is why I love Epcot so much: it’s the only place on earth where it’s Octoberfest every single day of the year!

I first went to Oktoberfest in college. The food is pretty good and they do a little show where an Oompah band comes out and the whole thing. It’s good, clean fun and nobody leaves disappointed.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, that I found the real treasure of Oktoberfest: free, unlimited pretzel rolls!

Rolls made out of pretzel dough? Heck yes!

I remember my mom being annoyed when I returned to the table with a plate full of nothing but pretzel rolls.

“What are you doing? You’ll spoil your dinner!” she said.

Au contraire, mom!

I probably had fifteen or twenty of them. They were delicious and they had several kinds of dark brown mustards to dip them in.

Now, any trip to Epcot is not complete without a stop at the German Pavilion and a feast of delicious pretzel rolls!

9/28/2007 - Wetzel’s

Today, I went to the Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks and braved the after school crowd to get myself a pretzel.

Truth be told, it was my second trip to a mall that day. I had gone to the Grove earlier to browse the Apple Store but I didn’t have any cash and the Wetzel’s stand there didn’t seem to accept credit cards.

All they have there is a Wells Fargo machine and I didn’t feel like spending 16 dollars in fees to get at my own cash. But alas, the lure of the pretzel was too much for me to resist!

So, anyway, I decided to pay the Wetzel’s “near me” a visit. I put that in quotes because it’s actually a twenty minute trip with traffic and parking and whatnot. The world really needs more pretzel stands. I hope I don’t have to move to Germany to make this happen because I am against Nazi’s and all that they stand for and I hear that’s where that whole deal got started.

I arrive at the kiosk and I’m totally stoked that they accept cards, because I still haven’t gotten any cash. I’m looking over the menu, but there was no one in front of me and the lady behind the counter starts asking me what I wanted and I froze up.

I hadn’t been there in a while and even though I really wanted a garlic and parmesan pretzel, I didn’t see it in time, so I just ordered a regular pretzel, a jalapeno cheese sauce dip thing and a lemonaid. I guess it’s called a lemonaid combo.

I run back to my car and dig in. Boy, was it delicious! Soft and warm on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside. They seem to brush some sort of oil on the outside. It’s great! Even though it didn’t have a lot of salt on it, it was still pretty salty. I’m guessing their salt is just more concentrated than other places that water their salt down.

I would have liked to put some mustard on it, but I was in my car and I didn’t want to make a mess. The cheese sauce was good, but by the end, I was kind of sick of it. I should have just eaten it plain because it was tasty enough without any crap on it. Also, the lemonaid was delicious, I believe it is fresh squeezed.

All in all, I give this trip to Wetzel’s a 7.8 out of a possible 9.3!

Welcome to my pretzel journal!

Welcome to my pretzel journal.

Here I will blog about my love of pretzels and the times I eat pretzels and my thoughts on pretzels.

In case you are wondering, this is a pro-pretzel blog. I love them more than my parents.