This upcoming weekend is the 353rd Annual Zwiebelmarkt here in Weimar.
Yes, the annual event where an insane number of people pour into an area that is quite small. I do not have official figures, but I would guess that over the course of the weekend, 30-40,000 people are all downtown drinking beer, eating Onion Cake, and buying assorted onion gift items.
I’m not kidding on any of these points either.
This weekend is the only time of year that my street gets parked up with people who are going downtown. The beer stands are numerous, the Onion Cake is for sale everywhere, and the assorted onion gift items are just plain odd. Why anybody would pay 4€ for an onion with a magic-marker drawn face on it is beyond me, but there you are. (See last year’s photos.)
To coincide with this event I am having a small movie night and party where I am serving authentic Louisiana Gumbo (and unlike the pizza dough, I’m not sharing this recipe—it’s not mine to give out) and showing “Waking Ned Devine.”
Today I made the first big purchase for the party: 3 cases of beer.
I will be the first to admit that this is overkill, but the good news is that I can always drink the leftovers: and I bought extra of the beer I like. My choices at the market were subtly influenced. I bought the Budweiser (Czech Budweiser, not that American Crap from St. Louis) because somebody at the office said it by name; the other two items were influenced by the offer of a free glass (Franzisaner Weissbier) or a free hat (Kulmbacher).
As soon as I paid, I put on the hat and started wheeling my cart out the door to my friends car. She laugh and insisted upon snapping my picture with her camera phone. Other people stared at me as I left the hat on whilst carrying the beer across the street and up the stairs to my flat.
Because at least one of my guests is a vegetarian, Friday night I will make vegetable broth to use in the gumbo; the rest of the cooking will take place on Saturday and should be relatively straight forward.
In the oft chance you are a silent lurker from Weimar, email me and I’ll probably invite you to the party, and if you’re an expat blogger who is stopping by Weimar for the Onion Market, also let me know; or if you’re in Jena for their party this weekend, you could also stop by Weimar.
good to know you back in the middle of germany and good to know for myself, that i will not be around this time of the year in weimar, where the entire city gets crazy, smelling of onions and strangers come to server their addiction, thinking of onions as some kind of a drug.
lucky me
Veggie broth in the gumbo? what are you doing about the meat? Are you making two types? I have a receipe for red bean and collard green gumbo around here somewhere. (Is this Louisiana B’s receipe? If so, yum!)
Anki: If you were here, you would be absolutely invited to my party, but in many respects, I wish I were in Chicago this weekend.
MT: It is Louisana B’s — I am starting vegetarian, and then separating out the vegetarian portion and adding meat to a large pot. The large pot will probably also get chicken broth. I’ve never made broth before, so tomorrow will be a learning experience.
Hosting Parties
It’s half past midnight and I’ve cleaned up after my party as much as I can, this late at night. The gumbo was an all day cooking process—I started at something like 9 this morning chopping celery, onions, and garlic,…
[…] As I observed earlier this week, this is the only time of year that the street in front of my flat gets parked up, so I am not surprised that one might actually forget where one parks their car. […]