'The keg is tapped' at Aryaduta Hotel

'The keg is tapped' at Aryaduta Hotel

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Oktoberfest, a 19th century royal wedding turned into a modern
day folk festival, is being celebrated by German communities
around the world.

And it wouldn't be Oktoberfest without a crowd of cheerful
beer drinkers enjoying a continuous flow of beer, delicious yet
rather heavy Bavarian food and traditional music.

It is said that the annual festival -- dubbed the world's
largest such festival -- draws around six million visitors from
around the globe with an estimated five million liters of beer
being consumed.

The festival has its origins in the wedding celebration of
Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) to Princess
Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810, held at the
Theresienwiese (which literally means the field of Therese, which
was so named to pay tribute to the Princess), in Munich, Bavaria,
Germany. All citizens were invited to the gala event.

The event was originally celebrated with horse races and, to
commemorate the royal wedding, an annual October festival was
held every year, interrupted only by wars and cholera epidemics,
sources said.

In later developments, an agricultural show was added,
together with a carousel and a small beer stand. Several years
later, the horse races were abandoned and the beer stands were
replaced with beer tents. The agricultural show is also still
held every three years.

In Germany, the festival begins with a parade of brewers and
beer tent landlords to the Schottenhammel tent, the oldest
private tent at the Oktoberfest. But the merriment officially
starts when the famous phrase "O' Zapft Is" (the keg is tapped)
is announced shortly after the first keg of beer is tapped by the
Mayor of Munich.

Recently in Jakarta, at least 800 guests from big German
companies in the capital also gathered to celebrate the annual
festival in the Aryaduta Hotel Jakarta's Ballroom. Apart from
Bavarian food and beer by the barrels, there was also live music
performed by the Garmisch Partenkirchener Band from Bavaria.

"The festival is now held in September to avoid the icy cold
and early snowfalls," the hotel's food and beverage director
Roger Habermacher said of the event, which lasts for 16 days and
ends on the first Sunday in October.

Clad in traditional Bavarian costumes, several girls in
dirndls and boys in lederhosen distributed tall glasses and
served beer (as well as other drinks, like juices and soft
drinks) to guests.

It was the hotel's general manager Roger Lienhard who tapped
the first keg and officially declared "O' Zapft Is".

The venue was specially decorated with banners bearing
Bavaria's blue and white check motif and there were several rows
of long wooden benches and chairs, arranged neatly before the
stage where the Bavarian band entertained guests with their
performance.

Dozens of food stands were set up right in front of the
Ballroom, serving various dishes, like goulash soup, knodel
(dumpling), haxen (roast pork), Bavarian cream, liver sausage,
assorted Bavarian cheeses and weisswurst (veal sausage specially
prepared for this occasion but also popular throughout the year).

"Bavarian people insist that this sausage be eaten before
lunch time to ensure maximum quality and freshness of the
product," Habermacher explained.

To provide guests with authentic Bavarian flavors during the
event, the hotel imported most of the food items, such as
sauerkraut, weisswurst, bratwurst and meat loaf directly from
Bavaria, including the Erdinger beer which is also imported from
Germany.

The 3-day Oktoberfest has been followed by a six-day-long
German Food Festival, dubbed the Bavarian Schmankerln (or
Bavarian Favorites), which ends this Saturday.

Unlike the Oktoberfest menu, which was a buffet with a variety
of around 50 delicacies, the Schmankerln menu is based on an a la
carte selection and is therefore smaller in scale.

"We will offer around 12 to 15 specialties varying from
weisswurst to maultaschen (dumplings with spinach), and other
specialties," Habermacher said.