BBQ & Beer, Parkhotel Adler, Hinterzarten

A few days ago I was invited by a dear old friend to the Men’s BBQ and Beer event at the Park Hotel Adler located near Freiburg im Breisgau in the Schwarzwald of southern Germany. While some people in my personal circle were slighlty miffed that it was a non gender-neutral event, saving the world from injustice was not on my agenda that Sunday. The location is pretty spectacular. You’re not alone if you’ve never heard of Hinterzarten, but the Parkhotel sports a garden which money can’t buy. A park with old lovely trees, a pond and nicely mowed lawns… it felt pretty grand.

The event was accompanied by a local brewery (Fürstenberg) and the beer ambassador paired a different beer with every course. Towards the end he even showed a pretty impressive speciality the “Eis-bock”. Essentially beer is frozen in a special glas container and slowly thawed upside down. Since the alcohol has a lower freezing temperature than the rest, the fluid that starts dripping out of the glas is now a highly concentrated beer with a higher alcohol content. Not necessarily my taste, but an interesting approach nevertheless!

The hotel’s chef and his souschefs prepared a meal mainly using the wood smoker and the gas grill. The best dish was the salmon, served with crispy skin, watermelon and cucumber salad, teriyaki sauce and a light drizzle of mayonnaise. Light, summery and a good balance of sweet and savoury. Also very notable was the smoked beef at the beginning, juicy and smokey in taste. A special notion goes out to the undervalued salad buffet, especially the cabbage and the radish salads were clearly prepared by an expert. Below par were the “spanish” course lacking panache and the vegetables accompanying the lamb were just too dull.

But besides all the all-male cameraderie, the well sought-out beer pairings and anecdotes about beer brewing. The setting was simply perfect. A great garden location, surrounded by trees, sunny but not too sunny made this meal truly memorable. The slight caveat was simply that it was too much food. Not surprisingly the salads remained largely untouched.