Feast of Pork at Bohemian Beer Hall

And feast we did.  So much pig matter, washed down by ice cold beer, under the last vestige of sun before the inevitable long stretch of brutal New York winter.  It was the perfect September afternoon.

i eat pig

I am saddened that it took me so long to drag my butt to the Bohemian Beer Hall in Astoria.  I've been missing out on all that happy Czech music and dancing!  Not to mention all the different preparation of pig that I could have consumed.  The food, despite being doled out cafeteria style, was surprisingly solid for the price and setting.

happy dancers

Like this wiener schnitzel.  Pounded thin and brightened with a squeeze of lemon.  It was crispy yet moist and came with a mountain of potato salad.  The potato salad was your generic deli salad, but I never turn away potato salad, especially if it is heavy on mustard.

pork, fried

The best dish was probably the roast pork.  The plate came with dumplings and sauerkraut.  The bready, dense, dumplings were the perfect vehicle for soaking up the meaty sauce.  Sauerkraut cuts through the fattiness with that puckery tang.  The pork was so flavorful and tender.  It practically melted in your mouth.  My only complaint about the dish was that we got a non-fresh batch (i.e. not the fresh pig you see above) so the skin, which should have been crackly, was soaked through by the sauce.  It became rubbery and lost its appeal.  bummer.

pork, roasted

We got the Moravian stew on the basis that stews are tasty and we like stews.  The stew was chunks of pork with more dumplings and sauerkraut.  The flavor was good, though the pork was dry.

pork, stewed

To round out our tour of pork preparations, we also got grilled kielbasa.  It was good.  Nothing to blow your socks off.  But at least it was tender and spicy.

pork, kielbasa'ed

Because multiple orders of fries and ginormous dumplings weren't enough carb matter for us, we also got some pierogies.  I thought the skin was fine but the filling was super bland.  It's not a good sign when you can't tell which is the mushroom and which is the cheese.

not pork

I am a sucker for any outdoor venue that serves food and beers.  But the beer hall takes the cake.  The old men roasting pigs had me at dobry den.