Preuvenemint 2013

It’s time for  the annual Food Fair, Preuvenemint, filling the Vrijthof with eten en drinken goodness.  It kicked off tonight, then runs through Sunday from midday until past midnight.  It’s a big part of the late-summer social scene here: people dress up to visit the music stage and the restaurant kiosks (especially on the first night when the Mayor is in attendance). 

The music stage acts drift towards pop standards and oom-pah bands, but it becomes congenial and amusing once the beer starts to flow.  The crowds can become a bit of a forest to wade through, tall and dense, so the best strategy is to find a corner, a drink, and watch the flow of people.

  

It’s a fun event, lots of good tasting menus and some outstanding wines to sample.  You buy tickets (lappen) at 2.20 euro each and then spend them around the kiosks: beer is 1 lap; good wine is 2 or 3, sparling wine is 5, most food is 6-12 lappen.  The portions are small, but I can always top off at the apartment before or afterwards.

  

There was good value at the Thiessen Wijnkoopers with some nice little seafood soufflé's and wonderful Langedoc wines for 2.5 lap, and at the Brand tent where a 5-beer sampler with cheese was going for 2.5 lap as well.