Many people in Munich have acquaintances who come back from the Heim & Handwerk trade fair every autumn with piles of Italian salami or Swiss mountain cheese. That’s because of food & life, which takes place at the same time on the exhibition grounds. This year, for the first time, Food & Life will also be held in spring, when the Internationale Handwerksmesse opens its doors. The time has come next Wednesday, and in addition to the relevant specialties from neighboring countries, there will also be a cooking stage in Hall B3 with many special features, including a separate area in which 22 young, innovative food start-ups can present themselves.
This time, for example, it is Walding Foods from Freising, which offers fermentation-produced burgers made from quinoa, soy sauces and miso pastes. And the first “First Flush Premium Dry Gin” from Munich will also be presented – a gin that is refined with the noble silver needle tea, Szechuan pepper, green mango, cardamom, barberries and juniper berries (Food & Life, Wednesday, March 8th to Sunday, March 12th, 9.30 a.m. – 6 p.m., Exhibition Center Hall B3, West Entrance, Admission: 18 euros, on-line 15 euro, www.food-life.de).
Even in a beer city like Munich, you can still learn something special about this drink. For example at Upper Palatinate Zoigl evening next Wednesday. The bottom-fermented Zoigl beer is a specialty of the Upper Palatinate. It is brewed in a few small communities by the village community in so-called communal brewing houses and is only sold for a short time. Reinhard Fütterer, innkeeper at the Schafferhof in Neuhaus near Windischeschenbach, is such a Zoigl brewer and unique in the Upper Palatinate. As such, he has many funny beer stories in his repertoire. On Wednesday he tells them in Munich, together with Luk Schieder, the accordion player of the Altneihauser ceremonial chapels and the guitarist Jürgen Walbert. And original Zoigl beer can also be tasted (Upper Palatinate Zoiglevening in the Academic Singing Club, Ledererstraße 5, Wednesday, March 8, 8 p.m., admission 15 euros, tickets at www.okticket.de).
An alternative program to the beer is already taking place this weekend in the form of the Vinessio wine fair instead: Around 130 exhibitors mainly present wines from Germany, Austria and Italy, but also from Spain and Argentina. There are also stands with cheese and nougat from France, olive oil and game meat (Vinessio wine fair, Saturday, March 4, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 5, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Zenith, Lilienthalallee 29, admission 18 euros, www.weinmesse-muenchen.de).