Lowenbrau Keller, The Rocks, Sydney

Schweinshaxn $31
Oven-roasted pork knuckle with sauerkraut, Löwenbräu bier sauce and mashed potato

You've just had chocolate for breakfast. What would you have for lunch?

Pork knuckle.

Of course.

Because I'm with chocolatesuze and if there's one thing I've learnt from my eating adventures with her, it's that she's always ready to move onto her next feast.

There's a kind of wild woman crazy-eyed look whenever chocolatesuze talks about the Lowenbrau pork knuckle. "Ooh the skirt of golden crunchy goodness... mmm... crackling... " she er... cackles.

It's like looking in a mirror, actually.



So with chocolate-filled stomachs still digesting, we're seated outdoors under the awning. It's reasonably busy on a Sunday late afternooon.



Whilst many may argue a bierhouse must have busty blonde-haired damsels in bosom-spilling corsets, I can only cringe on the inside as they bustle (ha) about. If eye candy is part of the drinking curriculum, then I think it only fair that female customers get reciprocal rights to goggle at 6-foot-tall strapping young men with six-packs and mighty axes slung from their belt.


Franziskaner dark wheat bier $7.10 (300mL)
Franziskaner mango weizen $7.10 (300mL) and $10.40 (500mL)

Noods and chocolatesuze both opt for the mango beers, whilst I stick to my favoured dark wheat beer. Around us are a surprising number of one-litre steins.


Brezel $3.00
Home baked pretzel – oven fresh Bavarian speciality

The pretzel is warm, as promised, although I'm not sure in whose "home" this was baked. The thicker part at the bottom of the pretzel is the best, fat enough to allow a soft and fluffy inside.


Mustards


Pork knuckle close-up

And finally, the main event, the acclaimed Lowenbrau pork knuckle. It's a little smaller than I last remembered, more of a mini-skirt than a knee-length number, but there's still plenty to go around. As we're using the We Love Sydney buy-one-main-meal-get-one-free offer, chocolatesuze and I share one pork knuckle between us, and we're both spent by the end of it, chocolate breakfast notwithstanding.

I find the pork a little on the dry side, but it's nothing a few healthy lashings of apple-spiced mustard won't fix. Creamy mashed potato and a generous wad of sauerkraut also help. And the crackling? Bubbly, blistered and earth-shatteringly crunchy.


Chocolatesuze attacks!




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Lowenbrau Keller
Corner of Playfair and Argyle Streets, The Rocks, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9247 7785

Open 7 days 9am til late
Live entertainment every night from 7pm
Late night menu available every Friday and Saturday 11pm til 2am

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Löwenbräu Keller (Jul10), (Jun09), (Feb09) and (Jul06)

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