This weekend I attended The Great Googa Mooga the festival of food, booze and music (and lines). I had tickets for both days. On Saturday morning I had meeting with a client so I did not get to the show until 4:30pm. The reports I was receiving from those at the show were less than inspiring. The word "shitshow" was texted a lot.The first pic I received from the inside was this with the caption "beer line"
Unfazed I showed up. There was no line to get in. Sweet! Once inside though it took time to figure out what had happened. First we had to get our ID band, easy no line. Then we went in search of Googa Moula the currency for the event. We quickly discovered that the Moula machines that dispense the cards were down. We headed for Hamageddon hoping to grab tickets on the way and start drinking. We found a place selling coupons, there was clear disorganization. We eventual got tickets and headed into the wine tent. Finally!
The lines which I had been hearing so much about were non-existent at the wine tent. We did some tastings from the Red Hook Winery (which I have always loved) and few more places in a quick order (got to catch up). Finally my fiancee finds me, this is when we discovered for some reason there is no cell phone service in GM! Which is weird because I have never had that problem in the park.
As we started looking over the food options it was apparent everything was slightly over-priced. I mean I understand a $10 burger but I am supposed to try 5 things at $10 a pop plus booze which was priced equally, that will get expensive quick. As I post what I ate I will post the price and whether it was worth it or not.
HAMAGEDDON:
The prize piece in Hamageddon, the fire breathing, pig roasting, metal pig (yes fire breathing and out of its butt):
The Bacon Land, Bacon Flights $10 (worth it):
After the Bacon Flight we got in-line for the Dinosaur BBQ pulled pork sandwich. They ran out before we made it to the front of the line. After a few more glasses of Wine, we went to Miles End Smoked meat. I have been very excited to try it. I do think the sandwich at $7 could have had more meat, but it was great!
Day 1 ended with us sitting around table drinking beers and wine, listing to the Roots as the sun was setting in the park. I did buy $16 IPA to get rid of my last 20 coupons. Grand total spent $17 on food $60 on booze (I tired 6-8 wines and 4 beers)
Day 2
I intended on getting there early and hitting everything I was interested in. We ended up sleeping-in and we were debating whether we should go at all. A friend texted me "no lines come now". We strolled in around 12:30pm, it was much more mellow than the day before. We headed straight for the Burger Experience, where my fiancee wanted to go.
We skipped The Spotted Pig, which had the longest line of the burger stands. We had the Burger Joint with the works for $8 and the Steak Burger from the Brindle Room for $10. Plus 2 glasses of wine from El Cavino ($10 each). I would say the burgers were priced about right (I have had better) and the Wine was over priced.
We quickly started hitting up the other stands noticing that all the lines were manageable. Next up was the Simply Chicken By Jean George, with the Char Grilled Organic Chicken Sandwich with sambal mayo and yuzu pickles for $12. There was no line here I think possible due to the price, but if Jean George came up with it I wanted to try it. It was very good.
We once again surveyed the options and decided we had to try the Colicchio & Sons, Spit-charred Pork Belly Taco for $7. This was totally worth it. It was a short line. We should have done the 2 for 12. Regardless there was so much pork belly in it.
Up next! Lobster Rolls from Luke's Lobster
Front of the line
No Lobster Rolls for us.
Then I spotted Eddie Huang's (hope I got that right) Baohaus. I have been wanting to try his food for a long time. They were serving General Lokos' Fried Chicken Bao with sweet sauce and served on stemmed bun. 2 for $8 and worth every penny. I would have gone back for more.
Making it! They said I owe them $5 each if I put it on the Internet!
These were the best of the show that I tasted.
At this point we were pretty full, very hot and still nursing slight hangovers from day one where were consumed more booze than food. We grabbed another beer and glass of wine from the basic vendors $7 beer $10 for wine! We sat in the sun and debated what else we would want to eat. I had the Craft Dirty Duck Dog high on my list and the Hill Country BBQ Brisket Tacos. But I decided on the Foie Gras jelly donut from Do or Dine for $11. I mean hey why not.
We took a break and headed to a friends house after this. The venue was starting to fill up as we left. We had planned on going back for the Hall and Oats show. We lost track of time and missed it so the Foie Gras Donut is last memory of Googa Mooga 2012! See you again next year! Total Spent day 2 $92!
Grand Total was $169 in 2 days (oh yeah and $3 water), maybe a Extra Mooga Ticket next year is worth it next year.
