Goettafest

It was beautiful day yesterday, so my friends and I went for a walk downtown and over the bridges in to Kentucky.  At Newport on the Levee, we stumbled across Goettafest with lots of booths, entertainment, and Goetta.

What’s Goetta? From Wikipedia:

Goetta is a peasant food of German origin that is popular in the greater Cincinnati area. It is primarily composed of ground meat and oats. Pronounced gétt-aa, ged-da or get-uh Americanized Pronunciation, this dish originated with German settlers from the northwestern regions of Oldenburg, Hannover, and Westphalia who emigrated to the Cincinnati area in the 19th century. The word “Goetta” comes from the Low German word götte.

Goetta was originally a peasant dish, meant to stretch out servings of meat over several meals to conserve money.

The modern popularity of goetta in Cincinnati has led to it being called “Cincinnati Caviar”. Glier’s Goetta, the largest commercial producer of goetta, produces more than 1,000,000 lb (450 metric tons) annually, around 99% of which is consumed locally in greater Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Caviar is a pretty strange nickname since caviar is not exactly known as a peasant food.  I’ve had Goetta before and it’s ok, nothing really special to me.  I wonder who’s eating the 450 metric tons of this stuff.

Here are some photos from yesterday.  Love the Goetta vending machine.