Testicle Festival

Testicle Festival, only in Calgary you say? Well, maybe!! I thought this was a good post to start off the Stampede with. I was cordially invited to the Testicle Festival this year that is held at Buzzards Restaurant and Bar in Bottlescrew Bill’s Pub!! This is the 20th Anniversary of this official celebration.

You may still not know what I am talking about.???!!! Have you heard of Prairie Oysters?

“Some 750,000 bull calves are castrated each year in Alberta, representing well over 99% of the male (cattle) population. (The only ones that don’t undergo this procedure are those animals slaughtered for veal and the bulls reserved for breeding.) The emasculated calves are then termed “steer”.”

This was part of my invitation that was sent to me. Hungry yet? Oh come on, get some balls!!!

Hehe, I am having fun with this one. Also included in the evening was a lovely pub buffet of various wings, ribs, scallops wrapped in bacon etc. The huge draw was the showcasing their new menu of 319 different beers and you can sample anyone of them. It was called PICK A BEER-ANY BEER PARTY.

I chose my friend Jill to escort me as she has an adventuresome side to her and with some coaxing she was a willing participant. It was a fun evening!!

We started off sampling some beers and Jill who has Celiac actually had a few gluten free to choose from to!! Now we didn’t drink all of these, just samplers but they were kind enough to let me take them outside to photograph them.

First off was Fernie Brewing Company, cold and refreshing!!

Dead Frog, a nice amber ale!

Mongozo and a gluten free choice!

Daura, another gluten free pick! Jill’s favorite!!

Oh the balls start coming out now and the first ones are Battered Balls with a raspberry condiment. Not to bad at all.

Gluten Free and not one of Jill’s favorites.

If you are not a fan of beer try a banana flavored one, not my pick but you may like it.

Here we went to Belgium, I like this one!!

More balls have arrived and these ones are their Mixed Nuts, sauteed, sliced and served with cooked strawberries and walnuts. Hmm, not my choice but I tried it!

Love the name of this gluten free beer!!

I believe this one is from Japan and it was nice and light!!

The best balls were these last ones and they are called GREAT BALLS OF FIRE for a reason. Ground bison wrapped around small prairie oysters and the spice goes on and on. I liked these the best!!

Second to last was an Argentinian beer and it was very good too!

I saved the best for last and came back to Canada with this nutty dark brown ale, just how I like a beer!!

All in all a very fun evening, thank you very much Bottlescrew Bill’s for inviting me!! I will be back to sample more beer and food again soon!!

Come and sample some of their other delicious food and enjoy your Stampede with the amazing beer selection that they have. Yahoo!!