Austrian Food

Austria has an obsession with meat. Not just your everyday cuts either but all parts of the animal. Particularly liver. There is a lot of liver. Beef liver ball soup being the specialty (see main photo). They’re bread fans too, and dumplings. Well, at least this is what Google translate gave me as a translation for them. I had in mind the asian variety, a pasta stuffed with meat, or maybe the Russian pelmeni version. But no. Turns out a dumpling is a big fat meatball. Usually made of liver or sweetbreads and of course padded out with bread. Goes very well with an Austrian red blaufranksich.

One thing Austrian food is not is light. But it is very tasty if not a bit same-y. Basically you eat meat and potatoes with sauerkraut and dumpling. Or spetzle which is kind of like skinny gnocchi (it was translated as egg noodle. It’s not.). I thought I might just have a light omelette one night after all the stodge I’d eaten that week. So I chose the cheese omelette with spetzle (egg noodles). It was more cheesy skinny gnocchi with a dash of egg. But yummy. Poor waistline.

Then there were the Munich white sausages which you apparently just have to try. You don’t by the way. They don’t have much taste but are definitely a good meaty sausage. The best was the truffled cauliflower soup – finally something relatively light.

It’s probably best to visit Austria in winter where you will appreciate the warm heavy comfort food. You probably only need to eat once a day! Although you won’t be able to get enough of the apfelstrudel or tochenstrudel – a cottage cheese filled pastry that is divine.