Here’s a special summary of what specialties and dishes I have encountered of late. Nothing from 5-star or destination restaurants, just high quality, places with proud owners who turn out good food at reasonable prices for its customers. The featured image above came as a simple bed of three bread choices as a starter, with chilled rolls of butter wrapped in foil. I thought it was an elegant presentation of Austria’s finest.
Some of these dishes along the way were left out of earlier posts for one reason or another. My focus in this post is about how I have drastically modified my food choices. Despite all the temptations and delicious food, restaurant food on an on-going basis is not sustainable. I’d be the last person to admit that, but even I have hit my limit…at least, for today.
The first few meals were hard to pass up:
1. A tasty salad of shaved mushrooms from the Vienna Kunsthistorishes Museum Cafe.
2. Another museum special in Salzburg, of roasted chicken on a bed of hominy and salad. It was delicately flavored and delicious. Museum cafes are convenient and seem to have good environments with great views and pretty reliable food, even if they are a bit slow or lack business. It’s also easy for a singleton like me to slide in and enjoy a nice glass of wine with my meal without feeling like I’m unpaired.
3. Wiener Schnitzel at the cafe across from the Freud Museum had a coating that was unbelievable. Better than any tempura or batter fried fish you ever had–crisp, hot, not oily and melted-in-your-mouth scrumptious. The problem was that the portion was enough for three big men, but I ate it anyway. (This was my predicament for the past few weeks, whether it was a salad, fish, or ANYTHING on a plate! What happened to those tiny meals in Russia??)
By the end of the week, however, I was yearning for the plain and simple. I arrived in Zurich making a dash for the nearby supermarket, conveniently across the street from the hotel. I was able to conjure up a delicious summer salad with Scottish lox, raspberries, tomatoes, yellow pepper, and finger cucumbers, with a seeded roll and split of Italian red on the side. I was proud of how I could prepare an entire meal with ad-hoc implements and bath towels from the hotel. I’ve been trending toward this healthier, less expensive approach to food on the road.
Before leaving Linz and Austria, the famous Linzer Torte had to be tackled and deconstructed. I tasted it and wasn’t too impressed, but I am including several versions of recipes for those who are interested. Hopefully you can enlarge the print to read it. I tried holding my breath every time I take these photos with text so they don’t turn out fuzzy, but alas, I sometimes giggle uncontrollably.
The upshot of the torte is that, from what I saw, you make a sort of almond paste/marzipan type of glue that you fence onto the top of the cake smeared with jam. Pardon my description. It sounds gross but I am actually interested in trying to make a tasty version of it when I get home.
And of course everyone wants to have fame in the food world. The Linzer Torte can’t escape the temptation.
Travels with Myself and Others 