Three meals have passed and I’ve typed nothing! How awful is that? After hours of flying to get to Vienna and a nice ride on the train (a railjet) I finally made it to Salzburg last night. It was 7pm, and of course the information booth at the train station was closed, so I was left wandering and trying to get oriented. In the end I went the wrong direction for 20 minutes until my Garmin could decide on my location.
The word “triangulate” is based on a root of “three.” Why does the GPS need 8 satellites to triangulate?
After cleaning up from the long journey, I wanted dinner and the hotel clerk suggested the Essbar Saran since I wanted something light. I wandered down the street and found it. While the menu features Austran standbys, it became clear that the owners were from another subcontinent so I cast my lot with the Bengali fish with coconut curry.
This is similar to food I grew up eating, so I can be a harsh critic. The flavors were really good, even if they did use dried coconut rather than fresh. That said, I’ve never had an Indian curry with water chestnuts, carrots, and snow peas, and it was a bit strange. I’m not certain if this is an authentic combination that one would find in Bangladesh, but I suspect they just mixed in a bag of “stir fry vegetables” to keep it easy on themselves. Sigh. I should drink more wine on nights like this.
The conference got off to an ok start, but the lack of sleep and time change finally caught up with me so I had to beg off. Consequently, lunch today found me at Carpe Diem for fingerfood, and it was delicious. The red pepper cone was filled with potatoes and capped with gigantic shavings of cheese. I wish I could make food look this beautiful. The downside of serving food in cones, however, is that people eat the food in layers. But with food this good I’ll accept the trade offs.
The cheeks of wooly pig with horseradish were tender and tasty. The only problem was I wanted more. The same is true of the dessert. The curds were soft, the cream was light, and the rhubarb sorbet tart. I was in heaven.
Finally dinner today was classic Austrian food. I had a plate of sauerkraut with sausage (think hot dog), roast pork, and ham. This was served with a bread dumpling. The latter was the only disappointment of the meal, being rather heavy …. Sort of like a matzo ball made with lead. Overall, the meal reminded me that a pig truly is a wonderful magical animal.
March 13, 2021
This is my first post on a trip. I had gone to Austria for a Diabetes in Pregnancy Conference. Rereading this, I see that I’m not fleshing out the posts, and not taking enough photographs. I mention things without explaining them (the dessert I mention above was a modernized topfenknodel). Also you can see how much I am focused on food. This reflects an initial vision of making a food blog, as well as the fact that I was mostly at the conference “working” when I wasn’t eating.
butterblogger 