Crisp Apfel Strudel

Guten Tag!

Today is stormy, so there's not a lot of tourist action today, but I'll make it up to you with some authentic Austrian food.

Thank, goodness, Pil. We were kinda over pasta.

I began the day with a trip to the grocery store.  I love snooting around groceries in foreign countries.  A lot of time I have no idea what is on offer, but it's fun to look.  My local Billa has a major section devoted to chocolates and other candy.  When you can't stand it any more and need some Mozart Balls (chocolate covered marzipan mostly) get it at the grocery instead of fancy pants touristy conficerie and save yourself a euro or two.

One of the things I got is bread.  I cannot say enough about Austrian bread. It's hearty and tasty and one can imagine generations of peasants surviving on this good stuff.  I have tried it with Liptaur, butter, and hummus, and it's all delicious.  Something else I got was artificial sweetener--with an ingredient long banished from the United States.  A person dates herself if she recognizes the term cyclamates.

After dumping off my groceries I set off again and crossed the river.  I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the pedestrianized streets in the newer, but still old, part of Salzburg.  It's more a real people rather than tourist area, but here is where one finds the big luxury hotels simply because there is no space for them in the Aldt Stadt.

I'd gotten some postcards at Mozart's birthplace and was delighted to come upon a post office.  I exercised my extremely limited German buying some stamps.  The man was very polite, and it occurred to me that he probably spoke English quite well, but he let me go on.

Then since I was in the neighborhood, I thought it would not hurt to stop in at the Mirabell Gardens.  This time I really got to experience the rain drops on roses!  More this time some of the building was open, so I got to go inside and admire the marble floors and grand stair case.  Mirabell isn't really a museum, but you can visit because they hold frequent concerts there.

By that time I needed a toilet and there is one in the park nearby.  It costs fifty euro cents, but the machine ate my change!  A kindly Austrian woman saw this, and held her stall door open for me.  That was nice, but Austrians are.

Then back to the Aldt Stadt . . . For . . . Food.

Finally!  What sort of food?  You said it was authentic.

Are you interested in Apfel Strudel?

Slaver.  Drool.  Isn't some kind of law that a visitor MUST have strudel while in Austria?

If it's not the law, it should be.  Strudel is not crisp, you know.  It shouldn't be.  The dough is tender and apple filled.  There's some powdered sugar on top and a faint flavor of cinnamon in the apples.  The apples taste of apples, and the package is not too sweet or gloppy.  It's just a lovely satisfying pastry.  Some folks like their strudel doused in cream.  I like it plain and am having it with tea.

And for dinner is two thin sausages in a roll with some onion dressing  It smells divinely spicy and is called a Bosna and harks back to the days of the Austrian Empire.  Mine was obtained at a literal hole in the wall in one of the passages off Getriedegasse.  This imbisse is a Salzburg institution, and is mentioned in all the guidebooks. On busy days, the guy runs out so get there in good time.

First a sip of some Austrian rose.  It's not bad.  Now a bite.

And the verdict is YUM!  You really can't go wrong with sausage in Austria or Germany--unless you just don't like sausage.  This one has a complex almost herbal flavor. I may have to go back.