Our Austrian Meal
Country #10 in our Global Table Adventure – Austria!
Some familiar dishes for us this week. We started with some Viennese Hot Chocolate (with Brandy), then made Sauteed Green Beans with Speck (speck is dry-aged prosciutto), Pork Wiener Schnitzel, Baked Austrian Kas Nocken (spaetzle) with caramelized onion and Gruyere cheese, and Sacher-torte (chocolate cake with apricot jam). Weโve had these foods before, but it was fun making our own homemade spaetzle and Wiener Schnitzel!
The speck in the green beans was really good and reminded me of how my Mom would make green beans with bacon. Probably the poor man’s version. ๐ The wiener schnitzel turned out really good especially considering we don’t fry very often. We made the spaetzle from scratch by mixing egg, milk, flour, salt and pepper and then dropping this dough through holes of a sieve in to boiling water. It was boiled until they floated. The spaetzle was then mixed with butter, caramelized onion, and Gruyere cheese, then baked. Yum! It was so good with the cheese and caramelized onion. The cake…well, something went wrong there and we had to get a steak knife to cut it! Neither of us needed the dessert anyway.
About Austria
Austria is the birthplace of Mozart, Beethoven, Sigmund Freud, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Adolph Hitler. The Sound of Music was filmed in parts of Austria. It is host to the United Nations, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). OSCE members include 57 States in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
The capital city of Austria, Vienna, has beautiful stone churches, opera houses, and monuments. There are dozens of castles throughout the country. Austria is known for it’s beautiful Alps mountain range.
In the spring, snow in the Hochschwab Mountains melts and floods the Tragรถess park, forming the Green Lake (Gruner See).
Our Dream Austrian Vacation
We would love to go to Vienna to see the beautiful stone churches such as Votivkirche, opera houses such as the The Vienna State Opera and monuments such as the Maria Theresa Monument that commemorates Empress Maria Theresa, who ruled the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 to 1780.
Austria has a a lot of cool castles you can stay in! This site lists 25 Castle Hotels in Austria. The three that interested me the most are Schloss Matzen, Georgi Schloss and Naturhotel Schloss Kassegg. We would visit as many castles as possible and stay in one of the three I mentioned. We stayed in a castle north of Frankfurt, Germany and it was amazing!!!
It would be so cool to see a Mozart concert in his birthplace! We would also like to visit a mountain village like Hallstatt. We love going on evening cruises to see cities from a different angle and lit up at night. A Vienna evening cruise on the Danube river would be a must.
What about you?
Please post your comments below. We love hearing other’s experiences and thoughts!
Do you have a favorite meal, recipe or drink from Austria?
Do you have a favorite place that serves food from Austria?
Are you from Austria or have you ever visited?
Azerbaijan is Up Next!
Do you have a favorite meal, recipe or drink from Azerbaijan?
Photos
- Alps of Austria – Hannes Flo from Austria, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Flower clock, Stadtpark, Vienna, Austria – Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The Sound of Music – See files page
- Hohenwerfen, Werfen, Austria – Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Forchtenstein Castle, Burgenland, Austria – Jakub Haลun, CC BY-SA 4.0
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Votivkirche – Linie29, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Vienna State Opera – Granada, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Maria-Theresien-Denkmal – Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / โWien, Maria-Theresien-Denkmal — 2018 — 3046โ / CC BY-SA 4.0For print products: Dietmar Rabich / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wien,Maria-Theresien-Denkmal—2018–_3046.jpg / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
- Schloss Matzen – Wolkenkratzer, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Schloss Kassegg – Gustav Hoffmann, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons
- Georgi Schloss – OliverHaring, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Georgi Schloss bei Nacht – OliverHaring, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Shutterstock
References
Britannica, Country Reports, Geography Now, Global Table Adventures, The Travel Book, shutterstock and Wikipedia.
