Austria Food Review

I know it has been a while since I have written. I have had other big school writing assignments. I wasn’t very thrilled by African food, and so I took a little break. I am sorry. This one is going to be a good one because I am nice and rested and the food here in Austria is really good. I find the Austrian cuisine to be quite exotic. It is very different from other cuisines I have had, but I really like it.

The first food I am going to review isn’t even food. It’s a soda called Almdudler. Almdudler is the national drink of Austria and the second most popular in Austria under CocaCola, although personally I like Almdudler more. Almdudler has higher carbonation than most sodas and I find it hard to drink more than one small sip at a time. It tastes like an apple cider. It is a bit more watery and for you adults, unlike normal apple cider, it is non-alcoholic. Surprisingly enough the first time I had it was at McDonalds.

Next up is a very Austrian dish. It can be used as a main course or dessert. It is called Germknödel. It is a big yeast dumpling. If you are having it as a main course, it is served in a bowl of melted butter. When served as dessert, it is in a bowl of vanilla custard and topped with cinnamon. There is one catch which I really don’t like. The dumpling is filled with plum sauce in the very middle. Not the kind of plum sauce you get with your Chinese Mushu. It is a sweet jam-like substance and it doesn’t go well with the vanilla custard. 

The next dish I do not remember the name of. The dish itself was a lot more simple than its name. It was a beef broth soup with noodles, carrots, a vegetable I do not know the name of but I found delicious, beef, and cabbage. It was very good. I had it at a little hut on a ski mountain with a glass of Almdudler (my new favorite soda passing Irn Brau. Did I write about Irn Brau in Scotland?) accompanied by my mom and good brother Shefler.

Next is Specknüdelsup. Yes that is one word. It is a standard chicken broth with a giant ball of different meats in bread. Kind of like meatloaf, but it tasted nothing like meatloaf (unlike haggis). I was not a very big fan of the ball of meatloaf (that’s what I’m going to call the big ball of meat and bread). There was not enough meat and the bread got soggy. Plus, all the different meats didn’t combine well with chicken broth.

I have found a lot of German food mixed into Austrian cuisine and that would make sense because Austria and Germany have been together or they have conquered each other many times so there is a big cultural and food influence. This next food is one of the more German ones, bratwurst. I am a big fan of bratwurst. The idea of a massive hot dog without a bun sounds pretty cool to the average American. What is nice about bratwurst is it is mixed in with spices and other stuff so it really adds something to the sausage. 

Chicken nuggets or tenders are both very American dishes and normally when you think about a breaded meat you would think of chicken. But not schnitzel. Schnitzel is a very thin steak of veal but it is breaded and fried. That is what I really like about it. It is very good with some lemon juice on top.

Overall I really like Austrian food. It is simple, yet exotic. Most of my experience with Austrian food was at ski resorts so I may have not heard of the best dishes. As long as coronavirus does not affect my family’s plan I am really excited for the next cuisine, Italian.