The Libbyration of Vienna (Last of three parts)

Michael Karlo Lim
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ANOTHER breeze-through of the Salzburg town proper was a long walk to lunch at the Sternbrau. There we were served another of the Emperor’s favorites, the Tafelspitz — boiled beef with simmered vegetables served with horseradish, sour cream and potatoes. Beers are cheaper than plain water around these parts so when it comes to drinks, the wise choice is the fermented kind… a recurring theme for all the meals on this trip.

Apple Strudel and Schnitzel made it to Maria’s list. Was it that difficult to squeeze in Schokolade Torte into the syllabications? And there’s Julius Meinl coffee. I don’t know why they even bother with capitalist brands here.

We were left to digest with a free walk through the rest of the town. I came across Echte Salzburger Mozartkugel, aslo known as Mozart’s balls, a marzipan center surrounded by layers of dark and light praline cream and a dark chocolate shell. These come in pairs, of course.

Reeling from a solid two hours of Julie Andrews et al on loop, I had a hard time making my selection in a foodhall of choices on a dinner stop at the Landzeit-Autobahn restaurant. I took the default burger and thankfully did not regret the half-pound patty with thick-cut bacon strips and accouterments with a Gosser Zwickl to wash it down. The hills were definitely alive with the sound of music as we were still trapped with the Von Trapps on the last hour back to Vienna.

The next morning had us squeezing a visit to the food market outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where we gorged ourselves on local delicacies for brunch. Hamburgers are definitely Germanic and Vienna’s Steltzen Burger is a Roast Pork Belly sandwiched in a wheaten bun with mustard and sauerkraut. The call of the exotic got me a Wildschweingrilller — wild boar sausage with mustard and horseradish. I capped of with a sweet Schaumebecker — a soft marshmallow cone and washed down with Mulled Wine.

As we piled into our rental van for next destination, some weird coincidence had the Von Trapps bidding us goodbye from the hotel lobby’s piped-in: “So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye…”

All photos by Michael Karlo Lim