Assaulting the ‘Hahnenkamm’
Whenever I travel, I’m always looking for ideas to bring back to Suffolk and our recent visit to Bad Gastein in the Austrian Alps, not so far from Salzburg, was one such opportunity.
The Austrian Alpine menu is invariably very traditional, with a selection of heavy dishes that, although quite tasty and certainly filling, do not ooze subtlety. Oodles of calories are maybe just the ticket if you are about to assault the Hahnenkamm, but perhaps not for our delicate palettes. However, just when I was on the verge of giving up the thought of exporting a little bit of Austria back to Suffolk, I discovered their cheese dumpling soup. The Austrians don’t believe in using three words where just one will do, and so ‘Kaspressknodelsuppe’ has made it onto our home menu.
Shakespeare likened food with music as well as love, so lets just say that whilst music has an infinite capacity to be fresh and innovative, although little is, food is far more about embracing influences and reinventing classical or traditional dishes.
by Roland Blunk