(Fig. 1: Hallstatt, Austria, photo from National Geographic)

I had never been exposed to Austrian cuisine before I actually visited the place.  When I was a freshman in high school, my uncle got stationed in Vienna, Austria under his job with the Foreign Service of the US State Department.  My family and I went and visited him, and spent a month traveling Europe.  We spent a lot of time in Austria, so we also ate many different types of food.

Breakfast in Austria is a typical European style continental breakfast.  if you find yourself eating a continental breakfast, you will be eating rolls with cold cuts (salami, turkey, ham), cheeses, jams, jellies, and butter.  You will typically drink a cup of coffee, or have a glass of juice with this meal.  Lunch used to be the most important meal in Austria, but as work days have gotten longer, the big meal has shifted to dinner.  Austrians will typically just have a sandwich or leftovers from dinner the night before for lunch, and enjoy water, or a beer with that.  At dinner, an Austrian will sit down with his family and have a three course meal, sometimes staying at the table for several hours.  Dinner is thought as a time to be with your family in the Austrian culture.

Meat is a huge part of the Austrian diet.  Austrians incorporate many different types of meat into the meals that they cook, the most popular are beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and goose.  Pork is probably the most popular meat in Austrian cuisine, and they even use parts of the pig that are not typical like the snout, and the trotters.

(Fig. 2: Wiener Schnitzel, photo from wikipedia)

Austria’s most famous dish is the Wiener Schnitzel.  A schnitzel is type of meat cutlet that is often tenderized, and then is fried in oil.  The type of meat used in Wiener Schnitzel is veal, which is the meat of a calf.  The meat is taken from the calf, and then hit with a tenderizing hammer until it is very thin.  The meat is then breaded and fried in a pan.  This can be served with a salad with a vinaigrette or a potato dish.  Austrian winters are also very cold, as they are high up in the alps.  Due to this, they often make meals that are warm and filling, like goulash.  While this is originally from Hungary, Austria has adopted it into its own culture.  Goulash is a soup made from meats and vegetables, and its signature flavor is achieved through the use of paprika.  The meat that can be used is normally lamb, pork, veal, or beef, and the cheaper cuts like the shank or shoulder is used in the dish.  The types of vegetables used include bell peppers, garlic, and onions.  Tomatoes can be added, but in Austria they almost never are.

(Fig. 3: Apple Strudel, photo from tasteofhome)

Austria is also famous for their desserts, specifically the strudel.  Strudel is a layered pastry, and filled with something sweet.  Fruit is commonly used, but things like sweetened milk and chocolate can be used as well.  No doubt the strudel Austria is most famous for is apple strudel.  The dough for the pastry is made using the normal ingredients like flour, eggs, and oil, and then is kneaded relentlessly, often times being hit against the top of the counter.  The dough is then made to be incredibly thin, so thin that some say you should be able to read a newspaper through it.  The apple filling (a mixture of apples, cinnamon, and sugar), is then spread out across the dough.  The dough is then wrapped over the filling, until it has all been used up.  The pastry is then baked, cut into slices, and served with some powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  Custard, vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream is also served with the strudel.

If you have never tasted Austrian food, I cannot recommend it enough.  It does not stray to far from what we see normal, yet the flavors are amazing.  I barely scratched the surface of what Austria has to offer in terms of food with these dishes, and I hope that reading about these dishes has made your mouth water the way it has made mine.