9 Delicious Treats From Austria

Enjoy these tasty dishes on holiday, have a go at home or check out online Austrian Shops for imports...

1. Wiener Schnitzel

wien-vienna.at / Via wien-vienna.at

A cutlet of meat - traditionally veal, now more often turkey or pork - flattened out with extreme prejudice, dipped in fine crunchy crumb and deep fried. With potato salad, chips or just a green salad - but the slice or wedge of lemon to squeeze over the top is not optional.

There is a fast food chain, Schnitzelhaus, that does just this, but its spiritual home is Figlmüller on Wollzeile in the centre of Vienna.

2. Apfelstrudel

austria.info / Via austria.info

A proper apple strudel is a work of art. Pastry stretched so thin you can read the newspaper through it, wrapped around heaps of apple, sultanas and cinnamon. A bit of icing sugar on top and possibly a spot of vanilla sauce.

Or how about...

3. Topfenstrudel

wordpress.com / Via Hotel zur Hammerschmiede

A strudel made with sweetened soft cheese (what the Germans call Quark, the Austrians call Topfen) and raisins - it's like a cheesecake strudel. Cheesecake. Strudel.

There's a savoury version of this with spinach instead of raisins - a great vegetarian dish in a country that often doesn't really get vegetarianism.

4. Käsekrainer

upload.wikimedia.org / Via Wikipedia

A smoked, spiced pork sausage studded with chunks of cheese, which melt when it cooks. And this isn't any old cheese, this is strong, nutty Emmental or Gruyère, making up 10-20% of the finished product. Any sausage that oozes when you bite into it is all right by me.

Have it with mustard or ketchup, a crusty roll and a beer for classic Austrian street food.

5. Kaiserschmarr'n

bavariankitchen.com

A rich pancake batter studded with raisins, broken apart in the pan into luscious pancake nuggets, dusted with icing sugar and served with a pot of plum compote for dipping. Delicious, satisfying, great for sharing and easy to make at home. What more do you want?

6. Tiroler Gröstl

stanglwirt.com / Via Hotel Stanglwirt

Potato, onion and bacon, fried up (and often served to the table) in an iron skillet. Simple, peasant food to fill you up after a day hiking in the Tyrolean Alps - but tasty with it. Fried egg optional.

7. Manner wafers

i0.web.de

The Manner hazelnut wafer in its salmon-pink packaging is a true Viennese institution, and a handy snack. In fact, they're enough of an institution that Arnold Schwarzenegger snuck some into Terminator 3...

8. Almdudler

lelak.org

A soft drink that describes itself as "Herbal Lemonade" - very popular in Austria where it is nowadays distributed by Coca-Cola. The taste is reminiscent of elderflower, though not as sweet and more complex, and very refreshing.

(Pictured above; original, light, "spritzer" and still version.)

Mixes rather nicely with...

9. Austrian wines

baumgartner-weine.at / Via Baumgartner Wines

Austrians have been making wine since roman times and Vienna is the only capital city in Europe which grows wine within the city limits. The most grown white is Gruener Veltliner, with Zweigelt the most grown red.

An adulteration scandal in the 80s scuppered exports for a while, but in the meantime the Austrians have concentrated on upping the quality and purity and it's starting to appear outside Austria again, each bottle sealed with the flag and eagle.