SEPTEMBER MONTHLY CHALLENGE

A Culinary Experience in South Tyrol

Tasting a mixture of Italian alpine foods and traditional Austrian dishes

It’s all about the food. I mean, of course, we go on vacations to see new places and explore different countries and we eat because we have to. But we also eat because we love the taste of good food. The moment when our taste buds are exploding after taking the first bite of a delicious meal — indescribable.

At the beginning of September, we flew to South Tyrol. On our first day, we arrived in Dobbiaco. That evening we were a bit indecisive about where to eat but eventually decided on the Winkelkeller. It surely was one of the more expensive places to eat in town but the experience was worth every cent we left there.

They advertised their specials of the day and there was, in the end, no need for the waiter to bring us a menu.

My mom and I ordered the deer gulasch with polenta and my dad and husband ordered the pork knuckle with coleslaw and potatoes on the side, a typical alpine dish famous not only in South Tyrol but the Bavarian Alps and entire Austria as well.

The men ordered a beer on tap and my mom and I both opted for the house wine. My mom went for the white one, I chose the red one. It went perfectly down with our delicious meals.

On our second day, we hiked up the mountains for about 4 hours to get high above the tree line. That was where our next accommodation was located. It was strenuous and surely exhausting. Apparently that much, I didn’t even manage to take a picture of the meals we devoured that evening. I only have a picture from lunchtime.

We stopped halfway up the mountain to eat our sandwiches and drink a can of good Romanian beer. A good taste that comes with even better memories.

On day 3, we arrived at lunchtime at our next accommodation place and were overwhelmed with their menu. They had everything from pizza, pasta, steaks, soups, and salads.

I opted for a light meal and chose the bacon dumplings soup. Those dumplings are a traditional dish in the Tyrolean Alps. My husband chose the Hirsch Gulasch mit Bratkartoffeln (deer gulasch with roast potatoes).

That evening my mom opted for the house-made pasta dish while my dad, husband, and I chose three different Schnitzel dishes. Mine was served with roast potatoes and a mushroom sauce. And no, that weren’t two dishes, it was one meal I ordered but since they placed two large pieces of meat down, the dish had to be served on two plates.

And yes, it was a lot of food. But it was so yummy. And once again I drank a house wine because they aren’t just the cheapest but often also the best ones.

Back to the Schnitzel. Often commonly mistaken as German food this famous breadcrumbed and battered meat dish is the national dish of Austria. Wiener schnitzel (Viennese schnitzel), as it is called throughout the German-speaking countries, is traditionally made using veal (meat of younger cattle).

For lunch the following day I chose the fried egg with roast potatoes and Italian prosciutto crudo, because it would be an offense to call those delicious slices of meat “bacon”.

My husband opted for the cold platter with a Kaminwurzen, pickles, and some horse radish on the side.

“The Kaminwurzen is a specialty from South Tyrol. It is cold smoked. The original recipe is made with beef. But you can also replace the lean part of the recipe with pork, venison or wild boar. It should just be a lean piece of meat.” — wurstcircle.com

That afternoon my parents quickly did a nearby summit ascent while my husband and I explored the nearby landscape, stumbled upon a gorgeous canyon, and found water.

We were all hungry again once dinner came around which this time was included in our accommodation package. It was a 3-course meal and we only had to choose between a lentil soup and beetroot dumplings for a starter.

The main dish was deer gulasch with polenta. Which is something that surprised me. I always connected polenta (cornmeal porridge) with my heritage in Romania. It’s where I thought it comes from. I love polenta even though my great-grandmother used to call it poor-people-food.

But after seeing polenta every day on the menu on this trip, I learned in fact it is “maize flour used in Italian cooking”. It originated in northern Italy which is where we were right now.

Side tip from a pro, polenta goes well with some grated cheese and red wine on the side.

But we weren't done with dinner yet. We had one more course to get through. The dessert. And what a dessert. Even though South Tyrol wasn’t always part of Italy, ice cream is still served in this part of the country.

We got some homemade ice cream served on a fruit salad.

And yes, now we were really full. But happy full.

Day 5 was the day we headed out and knew we wouldn’t stop walking for the following 8-10 hours.

Our original plan was to stop at Rossalm, a small mountain cottage, for lunch. Unfortunately, the clouds were moving in and we had a tricky part across the scree slopes ahead of us and didn’t want to cross that in the rain.

“Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall.” — Wikipedia

Therefore we only stopped for a refreshing Radler, a Bavarian beer mixed drink that consists of half German light lager and half sparkling lemonade.

The waiter speaking in a deep Tyrolean accent ensured us the rain wasn’t gonna come until the early evening and we should take the upper route which was more difficult but much more beautiful.

We followed his advice and made it through the dangerous part of the hike. But after getting around that massive mountain range we weren’t even closely done for the day.

…9 hours later.

We made it. We put down our backpacks and before checking in I went into the restaurant. The owner didn’t ask me any questions except for how many. I said four, my mom wasn’t there yet but she was also ready for a beer.

They could have served us anything that day. We were that hungry. They say hunger creates the best cooks. Maybe it’s true.

Dinner was again included and I can’t tell you what the starter was called. She might have said it, I might not have listened or cared. Remember, we had skipped lunch and only ate a handful of energy bars during this 9-hour hike.

We devoured every single rice corn of the starter. I’d say it was rice in a tomato sauce. Sounds basic but it was delicious.

Then came the main dish. Chicken stripes with vegetables in a mushroom sauce and potatoes on the side. Cooked to perfection.

And the dessert of course.

I can’t remember fully. It was something creamy with chocolate powder on top. It looked already yummy but tasted even better.

Now we were on day 6 of our adventure through the mountains and were facing the last day of hiking before reaching back to the town of Dobbiaco.

Slowly but surely the hike got more difficult and more exhausting. After a 9-hour hike the previous day, our batteries also weren’t fully charged. My facial expression says it all and I didn’t even know yet the worst was still to come.

It ended up being another 9-hour hike.

Yup, that evening we didn’t even think of walking through town and looking for a restaurant. We made a reservation in the place we ate at the first night of this trip and I even ordered the same dish. Deer gulasch with polenta. My husband ordered something meaty as well. Not sure what it was but it was delicious.

While our hiking trip above the tree line was finished, we still had one more day in South Tyrol. We took a gondola up a mountain and did a leisure walk at altitude.

It was drizzling just after we sat down at the cottage but didn’t want to go inside the restaurant. Instead, we opened up the umbrellas and enjoyed one final delicious lunch with a view of the Alps.

This time I opted for the traditional Austrian sweet pancake, the Kaiserschmarrn. Even though it’s in the traditional recipe, I chose my meal without raisins.

That night we still drove to Innsbruck, the city we flew into the first day of our trip. Since my husband and I were flying out the next morning, we stayed in a guesthouse close to the airport.

Our last evening in the Alps was calling and we found a lovely restaurant with a view.

This was a very traditional place with excellent service. The waitresses were charming and entertaining. The meals, cooked to perfection. Below you can see a pasta dish with fried onions and ham, a stuffed chicken dish with vegetables on the side, and the men’s order of a grilled plate.

And before finishing off this article I almost left out the most important part of a culinary experience in the Dolomites.

The schnapps.

The drink we got served after every meal to help the stomach get settled. And there’s no better schnapps than a self-made glass of Zirbenschnaps. It is a brandy made from stone pine cones, the kind of pine trees that grow above 2000 meters in the mountains.

While the schnapps is usually served in a shot glass, this night we got elegant-looking glasses for this tasty treat.

And with this one, I say prost to South Tyrol and an epic hiking (and foodie) adventure in the Dolomites.

This is a writing prompt response to the monthly writing challenge of Globetrotters. Jillian Amatt has published the introduction to the prompt and you can read all rules and regulations here.

Here are submissions to the food & harvest challenge of other writers:

Jillian Amatt with “Growing Food Is In My Blood”

JoAnn Ryan with “A Celebration of Food on Globetrotters”

Adrienne Beaumont with “Food, Glorious Food”

Dr. Preeti Singh with “When I Visited The Fruit Mall On Granville Island I Celebrated”

Sam Millichap with “Sweet and Spicy Aromas of a Polish Gingerbread Workshop”

Araci Almeida with “Portuguese Pot Food”

Shelley Rohm with “Portuguese Cuisine”

And my first submission to the prompt:

Join my email list here if you would like to read more travel essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).