Away and Back Again

When in Austria, do not leave without eating at least one serving of Tiroler Gröstl (approximate pronunciation help: GRR-ESH-TL, helps if you go all guttural on the "RRR"). You should receive an individual cast-iron pan filled with crusty fried potatoes, big chunks of bacon and ham, topped with the most perfectly fried egg you ever did see, the yolk still runny, the edges laced just so. If you are physically able to finish this all in one go, you will probably not need to eat again all day or perhaps the next day, too. Sharing it will leave room for dessert.

Dessert, after all, could be as delicious and essential as one puffy, gorgeous Germknödel, which I know, I know, does not sound like much to Anglophone ears ("what do they mean, GERMS?"), but is one of the greatest contributions to world cuisine. (Germ is Austrian for yeast.) What you get is a large, steamed, yeasted dumpling (similar, I suppose, to char siu bao) filled with a generous helping of plum jam (remember?), topped with a small mountain of ground poppyseeds and powdered sugar, swimming in a pool of melted butter and more poppyseeds. I, frankly, could do without all the butter, but the dumpling itself, yielding and chewy, and that plum jam, slightly sour and spiced, is seriously wonderful. You will be happy you left room for it.

The week in the Austrian mountains was wonderful. Concentrating on not breaking a leg or humiliating myself on the slopes was an excellent way to detach from regular life. Oh, and no access to the Internet seemed to help, too. What is it with snow-covered trees and their enchanting ability to seem like a gathering of silent and wise old men?

We stayed in a cozy little guesthouse run by a family that also runs one of the restaurants on the top of the nearby mountain, providing hungry skiers with plenty of fried potatoes and steamed dumplings and other Austrian comforts. There were delicious meals every night (each dinner started with a different soup, made with homemade stock cooked fresh every day, beef bones and turnips a-bobbing), adorable little girls who poked their heads into the dining room and ran off giggling when spotted and the sound of a rushing brook next to the nearby road at night.

I didn't realize until we left how deeply soothed I felt. The mountains and the sky and the crrrsh crrrsh crrrsh of skis slicing through fresh snow reordered how my mind worked.

But coming home was good, too. I saw Berlin, with its cement gray skies and damp earth air, with eyes wide-open. People! Graffiti! Signs! Traffic! Buildings!

Lovely in its unloveliness. Gilded and sooty alike.

You can walk through some parts of Berlin and see a whole new city unfold in front of you. New streets, new bridges, a new identity entirely. And in other parts it looks like nothing has changed in thirty years, like there is still a Wall and melancholy swirling around empty fields underneath that metallic sky.

But you keep moving, because you must, there's more to see just around that corner and there are subways to take and dinner to cook and before you know it, it's snowing again. Great big fat snowflakes, gathering wetly on your sleeve. You pass Tiergarten, seemingly unchanged in a hundred years, and there they are, those wise old trees, bewhiskered with white, standing like sentries in the midst of this strange, interesting city. Silently watching us as we go.

Comments

[Sasa]

Glad to hear you had a lovely break - you deserved it after that move!
I have just started skiing, as a concession to the fact that I now find myself surrounded by mountains and ought to make use of them. Unfortunately everyone is Austria seems to think that skiing is a skill acquired at birth, like breathing and looks on bemusedly as I flail about uselessly...
Anyway, I had my first germknoedel recently and I agree - one of the best contributions by Austria to world cuisine and a consolation for me who loves to eat bao and can't get them here. I plan to try my hand at them soon.

[Renae Rosencrans]

Just beautiful. Thank you for that vivid description. I took a mini-vacation just reading it!

[Debjani Roy]

"lovely in its unloveliness" I lived in Berlin for 8 years, and you´ve just put into words something I´ve never been able to express. Your photo of the Dom (from the s-bahn, right?) is exactly the view from my old office window at Hackescher Markt.
Miss it so much!
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that if you ever find yourself in Spain, you must try Huevos Rotos. It´s basically a Tiroler Gröstl, but with jamon, or black pudding. It´s unbeatable. And if you are ever in Madrid, look me up!

[the lacquer spoon]

Beautiful shots and imagine dipping the potato dice into egg-yolk... mouth-watering!

[Vanessa]

Stunning shots and I'm so glad you had a wonderful time and relaxed. It was great travelling with you. Germknödel I already know and totally love (although I agree about the butter) but I'd never heard of Gröstl which means that I really need to take another trip to Austria soon, even if trying to understand people in the mountains there always gives me the impression my German is hopeless. I have the same feeling every time I come back to Berlin; grey buildings, graffiti, not beautiful but so charming and inspiring. At least the sun is shining at this moment.

[Jessika]

You should try Gröstl with some pickled beet root. There's a swedish dish, much like gröstl, that you have with beet roots.

Are you settling back in? Re-exploring what you left when you moved to New York?

[Jan (Family Bites)]

Beautiful photos and that egg looks beyond perfect!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1047505248]

the last photo is my favorite! such evocative phrasing! maybe you should write for the tourist board;)

[Sprout]

Plum jam? Pool of butter?

I'm sold.

Thanks for sharing about your trip!

[Adrienne]

Wise old men, indeed. What a perfect turn of phrase that was. Very glad to see you had such a relaxing time.

[The Nervous Cook]

Everything about this trip sounds splendid. Especially that fried egg!

[Katie @ Cozydelicious]

It's good for the soul to get away and relax! Your trip sounds wonderful, and so does the food. My brother just gave me these adorable little individual cast iron skillets and I've been trying to find ways to use them. So I just looked up a recipe for Tiroler Grostl and I am definitly going to make my own version next weekend! Thanks!

[TheKitchenWitch]

That last picture positively took my breath away! Thanks for taking us on your little adventure with you.

[Anna]

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your posts from Berlin. I have several great aunts and uncles in Berlin whom I traveled to Germany to meet in 2006. I have a dream of writing a book of my own based on their stories and my grandmother's, or possibly a collection of poems. I find your photos very inspiring, and feel transported back to the city when I read your entries.

[Tracy (Amuse-bouche for Two)]

What a beautiful orange globe of yolky goodness. I do believe it's hogging the frame.

[Dawn (KitchenTravels)]

Luisa, I think with this post you are really back, and not just in the physical sense. Your writing conveys a grounded peacefulness that's been missing for some time. Welcome home.

[Della]

I've followed your blog on and off for a while now (when there's time) but lately since you've moved I've been meaning to drop a comment. I'm originally a New Yorker who's been transplanted to Berlin a few years ago (nearby Wilmersdorf), so it's funny to hear your thoughts and observations, since for you it's really home and for me the reverse, (though starting to feel a bit like home). My daughter will go to Austria on a school ski trip this week and loves your picture of the Germknödel! Take care and all the best!

[farawayadmirer]

The food looks amazing and your photos are gorgeous.

[Meg]

Whenever skiing, Carrie and I ALWAYS love pointing out the snow covered trees as wise old men!!!

[Heather]

FYI, within the last week or so over at the Pioneer Woman's website there was a recipe for brown sugar. I remember you saying that you couldn't find brown sugar there like what we have in the states & I thought you might want to try making your own.

Glad you're settling in!

[Elke]

The color of that yolk makes me happy spring is coming!

I've been to Berlin twice, once in 1995 when things hadn't really been rebuilt yet after the wall came down and then in 2002. Parts of town looked so different. We spent a large part of a day looking for what had been an open field with a gated cemetery in front of the old wall. Turns out that we could now walk through the cemetery and it was beautiful, as much as those can be. That section of wall had become an instrumental part of an outdoor museum. It took a bit of time to imagine how it looked 7 years earlier.

Can you explain the graffitti? Berlin has the most of any city I can think of. Free public art work?
We do hope to return someday, as both trips were very enjoyable. And currywurst! I had it recently in a German restaurant in California and it wasn't the same.

[Mary]

Lovely lovely lovely. I love the sound of the plum jam, (something we don't have in Texas) and dumpling... Mmmm. Your photographs are beautiful.

[Claudia]

About Austria, we visited Salzburg two years ago and we tried a dessert from the region, it was egg whites baked in the oven to golden brown and a sauce that resembled the vanilla sauce used in French cooking,(way much less sugar) but it was interesting and I was wondering if you know the name and how can we replicate it.

[Daniel]

I had my first Germknödel with some Schwarzbier at a cafe atop the Brocken, and was immediately hooked. Though I haven't attempted them at home, I look for them every time there is a Strassenfest in Berlin.

Plus I know the feeling of coming back home to this city and having it envelop you like no other place. Welcome Back to Berlin!

[zeta]

Claudia, I think you had Salzburger Nockerln (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Salzburger_Nockerl), one of my absolute favorites from Austria.

[zeta]

Here it is again, hope this time it works better: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Salzburger_Nockerl

[Cheeky Chilli]

Hi Luisa, so glad you had a restful trip. I love the images your photos show us almost as much as the pictures you paint with your words here. As far the dish goes, I'm riotously in love with it. What a gorgeous egg! I know what I want for dinner. Now if only it wasn't so far away...

[Claire]

That trip looks and sounds amazing. Glad you feel more grounded - I always think that once you've moved house (country/continent) the return home after a trip away cements the fact that the new place IS home. And that's almost as good as the holiday.

[tasteofbeirut]

I was talking to my aunt yesterday about her grandmother Céleste and if she ever felt yougoslavian; she said no, never. She considered herself Austrian; in those days, if you were born in Trieste, like she was, you were automatically an Austrian citizen; I am boring you but just to say, I had Austria on my mind all day, and I stumble on your blog and you are talking about Austria. That'all. You have to read Art Buchwald's piece on the patrons at Tremmel in Vienna; I laugh every time I read it!

[Sarah (Braise and Butter)]

i really, really want that jam-filled dough ball swimming in butter. badly. glad you had a wonderful trip!

[Julia of Randomly Yours, Julia]

I'm with Dawn of KitchenTravels - this writing is very "you," and it's good to have you back.

Mmmm that egg looks delicious, and the dish reminds me of a Korean meal I've been enjoying lately, bibimbap, with an egg surrounded by little bits of produce & meat on rice.

The snow-covered trees and the crrrsh-crrrrsh of skis on snow? Yes please. You make it sound like a heavenly escape.

[Kim]

Hi Luisa ... and thank you for the wonderful photos. Yours is the one blog that I read consistently - and that post reminds me why. You just have a knack of sharing and describing that makes the reader feel good!

And i'm with you on the packaging. I am a package-junkie too - I would have been in heaven. That pig ... oh that little pig ...

[moonvirgo]

Extremely lovely post. I was truly transported...

[Sasa]

Hi Claudia, if you come back to read the comments I hope you get this - Nicky from Delicious Days has just today posted a recipe for Salzburger Nockerl which I think are what you are talking about, maybe you can try it - I did try to click on your name but there isn't a link.

[Claudia]

Hi Luisa, I'm back and saw the recipe in wiki, I also checked there's one on Epicurious and I'm checking the one on Delicious Days,thanks a lot I am going to make it. I read your post today and we also had the Mozart chocolates at the original store in Salzburg. But I tell you what we were stingy with them and waited too long to make it last (both the memory of the trip and the chocolate) and they don't keep well best eaten quickly. Love your blog.

[notyet100]

lovely pics,..

[bigjobsboard]

wow. I felt like I was actually traveling with you. That's quite great descriptive skills there. Love the dessert there. LOL. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Grace]

The color on the yolk is unreal - a glistening orange pop off the screen! Many thanks for sharing!

[Julia]

Beautiful, beautiful photos!

[Jamie]

It's really inspiring that you incorporate your love of cooking even when on vacation. Thanks for sharing some exotic goodies.

http://www.kitchenstandmixersandblenders.com

[Kristin]

Germknoedel looks good! I seem to recall eating something along those lines when in Germany years ago. I'll have to look up a recipe. The trees are lovely covered in snow. And isn't it fun to shop when it's like aisles of treasure to discover?

[Zara]

Love to have found your blog. Love the pics!

[The Leftoverist]

Love, love, love reading about your travels. Trying to soak in a little of the relaxation you found in Austria...I'll take it wherever I can get it!

[Isabelle]

Oh, such beautiful writing Louisa. You make me swoon. And you REALLY make me want to go to Berlin. Bad.

[Brettne]

Holy cow: Tiroler Gröstl. I am so there. Save me a bite. Miss you!

[Pippa]

I make the trip between Upper Austria and Berlin at least once a month and I have the same dischord between the relative serenity and countrysideness of Austria and the lovely unloveliness of Berlin. It tears my heart that I'm going to have to decide between one or the other eventually.