Ode to Annamarie

They let me help! Last night I got to do my first bit of real work here. I had to ask to do it but it was good. In the kitchen.


Today I was all excited about going following the signs to 'HöhenWandernWeg' which I thought meant 'Hilly Hiking Trail' or something like that. The sun had come out so I thought I'd spend an adventurous day by myself scaling the alps and scouting out Edelweises! Little did I know the 'weg' was really just a gravel footpath between 2 towns, at road level. I walked some of it but came across no alpine meadows as I'd hoped. I did see some more gingerbread houses tho, and a bunch of older couples walking with those alpine-walking-stick things. Then it started raining so I turned back and spent the rest of the evening/afternoon wondering what exactly i can do in this small town when its raining...

I titled this ode to Annamarie because she is the cook here and at the moment, her meals make up my world! I swear she couldn't create a bad taste if she tried.
Tonight it was couscous patties and salad, and drizzled over the patties was warm dark honey with big peices of walnut. It sounds unusual but she just chucked it together for me (not the restaurant food) and it was great. 'Schmekt good?' she asks me. Heck yes it schmecks good.

Dessert was something that I can only describe as a cross between baked-custard and cheesecake. With a layer of thin apple slices underneath the brown skin on top. Apparently its an Austrian specialty called something like 'Doppfulkerkstrudel' (ok, i virtually made that up, I really can't remember the name).
I don't need to worry about getting fat anymore, last night it was a giant mound of spinach and 3 balls of soft grainy polenta. I love trying new tastes.
They also have Spätzle here which is like mis-shapen pasta, that looks literally like its been made by crumbling and shaking some dough until these funny little worms appear. Thats Spätzle.

Breakfast is forever getting me funny looks because I'm not a big fan of bread and cucumber and cold meat for breakfast. And I usually have no coffee! Insane. I love the make-your-own museli option tho, where you start with cornflakes and add stuff from the other bowls, like crushed walnuts, all kinds of seeds, dried banana, figs, apricots, etc.

(Hmm maybe I should write a food blog so as not to put you through this with every update..)

What else... oh yeah, I'm finding language an issue now that I have to do more than just order food in restaurants and book trains. At times very discouraging but mostly I'm lucky these (mostly non-English speaking) staff are very patient and still include me in their chitchat even when I can only nod.