I am almost disappointed that the Brettljause of Steirische Botschaft (translated “The Embassy of Styria”) was not disastrous. In that case I could have called this review “Bad Ambassador” and provided a link to the fantastic and under-rated song of The Divine Comedy. Which I just did anyway.
The Jause was not bad though. The truth is, situated in Vienna’s embassy quarter, the restaurant has to cater for the tourists mostly ignorant of what Styria is, so it is even more commendable that it tried to make the Brettljause slightly less supermarket-ish. The cook achieved that by adding plenty of liver spread (of far too strong and unrefined taste for my liking), some pretty good Liptauer and a lot of fantastic Verhackertes with alcohol flavor.
The other ingredients – if one ignores the bland and pointless cheese – were not bad either, but far too industrial. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Austrian Brettljausen would be more than capable of correctly choosing the same stuff during a visit to a BILLA’s or a SPAR’s delicacies department. Although rather tasty, they had as little to do with Styria as the Lower Austrian Hubertus beer that the restaurant served me.
On the other hand, embassies do not need to be copies of the countries that they represent. If tasting the Brettljause of Zur Steirischen Botschaft made any foreigner check the map, discover the location of Styria and start planning his next vacation, the embassy’s mission would be fulfilled.
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