Panoramic Jause

I guess I’ve made a mistake. It’s not the mistake of eating at a restaurant at the top station of a cable car (Brettljause rule #8); the cable car neighboring the Panorama Alm does not operate in summer, which makes – at least technically – an exception to the rule acceptable. The mistake was to eat there just one hour after reaching the top of the mountain by another cable car, instead of walking for a few hours more and trying the Jause of the cheese-making Baumgartenalm when I would have been hungrier.

However, somehow my hiking map made me believe that I could relatively easily walk from one mountain (Resterkogel) to another one (Wildkogel) and then take a different cable car down to the valley. I reasoned that by eating early on, I would spend the calories before reaching the second mountain and then have a well-deserved beer there. What the map failed to show was that the shortest path was at least three times longer than the straight-line distance of 8 kilometers and involved a 600m descend followed by an 800m ascend.

Even if I had taken the stupid route (and as a result missed the second cable car, and then missed the last bus to the village my hotel was in, and then missed the dinner in the hotel), I doubt I would have spent all the calories. The Brettljause was huge without looking so and contained so many ingredients that the cook’s idea behind it was clearly “let’s drop on the board everything we have” and not “let’s make an art piece.” Certain bits worked better than the others. The Verhackertes (not really visible on the photo – it’s the stuff that holds the two long sausages and bread sticks vertically) was really good in a fat and unhealthy way. The three cheese types (Liptauer spread not counted) were of the strong “mountain” type but a bit too similar to each other. The spicy and fat Speck was great, but the second Speck type, featured as a single thick slice, disappointed by being very difficult to chew and swallow.

As far as industrial Brettljausen go, the one of Panorama Alm was among the best. It is just not very clear to me who can finish something so big without feeling sick for a while afterwards. Maybe waking up very early and making the trip I originally planned, but in reverse order and running instead of walking would do the trick.