I am used to seeing many different ingredients on a Brettljause but must admit that the watermelon surprised me. Finding it next to Speck, Hauswurst, cheese and a hot chili pepper was especially strange, because it did not go well with either of them (the pepper in particular). It was as if the cook had a spare watermelon to get rid of and chose me as the victim.
The Oberkartnall is located just over the village of Neustift in Stubaital, where I am holidaying these days, and is next to the Jausenstation Unterkartnall, which must be serving more or less the same things. Customarily to Tyrol, the Brettljause is quite spartan, containing only four main ingredients. I was quite happy with the Hauswurst for its unusually easy-to-chew texture and less happy with the Speck, which did not have a strong taste and was quite a pain to cut with the provided blunt knife. Surprisingly, however, it was the cheeses and the butter that made this Brettljause for me. One cheese was more-or-less a standard type, not too strong, but infinitely more interesting than the same-y cheeses of the Lower Austria. The second was a weird-looking one, as if constructed out of tiny cheese-balls glued together. I was expecting it to be strong and smelly, but in fact it went down unnoticeable.
I absolutely loved the butter though. Very creamy, just the right temperature and with the pleasant taste of its own, it went perfectly with the slices of fresh bread, and were it the only thing the Jausenstation served me, I would have left quite satisfied.
If you stay in Neustift, which seems to be a kind of the valley’s main village, visiting the Kartnall and its two restaurants is a perfect way to start or to end your holidays. This opportunity is too convenient to ignore.
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