From the huge terrace of the Fernerhaus at 2660m, you can see people skiing. Not that it’s a particularly pleasant sight, the entire surroundings hopelessly damaged by all kinds of ski-related installations, but there is something about eating a Brettljause in August and having a glacier ending just a few meters away from you. It also means, of course, that the place is as touristic as it can be 350km from Grinzing.
One has to admit, for a touristic place, their Brettljause is very impressive. Everything is thickly cut, and there is no shortage of things to try: Speck, Schweinsbraten, a long Tyrolean sausage (that had Handl written all over it), Wiener, something looking like Extrawurst but with a more “chewy” texture, ham, and three types of cheese. There is so much stuff that it’s a Brettljauase for two persons at least; I could hardly finish a half of it. Actually, it seems that all the portions at the Fernerhaus are enormous: I saw gigantic Wiener Schnitzels and huge Swiss sausage salads. Skiing on a glacier makes one hungry, obviously.
The problem with the Brettljause was that all of its main ingredients had come straight from a supermarket. Although I fully understand that pigs and cows are not really compatible with permanent ice, I still couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed, especially as there were plenty of lush pastures just some 300m below. I also wish the cheeses had a bit more taste – and varied taste – but feeling the slight bitterness of the Bergkäse was welcome nonetheless. I’m afraid I also have to mention that the Schweinsbraten were a bit green on one side – not what I would call a healthy color.
All in all, after trying a bit of everything I started to get bored and switched to the rather excellent (and lighter) “extras,” including some fantastic grilled vegetables – why hadn’t anyone thought before of adding grilled stuff to a Brettljause? On the other hand, if you are very hungry and don’t mind supermarket stuff, you may enjoy Fernerhaus’s Brettljause much more than I did. For a tourist attraction, it is actually very good.
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