Achoo! Is the horseradish too strong or what? No, it can’t be, the Brettljause has not even arrived yet. Achoo! Time to take a sip of wine… It’s so cold… And why does it hurt so much to swallow? OK, here is the Brettljause. The three slices of Blutwurst are enormous, let’s cut off a half of one, put it on a slice of bread with mustard and horseradish and try… Oops, the jaw does not open wide enough; it hurts on one side. Do I have tooth pain? No, it’s teeth pain, just about every tooth aches. I have to chew carefully and slowly. No, I can’t chew slowly, I don’t have enough air left. It’s because my nose is totally blocked, which also explains why I can’t smell the wine. Oh no, now the nose starts running, where is that Kleenex? Achoo! Great, here comes the headache, too. Time for a Mexalen. May I have another glass of wine, please?
Visiting Beim Hannes, which I know since at least 20 years eating there or just passing by on the way up the Bisamberg, has long been on my Brettljause to-do list. It is not the restaurant’s fault, of course, that I have chosen a totally wrong moment for it, with the cold, somehow caught in +28Cº heat, suddenly getting worse and me becoming increasingly feverish as I tried to enjoy the Brettljause. It was really not a bad Brettljause – maybe an unexciting one, even at healthier times, but delivering a fair performance. It wasn’t very rich on ingredients: apart from the Blutwurst (far too much of it), there was only some salami, Geselchtes and Schweinsbraten. The Schweinsbraten had some skin that required cutting off; it was chewable, but not with my flu-stricken teeth. The horseradish was shredded into such tiny pieces that it did not have any taste. Still, the meat did not taste industrial, and the garden was so cozy that I wanted to spend hours there, reading a book, enjoying the wine and perhaps trying their “Southstyrian Antipasti” as an alternative to the Brettljause.
But another day and under different circumstances, obviously.
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