The village of Geras in the Lower Austria is not known for much except its nature park. The park features a small but carefully chosen selection of animals, the most dangerous of which are a very sleepy lynx and a couple of mean-looking geese. The Hubertushaus is easy to find, as it is a tiny restaurant at the entrance to the above park, and because of the closeness to a rams’ pen, almost every bite you take is accompanied by a reassuring “baaaaa.” Or rather a “bäääää,” since these are German-speaking rams.
Frankly, I did not expect a great Brettljause there, and my low expectations have been fully met. Although all the ingredients of this cheese-less creation come from the local farmers, these authentic products are plain boring. When it comes to head cheese and black pudding (which I thoroughly dislike), I try to finish them as soon as possible in order to report on either their unusually disgusting qualities or the positive fact that they have turned much better than expected. In the case of Hubertushaus, they were so boring that I almost wished for them to be worse, so that this posting could get a bit more interesting.
Unfortunately, the above ingredients belonged firmly to the “don’t waste your time writing home about it” category, as were the Geselchtes, the thinly-cut and very fat Stelze, the Liptauer and the weird brown Schmalz. The only fresh air came from the Speck, which had, weirdly enough, a strong and totally unnecessary flavor of rosemary.
Basically, Hubertushaus offers a very average Brettljause, which is at the same time competent enough. Therefore, the decision of going to Geras fully rests with your preferences regarding rams’ bleating.
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