Snack Board

I suppose it is all a matter of grammar. A restaurant’s menu may offer something called a “soup bowl,” but if you order it expecting to receive a bowl of soup, you may be deeply disappointed, for you may in fact get a soup bowl filled with, let’s say, noodles or goulash.

A Brettljause, if translated literally, is nothing else but a snack on a board. Nothing in the name indicates what the snack is supposed to be, although most people are used to associate it with cold cuts. These people obviously do not include the cook of Roter Hiasl, who decided to fill the board with hot Käsekrainer sausages, a warm Speck-wrapped piece of grilled pork, cheese crackers and a few thin slices of cold Schweinsbraten.

The result was a tasty and filling dish, which however left me puzzled at how to rate it. Not rating at all was not an option out of respect for the other Brettljause lovers who may be relying on this website (I still hope they exist). Finally, I decided to base the numbers you see below on the feelings of someone who expected a “traditional” Brettljause but was served something else entirely.

The Schweinsbraten with pickled cucumbers, mustard and strong Styrian horseradish were the only ingredients that could have a place in a normal Brettljause. The rest was perfectly fine by itself, but ultimately disappointing because of the unmet expectations. It is a board of snacks, true, but not the snacks one may have been looking forward to.