
I think I’ve said several times before that at my age, eating two Brettljausen a day is not anymore an option (actually, my personal record was three, and I have no desire of repeating it). Today, however, I’ve decided to make an exception – partly because the earlier Jause was smallish, partly because I could not resist visiting a place like Bernhart. This Buschenschank has a fantastic view over the Riegersburg castle, and the chances that I will visit this location again any time soon are quite small.
Google had helpfully informed me that Bernhart was “as busy as it gets,” and indeed I took the last available table on the terrace, and that was by pure luck. The menu contained quite a few Jause options including some healthy ones (vegetarian and vegan, even), but for this visit I settled on the most standard one, simply called “Brettljause.” For under 10 euros, the dish looked a good value for money, and upon seeing it, I immediately regretted eating another Jause a few hours earlier.
I tried the liver spread first and decided it was the ingredient I could easily sacrifice considering the lack of space in my stomach. While fresh, for me it tasted too much of liver. The second spread, however, the Verhackertes, was so amazing that I would have finished it even if my stomach had been at the danger of exploding. It literally melted in my mouth, and was a perfect companion to the freshest bread I had eaten for a long time. The fat but super-tasty Kümmelbraten with a slightly crunchy crust was the other highlight. I quite liked the Brustl (which is the Styrian name for Schweinsbraten), too, though it was much dryer than in most other restaurants. The other ingredients were more standard, which is not to say they were bad. In general, it was a very varied, authentic and enjoyable Brettljause, and at the end I did not feel at all guilty for giving up common sense and indulging in a second platter of cold cuts on the same day.
The only thing that bothered me was that many people around me were ordering “healthier” Brettljausen, featuring more vegetables and even fruits in them, and those Jausen looked even better than mine. If you visit Buschenschank Bernhart, don’t discount them just for the lack of pork.
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