After the middle of November, not only it becomes increasingly difficult to find a Martinigansl, but also the quality of the remaining geese goes down. Although I had eaten my share of geese late in November and even in December, on almost all the occasions I left unimpressed or even disappointed. Therefore, taking the bus towards Jedlersdorfer Alm (which was a spontaneous decision following a long and stressful day in the office), I did not expect much. Remembering the similarly named Leopoldauer Alm, I was actually anticipating an XXL restaurant, i.e., large portions at the expense of everything else.
As it happened, Jedlersdorfer Alm was not an XXL restaurant in terms of food, but huge in terms of size. It is a perfect location to celebrate something in a large group, and indeed I saw several long tables occupied by people who looked like co-workers. In spite of that, the restaurant’s atmosphere was neither crowded nor noisy, and sipping my beer while awaiting the goose (the wait was quite long), I was starting to feel relaxed.
When the dish finally arrived, I was happy to see that the restaurant had taken no shortcuts. It was a proper Martinigansl, with a specially made sauce, a bowl of red cabbage, a potato dumpling, some cranberries on a slice of orange and plenty of glazed chestnuts. The dish even came with a sharp knife to help in cutting through the thick crispy skin.
While I did not particularly like the cabbage at first because of its boring consistency (my opinion improved as the dinner progressed) and found the wobbly tasteless potato dumpling more of a burden than an asset, the goose itself was almost flawless. The meat was thoroughly cooked and well-seasoned and had exactly the right texture until I got close to the bones. At those depths, the meat became fibrous and more effectively managed with the teeth than the knife. On the other hand, the portion was sufficiently big, and I did not feel like struggling to extract the last piece of meat out of the poor bird.
Although Jedlersdorfer Alm’s Gansl was not the best I have had this season, its quality was by far better than I would have expected so late in the year. If your company is looking for a team eating event location and does not want to sponsor both Martinigansl and Christmas parties, the Alm offers a perfect compromise: a competently cooked goose in a pleasant festive atmosphere.
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