November is, generally speaking, a terrible time to travel in Austria. Most hotels finish the summer season after the Austrian National Holiday (26th of October) and remain closed until the beginning of December. Restaurants often follow the lead, so when planning my weekend trip to Bad Goisern, I was fully aware that in culinary terms, it might end up as a kebab and beer experience (with beer not guaranteed). And then, scanning Google maps, I came across Rathlucken Hütte, which seemed to not only be open, but also serve goose.
A goose at (nearly) a mountain cabin is unusual, to say the least, but of course I had no illusions that the dish was upon reservation only, and I did not want to reserve for the simple reason that a prolonged stay would have made me miss my early afternoon train to Vienna. Thus, when I entered the hut at 10:30, it was mainly to deal with a toilet-related emergency. Seeing the restaurant’s sunny terrace, however, I decided to stay longer and – violating my self-imposed rule of not drinking alcohol until mid-day – ordered a beer, at the same time mentioning to the waiter (possibly the owner) my surprise to find goose at such a place.
A few minutes later, a waitress (possibly, the co-owner) came out asking me if I was truly interested in a goose. Apparently, they always make a couple portions more than have been reserved, and the first batch of geese was coming out of the oven in a few minutes, so I could have one. Despite the stupidly early hour, I could not say no, of course.
Considering that I have obtained Rathlucken Hütte’s Gansl partly as a favor and partly because of sheer luck, it hurts me to report that it was not very good. Even the smell of it, once the dish landed on my table, was weird – totally un-goosy. It did not take a long time to realize why – the plate had plenty of small cubes of onion, some on the bird itself, some swimming in the jus.
Whoever is reading this and still thinking that onions can improve the taste of a goose, drop this idea now. Leave onions to Zwiebelrostbraten, but don’t kill a goose with them. They change the taste completely and not for the better. However, I am afraid that even without the onion plague the goose would not have been enjoyable. The meat was tough and occasionally too dry, and seriously lacked salt – as if the idea was to target the clients who were allergic to salt and let all the others help themselves with a salt shaker. The skin was not crispy and I found quite a lot of fat underneath (yet did not mind eating it). The red cabbage, while pleasantly crunchy, was too sweet and too sour at the same time. The two types of dumplings – bread and potato ones – were virtually indistinguishable in their taste, or rather the lack of.
As much as the goose left me unimpressed, I liked Rathlucken Hütte in general. It is very easily reachable from Bad Goisern and is close to well-known hiking areas that I will certainly explore during my next visit. Moreover, it has a really cozy terrace and super-friendly and efficient service. It even has a Brettljause on its menu, which I am going to try at the next opportunity. But as far as geese are concerned, I am starting to think that there is no point even trying them outside of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland.
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