Yet another winner from my local contact!
We went to dinner last night at Bauerntanz and experienced a real Bavarian pub. First of all, this is NOT a tourist location and you can't expect English menus. My friend Martin was kind enough to translate the entire menu for us and after reviewing many options, I elected to have the potato-ham soup and wiener kalbschnitzel. Pradeesh elected to have a "Farmer's meal" that included a big slab of pork, kraut, and a flour dumpling. Martin had another "Farmer's meal" with pork, bacon, beef, and veal. We all had two steins of Dopplebock.
My soup arrived first. I dug into it's salty, starchy goodness. I have to admit that the level of salt in the soup must've been monumental given that it was a potato soup and I could definitely call it salty. However, I do want to be clear that on a cold, blustery Spring night, it was exactly what I needed. I can't imagine making this a regular element in a meal, but it was creamy and salty and just right.
The next course was a salad. It was good to have some greens because it seems like Bavaria in the Spring is mostly cured meats and starches.
My kalbschnitzel (veal schnitzel) arrived and was delightfully tender, with plenty of GBD crust. I followed local convention and squeezed lemon over the schnitzel and dipped each morsel in the provided cranberry sauce. The combo of the lemon juice and the cranberry sauce provided a good, sweet/acid counterpoint to the richness of the schnitzel and fried potatoes on the side. Let's face it, it's pretty hard to get a schnitzel wrong...you use good veal and good technique and it's pretty much automatic. However, it was brilliant.
Pradeesh declared his pork and kraut to be perfect and Martin seemed a bit too distracted by chewing and swallowing to provide much commentary, but by the ultimate condition of his platter and skillet, he clearly was not disappointed. I supposed I could ask him for a definitive opinion, but I'm quite afraid that my distraction will detract from his pleasure and I wouldn't want to be "that guy".
We did not elect to have dessert, but that's because the over-generous portions had put us all into a food coma...or was that the two steins of Dopplebock we each had? Frankly, the bier was fantastic and we all felt quite satisfied by the end of the visit.
Unfortunately, yours truly had to drive everyone home before I could delight in the warm glow of yet another fantastic Bavarian meal!
Oh, a note on the location...when I said this was not a touristy place, you need to understand that it's located IN the altstadt in Augsburg, not anywhere along a well-traveled road. We had to park on a major road and then walk into the alleys and by-ways of the altstadt. It's a charming location and if you don't take the time to visit this wonderful part of the city, shame on you! I also am totally over pave (cobblestones in French)...they hurt your feet and are NOT a fun surface on which to walk! read more
