From: Arthur Schnitzel
Category: Other stuff
Date: 09 January 2002
Goose fat or other dripping, not Nutella god forbid,glistening in the folds of a crepe, is one of the gifts of Bratislava's Christmas market. Or some pate topped with raw onions on a slice of good bread. An excellent hamburger may be purchased with a rich onion gravy to accompany it, and must rank as one of middle Europe's best. There are the usual hot dogs and wursts available. To drink hot rum punch or mulled wined, but perhaps those are one thing muddled.I prefer a can of cold coke with market food. The sugar agrees with the salt and fat.
In the home more delights await. We could begin with a paprikaish soup rich with a a mix of meats to be found in the depths of your cabbagey bowl. For lunch perhaps a long queue of perfect Schnitzels awaits, pork fried in pork fat, gherkins, hot pickles,pickled peppers and cream with horseradish to join a bite on the fork, sauerkraut, potatoes. Eat until you want to sleep.
The Carp is King at Christmas in Bratislava, the buckets where they swam at the supermarket will be empty before the 23rd. It is a speciality but not that tasty in its fried form, a little bony and more symbolic than fun. Better much better is the roast duck, a culinary highlight, after a long and complicated process: milk and slow roasting mainly, it emerges triumphant, with bread dumplings to soak its delicious fat, a stuffing of apple( apricots?) has absorbed all the duckness and together they make something sublime. Quarters of ducks achieve unity in the stomach and happy we skate on their icy ponds in the wintry forest.
In passing, their is good ham and sausages and sour bread. Please have a biscuit too. Everywhere on a dish with a doily, Homemade with chocolate and coconut, or a marzipan filling to surprise, best are the waifers with their many layers of sticky sugary filling. Variety is endless but narrow. A cake is on the table in the dark, come downstairs and enjoy it's austerity with a glass of milk. Goodnight.
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