FOOD AND DRINK

Strudel and Coffee

When biking Austria we stopped each day mid-morning for coffee and in mid-afternoon for pastry. One day our guide told us, “I’ve called ahead to a fellow I know in Eizendorf. He makes the best apple strudel and he said to come  and have some. You can have it with or without schlag (real whipped cream). I highly recommend it.”

           He got no argument form any of us and we were on our way. The strudel  was warm, right out of the oven, as if they made it special for us. Without a doubt it was the best I have ever eaten, before or since.

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Crepes are common in France and we ate many of them. A breakfast burrito or taco was about the same only in a flatter and larger crepe. We had the equivalent of a dinner casserole in a crepe and of course we had all sorts of desert crepes. Somehow, a crepe tastes best in France and especially in an outdoor café!.

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I’d been touring Europe for nearly two weeks and had switched to drinking tea as I’d found the coffee too strong for my taste. When I entered the chalet gift shop on top of Strassehorn, Switzerland,  behind the counter I spotted coffee on a hot plate . 
“Is that hot water there beside the coffee?” I asked the young man.

            “Yes.”

            “Good. I’d like a half cup of coffee and then I’d like you to fill the cup with hot water,” I instructed.

            “No, no. This coffee, we make to put  liqueur in. It is good.”

            “Just the coffee please.”

            “OK, if you insist.”

            I sat in the sun on the terrace 6000 feet up  a mountain enjoying the only really good cup of coffee I had on the entire trip. It was worth the three dollars to just enjoy my brew while listening to the cow bell serenade from the alpine valley below.