Berner Würstel
Originally uploaded by scottpartee.

So in the land of coronary disease in a cup, I discovered a little secret.

If you think you’re being healthy by foregoing the Wienerschnitzel or Sausage Salad and ordering the Tiroler G’röstl which is described as “Roasted Potatoes” on the menu, you’re sadly mistaken.

What Tiroler Gröstl is, in fact, is potatoes—lots of them, which are mixed in a pan with various sorts of lardy dumplings, hams, bacons, roasted meats and other delights, then mixed with a healthy quantity of fat (I think lard today, but probably vegetable shortening or oil at other places) and then thrown into the oven.

The result is delicious, but your arteries will beg you for forgiveness.

Then there is bacon wrapped sausage, which, actually, makes more sense to me than bacon wrapped steaks or chickens.

It’s the best summer ever. Summer of hump.

Also, I jest regarding the Austrian diet. Even though the food here can be quite pork-heavy and, well, heavy in general, I’d be willing to bet that they have no higher rate of heart disease in Vienna versus the rest of the world. The fact is, people here actually move around a lot and don’t seem to be, on the whole, as tubby as they would be at your typical Sizzler.