At the Merry Monkey

WARNING: FOOD POST so skip if you're not interested in this sort of thing.

The day was winding down, finally. We were off to our first sit down meal in Europe. We had planned to do a few other things: go to a coffee house and have cake and coffee, and stop at one of the Fürst pastry shop locations to try a Mozartkugel, the famous Salzburg chocolate made of marzipan, nougat, and pistachio dipped in dark chocolate. Neither of those things happened. By the time we had seen the top three things on our list, it was after five. The Furst stores were closed, and we wanted dinner.

This brings us to Zum Fidelen Affen, the Merry Monkey (or Cheerful, or Jolly). We walked back across the Salzach River to the Neustadt. We wanted to eat at a "traditional" Austrian/ Tyrolese place. We're operating under the assumption that we probably won't be coming back, so we're going to cram in all the local culture we can. Then, I saw this place on Google maps, Zum Fidelen Affen. Long after Herr Haifisch was known by the American version of that name, our own kids dubbed him with an ape-monkey moniker. So this was a place we couldn't pass up. If they sold T-shirts of that sign, I would have bought one.

Outside seating is a huge thing here, so we decided to give it a try. We're not much for eating on the sidewalk back home, but we're trying to blend here. Think Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinnie. It was working fine, even though we weren't following the rules in all those you tube videos that tell you how to dress in Europe so that "you don't look too American". We weren't doing too badly clothes-wise, but once we arrived in Germany, all bets would be off. Of course there's the inevitable give away of speaking to each other in English, and smiling too much. When we were in Kazakhstan and China, our interpreters told us they can always tell Americans from Europeans because we smile a lot and say thank you too much. Go figure.

So we ordered a starter, drinks, and two entrees. Way too much food, all of it good though. For drinks: a dark, cloudy wheat beer for him, though he's not a beer drinker, and I got something with elderberry liqueur. Starters: he got a pretzel, and I got Essigwurst, a wurst salad with red onions, egg, and bread. Basically, an upscale Tirolean version of the more familiar Fleischsalat, which in the version we know it my family has mayonnaise.

For dinner: goulash for him and for me, "a classic of the Austrian kitchen", Pinzgauer Kasnocken, otherwise known as käsespätzle (that's a lot of umlauts for me to pronounce, two too many), or as so many of the vlogers call it, "German macaroni and cheese!". Here in Salzburg, the noodles are thicker and shorter than the Swabian spätzle we're used to at home, and the cheese is a variety from the region of Zell am See in Austria. So this was our first sit down meal of the trip, and it was good. Far too much food, however, and the Kasnocken was really heavy. Not the best choice on a day that turned out to be quite warm, overall.

Being the way we are, we shared everything. It was all very good as I mentioned. We did learn a valuable lesson not to get a starter and two mains, though. Especially if we were going to be drinking anything other than water. Definitely recommend this place. Service was nice, and I'd read Austrian waitstaff were even less polite than Parisian. Meh, maybe that's just Vienna.Baca lagi