Eating Out in Bozen: Specks, Knödels, and More Specks

Remeber you are now in an extra-territorial region of Austria, so don't expect any typical Italian food while you are in Sudtirol. Instead, be prepared to embrace Southern German cuisines and lots of high-calorie fatty specks.

This is not to say the quality of food available in Sudtirol are bad. It is just that the majority of them are essentially German /Austrian country cuisines. If you love fried pork cutlets (schnitzels), sauerkraut, pickled  cucumbers, grilled sausages or potato/bread dumplings, then you are in safe hands.

So, what are the regional specialities of Sudtirol?

1. Knödels with Speck
One of the most famous regional specialities of Sudtirol is the Sudtiroler Speck Alto Adige PGI, a special kind of dry-cured ham whose production is regulated under the protected geogrpahical indication (PGI) status. Unlike other cured hams in Italy, Sudtiroler Speck is manufactured by combining two different meat conservation methods - curing and smoking. Speck is an important ingredient in Sudtirol's cuisines, you will find it everywhere from breakfast to noodles and soups and oven-baked dishes. It also makes good gifts as they can be easily stored if unopened in its original vacuum packaging, and adds that extra creamy, savoury taste to your spaghetti carbonara.  

As for knödels, well, they are basically dumplings made with bread, potato, semolina, flour etc. and boiled or poached in water. Usually they serve as side dishes to meat main course but can also be eaten on its own.

I am not a fan of knödels - as they tend to be too filling, even fatty, for my taste - and certainly not someone  who goes to a Paulaner beer garden restaurant while on holidays (I don't even go there while not on holidays). But this is Bozen, and there are not that many places which are still open after 9pm, so I had to make do with Paulaner.

The blue-and-white tiles of the decor ensures a distinctive Bavarian touch to the whole place - Paulaner is from Bavaria and they make sure you are aware of it :)

Bozen/Bolzano: A Provincial Town with an Acute Identity Crisis

What comes to your mind when you combine pristine Alpine scenery with Teutonic efficiency and Italian flaire? Lush green valleys, vineyards in autumn colours, delicious local cuisine with smoked ham, tasty cream pies and cakes, tidy towns and villages yet with such irresistable, romantic charm?

Unfortunately, Sudtirol is not quite what I had expected it to be. Instead of a region which combines all the advantages of Teutonic efficiency and sweet Italian dolce vita, it turns out that Sudtirol has managed to accomplish quite the opposite and ended up with the worst of both worlds: Teutonic aloofness (sometimes almost bordering on rudeness) and Italian efficiency.

As soon as I stepped out of Bolzano's train station, I thought I had already crossed the border into Austria. The streets, the cathedral, the atmosphere, the way houses and things are built and organized in Bozen are all so teutonic, there is almost nothing Italian about the whole town, except for the street signs with Italian names and the occasional splattering of Italians spoken on the street.

The problem with Sudtirol is, they are suffering from some kind of acute identity crisis. They refuse to be seen as Italian - fair enough, since I can imagine ten thousand reasons of not being wanted to be seen as Italian as well - but they are neither German nor Austrian too. In spite of their efforts to crave out their own cultural identity over the past 90 years, the population and the villages still seem to be at a loss about who they really are.