Marlies Burkhard

Looking for a different aesthetic, my literary dining companion Dorothy Parker and I followed a tip and headed for Restaurant Vincent at Große Pfarrgasse 7 in Vienna’s 2nd District. Once a 70’s hangout for student philosophers (in vino veritas, etc), the place has since been transformed into a decidedly up-market venue for fine food in a dramatic setting of post-modern interior design.

'These trees seem to be alive,' said my friend Sigrid. 'They seem to move along with us.' That morning, three of us were driving down a winding road through the lush, sculpted Carinthian countryside near the Slovenian border. It is an enchanted landscape that has been the retreat of princes and inspired generations of Austrian artists and musicians.

This picturesque region was the adopted country of artist Werner Berg, a German expressionist painter, who purchased an old farm, the 'Rutarhof', in the 1930s, and moved there with his wife and children in search for a world that was fresh and unspoiled. Located near the little village Bleiburg, Berg hoped to become self sufficient, earning his living as a farmer and painting as he chose.

'For Powme Dorrys take porke and grynde hit rawe, I kenne temper hit with swongen egges; thenne kast flower to make hit on a balle; in playand water thou kast hit schalle to harden,…!'

No, this is not a spell of one of the Weird Sisters in Shakespeare's Macbeth; it's a 14th century English recipe for Golden Apples of Pork -- a delicious dish of minced pork-raisin rolls covered with a paste of egg yolks, saffron, sandalwood water and flour! The recipe is simple, nothing more than 'For Golden Apples take pork and grind it raw, moisten it with eaten eggs; then cast flour to make it in a ball; in simmering water you shall cast it to harden….!'