What do local people eat?
Note: We use the German term for the food so you can identify it on the restaurant’s menu.
Knödel (engl.: dumplings)
Made from leftover white bread, mixed with various ingredients. You eat them in a soup or with a salad. Sometimes they are offered as a side dish for meat. The most popular variations:
Speckknödel / Tiroler Knödel
As the name suggests these are considered to be the iconic dish in Tyrol. The dough is made from bread, bacon and sausage.
Kaspressknödel
Made from bread and cheese.
Leberknödel
Made from bread and liver
Spinatknödel
Made from bread and spinach
Semmelknödel
Offered as a side dish you will find the plain variant made from just bread (with egg, milk, spices).
More variations, hearty style
The cooks’ phantasy can add virtually any other ingredient to the base dough. You might find variations with beetroot, parsley, etc.
Kartoffelknödel
They are typical for the eastern part of Austria, not for Tyrol. They are made from potatoes instead of bread. They are typically served as a side dish.
Sweet dumplings
Both as a main dish and for dessert we love sweet dumplings with fruit. They are not made with bread but with a dough from either potatoes (the author’s favorite) or curd (common in restaurants). This dough surrounds the fruit. After being boiled the dumpling is rolled in fried breadcrumbs and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
We eat them only when the fruit is in season. The two most common variations are:
Marillenknödel
Filled with apricots
Zwetschkenknödel
Filled with plums
More variations, sweet style
Again, it’s up to the cooks’ phantasy to fill the dumpling with other fruit or with chocolate. Sometimes the fruit’s pit is replaced by a piece of sugar (which melts while the dumpling is being boiled) which in turn can be soaked in matching spirit (not advisable for kids).
The typical portion in the restaurant is two or three dumplings. At home we eat more. My personal record is 16 sweet dumplings for one meal.
Noodles / Pasta
There are two types of dishes that are made from pasta dough (i.e. flour, water, sometimes eggs) but which don’t look at all like Spaghetti. For type A we make very small dumplings from the dough and put lots of them on the plate. These are then called “Spätzle” or ‘Spatzln’, most often mixed with cheese, on the menu listed as “Kasspatzln” or “”Kässpätzle”. More details plus a picture on Wikipedia. The runner up are a green variation, made with spinach instead of cheese. These are consequently called “Spinatspatzln” or “Spinatspätzle”.
For Type B we take a flat piece of dough, add some filling then put another piece of dough over it and close it. The result is very similar to a Raviolo but is called “Schlutzkrapfen”. In the nearby Ziller Valley there’s a famous variation called “Zillertaler Krapfen”, filled with soft cheese and deep fried instead of boiled.
Tris
Tris stands for “three” and describes a dish where three different kinds of dumplings and / or noodles are combined on one plate, often poured over with melted butter. If you find this on the menu it’s an opportunity to try different typical dishes at once.
Cold cuts
Graukas / Graukäse
Cheese made from skimmed milk. Very low fat — less than 1%. Typically prepared like a salad with onions, oil and vinegar. More details plus a picture on Wikipedia.
Speck
Bacon. Different varieties.
Hartwurst / Boxerl / Kaminwurzen
Different varieties of smoked sausages