WFP - Hot Air Balloons and Kaiserschmarren!

Wine food pairing continues wandering around Austria. The 2008 Hot Air Balloon Championships have been on hold due to weather, some rain, but definitely the wind. They were hoping for a "GO" yesterday afternoon, but by 6:15PM they decided to black flag for the day ...

We started out the afternoon in the main tent ... people watching, BigAl sitting in on the pilots briefing and then a fizzy glass of Sturm. Yes, I admit that I am addicted to this darn stuff. You can only get it a certain time of year .... in th early fall and then it seems, only in Austria. Maybe other places have it, but I have never found it.

Refreshed and wanting to get out and mingle a bit we went out on to the field in search of the teams from the USA. Actually, with over 100 teams on the field it of course stood to reason that we would find them last ...lol! Oh well, Houdini made lot's of new friends along the way and several balloonists wanted their photos taken with the Hoot's dressed up in his cold weather "bomber" jacket!

Now it was pretty disappointing not to have the balloons going up so the promoters decided to have a KaiserScmarren party for everyone. KaiserSchmarren is a traditional Austrian 'pancake' made famous by the imperial court when Emperor Franz Joseph and his consort Princess Elisabeth spent their summers in the Salzkammergut resort of Bad Ischl in Upper Austria. This pancake is pulled apart with forks while it is still cooking and is usually served with dollops of apple/plum sauce and sprinkled with generous dusting of powdered sugar. Very tasty indeed!


Wine food pairing is super even with food that we can't pronounce. CHEERS!