ROAMER: My belated celebration of annual national schnitzel day

For Sound of Music refuseniks - a schnitzel is a cutlet flattened with a meat tenderizer, dipped in flour, egg and breadcrumbs (in that order) and fried until golden. They’re eaten with salad, potatoes, noodles or nowadays, chips. And Roamer totally forgot that last Saturday was National Wiener Schnitzel Day - an outrageous oversight that’s being remedied here today.

Elvis Presley, Niki Lauda and the residents of Belfast’s Lisburn Road have all boasted significant links with Schnitzels which will be revealed in a moment, but first to Austria’s capital city Vienna (Wien) which has virtually beatified the dish.

The online Schnitzel Museum hails ‘Wiener Schnitzel, Ein österreichisches Kulturgut - an Austrian cultural asset’.

Some culinary historians claim the Romans invented it and a 1749 French cookery book “La Science du Maître d’Hôtel Cuisinier” contained a similar recipe, but the name ‘Wiener Schnitzel’ first appeared in a Prague cookbook in 1831 and again in 1858 in ‘Die süddeutsche Küche’ (Southern German Cuisine) by Austrian cookery writer Katharina Prato.

Since the 1960s an American takeaway franchise called Wienerschnitzel (single word) has jumped on Austria’s brand-wagon with ‘the World’s Most Wanted Wiener’ but they aren’t - they’re hot dogs and hamburgers.

And amazingly, around the 1980s a proper Wiener Schnitzel carryout came to Belfast’s Lisburn Road. If anyone can recall this establishment please contact Roamer at the address below with any information about when, where, ownership, décor (did it offer sit-in?) and details of the menu as well as the Schnitzels.

They were definitely authentic, freshly prepared for customers, and were accompanied by a traditional side-salad, though chips were available.

But the best Schnitzels are always in Austria or Germany - Roamer’s most recent and absolutely delicious ones were in Wiesbaden, Federal State Capital of Hessen, in 2019.

It’s one of Austria’s national dishes, where a popular legend recounts ‘foodie’ Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Army, Field Marshal Radetzky, who encountered an Italian ‘Cotoletta alla Milanese’ (Milanese veal cutlet) during a 19th Century military operation.

Back in Vienna, the Field Marshal was summoned by the Imperial Court to present the Italian recipe to Austria’s Imperial Chef, who applied a few local garnishes and variations. The prototype was tested on the Kaisertum Österreich where it got an enthusiastic thumbs-up, and thenceforth to the entire empire and beyond.

Julie Andrews helped its progress too. Today there are numerous Sound of Music bus tours offering ‘breath-taking views’ of the Austrian film locations with lunches featuring some of Maria’s ‘favourite things’ including ‘crisp apple strudels and Schnitzel with noodles’. (Feline facial hair and doorbells are off!)

The dish’s international appeal was undoubtedly further boosted by the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ and by the only Formula One racing driver to have been World Champion for both Ferrari and McLaren.

Whilst on military service in Germany Elvis Presley was said to have learned only four German words - ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ (goodbye till we meet again) and ‘Wiener Schnitzel’. But sometimes he got confused and waved goodbye saying ‘Auf Wiener Schnitzel’, an advantageous double-whammy for Austria’s legendary ‘cultural asset’.

And when asked by a reporter “what is the best meal of your life?” three-time Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda replied, “A decent Wiener Schnitzel with potato salad”.

My own partiality for the dish was mouth-wateringly nurtured in Lauda’s Vienna by my Austrian grandmother who cooked exceptional Schnitzels, in a city where folklore says that a gentleman in his best suit should be able to sit down on a well-made Wiener Schnitzel without it leaving a grease stain!

I never tried that on the Lisburn Road, but they were scrumptious, and it would be wunderbar to know why Austria’s famous ‘cultural asset’ came to Belfast and then departed without as much as an ‘Auf Wiener Schnitzel’!