Würstel, the Austrian Sausage Hut at Daniel’s

I have been meaning to pay a visit to Daniel’s in Hamrun ever since their advertising campaign before Christmas caught my eye.  I finally got there as one Saturday evening I needed some cheese urgently but it was after 8pm and my usual haunts were closed by then.  A kind friend said she had been to Daniel’s a couple of times and More, the supermarket within Daniel’s had a very good cheese counter and she would run me there quickly. We managed to park right outside ­– even if this shopping complex has a very good parking area.  On the way to More’s the energetic Netty Farrugia-Skok of Volksbank called me and offered us coffee and something to eat from the Austrian hut which had caught my eye as I was dashing in. Never one to decline when it comes to food we stopped for a quick chat, coffee and a curried sausage – most definitely a ‘first time’ for me. I adore curries and can make a few respectable ones in winter but I have never eaten a curried sausage before. So how did the idea of setting up an Austrian sausage hut in Malta come about? It was one of the owners of Daniel’s Shopping Complex, perhaps Steve Delicata who approached Herbert and Netty with the suggestion after he had paid a visit to Austria.  There he had enjoyed the local food including the different types of sausage that could be found everywhere. Netty has three daughters and therefore help enough to run the attractive hut which is conveniently located between the lifts and the main entrance of Daniel’s.

The hut has been carefully hand decorated with Austrian wooden ‘tiles’. It reflects the typical façades of the skiing huts found in the Austrian mountains. The lamps outside the hut are ‘à la mode de’ stained glass and bring out a distinct charm while the Austrian flag is present in the décor of the hut.

Apart from six different types of sausages on the menu which are produced by the internationally renowned Austrian company Trünkel, Netty told us there are fantastic weekly specials to be enjoyed and also seasonal offers such as the delicious hot mulled wine – and specialities such as pickled gherkins and pepperoni which we enjoyed with the curried sausages as part of the whole experience. The coffee was good too and prices are fair. What also came to mind was: ‘How many CEO’s of a bank would consider helping out and make coffee behind a counter in a shopping complex? Herbert Skok and Netty do not suffer from ‘status anxiety’ like so many people here. It is just one more thing I like about them. They get on with living and take absolutely no notice of what others may think. How unMaltese that is.

 

Aïda at St James Cavalier

I am no great opera buff in the manner of, for example Richard England or Paul Asciak and I have my definite likes and dislikes which are based purely on whether the music elicits any emotions in me or not.  Very predictably I enjoy the usual suspects: Carmen, La Traviata, Il Trovatore – the ‘top ten’ in short, with which every plebeian is more or less acquainted. That’s me.  Of course then I enjoy one or two arias or overtures from operas which are not so popular:  The overture of La Forza del Destino, the chorus of the Hebrew slaves from Nabucco. But I would avoid seeing the whole opera. 

This is a big year for our beloved Verdi whose music we drank with our mother’s milk. Sunday mornings were opera mornings for my father and that music is very much in our subconscious even if we do not know it. He would only stop the music – those large vinyl records – to say the Angelus – in Latin if my husband happened to be around.

This is a big year for Verdi and thanks to a thoughtful friend – my ‘correspondent’ in Valletta – who called me in November I think it was and told me that as part of my birthday present she was going to book some tickets to the opera at St James. She knows exactly what I like and what I don’t. Les Troyans, Maria Stuarda… not for me. Not that I ever heard them from beginning to end but I know they are not the sort of fare I enjoy, like sort of frog’s legs or a goat’s eyeballs. Never liked them. Never will. Cannot image my enjoying them.

Aïda, transmitted from the Met, played to a full house at St James last week.  How lucky to be able to watch it in comfort – on red seats too – and listen to Renée Fleming interviewing in the most relaxed manner some of the protagonists during the intervals.  Also to take a look at the enormous Met stage and at one time even the museum which I must visit next time I am in New York.

Verdi accomplished many things at a young age: he was playing the keyboard aged three, learning the organ at the age of 10 and was married by the time he was 22.  He, like most of us, was lucky in some things and unlucky in others. His two young children and his wife died in quick succession and he outlived his second wife, although I don’t think he ever married her. 

I first saw Aïda at Caracalla in my late teens on a school trip. The seats were so far back that everyone on stage seemed like a midget. It made little impression on me. But when this opera received its premiere in Italy, the audience loved it so much that the standing ovation is said to have lasted for no fewer than thirty-two curtain calls.  Verdi was commissioned to write something with an Egyptian archaeology theme for the unveiling of the Cairo Opera House in 1869. But due to the Franco-Prussian war the costumes and sets got stuck in Paris and in the end the Cairo opera house opened with Verdi’s Rigoletto.  Aïda made it to Cairo only in 1871 and sadly, a century later the opera house was completely destroyed by fire.  I was at St James mostly to listen to Celeste Aïda and The Grand March above.  Verdi’s operas are packed full with great tunes – La Traviata most of all.  Now I can listen to that time and again from beginning to end. In fact I do – and alternate it with endless Piaf songs and Chopin music.

The main singers in Aïda were mostly Eastern European and the women, to my delight were mostly a size 16 – though almost twice my height – which to me has never mattered. After all, perfume comes in small bottles, as they say – so does poison of course.

The scenery was spectacular and brought back to mind my three visits to Egypt which is of course such an incredible country. Look at it now. I am saddened when I listen to BBC World every morning and the terrible news. Where is the Arab Spring and have so many lost their lives in vain?