Not sure, I really believe that, but I can run with it for a few meals, anyway.

For example: My dinner tonight at the Terraserincafe Bierbistro (above), in one of the main squares of Lienz.

I wanted to keep it real, Osterreich style, and this is what I had:

I started with a half-liter of Austrian beer. In specific, Gosser, which is made not far from Lienz.

A half-liter is a tall glass. It was pouring rain at the time, which wouldn’t make it classic American beer-drinking weather, but …

After studying the menu, I went for perhaps the most familiar Austrian dish available.

And that would be … weiner schnitzl! Which is displayed on the chalkboard in front of the cafe, in the photo above.

The “wein” in the front of weiner schnitzel is how the Austrians spell “Vienna.” The words meaning, then, “Vienna schnitzel.”

It is a vaguely round cutlet of about seven inches across, usually of veal, which has been pounded with a hammer to tenderize it. It is then covered with bread crumbs, and deep-fried.

It comes with a wedge of lemon and a kartoffel salat (potato salad), and mayonnaise and ketchup on the side.

Weiner schnitzel is fairly bland, and the deep-frying makes me wonder if this dish was the inspiration for chicken nuggets. The best part of the dish was the potato salad, which was nicely seasoned; a case where tasting the vinegar is a good thing.

For dessert, I had three scoops of a local ice cream, and while attempting to speak German (more on that later), I apparently ordered whipped cream — which I didn’t want.

The whipped cream then overpowered the ice cream. Hmm. The vanilla was nice, and the strawberry had bits of actual strawberry in it. The chocolate melted before I got to it.

Service was prompt, and it was interesting to listen to (and watch) the friends and families who were eating there, at 8 p.m. on a Saturday. Plus, I was in a protected spot, against the building, under an awning. Didn’t get wet.

The meal cost about 18 euros (approximately $23.50), and about a third of that was the ice cream. And the whipped cream that came with it.

I would never become a regular consumer of wiener schnitzel, but it was fun to reacquaint myself (some 20 years later) with an authentic version of an Austrian dish.