Köstlich!

Still enjoying my 10 day vacation, we spent the last few days in one of my favorite parts of Italy - Alto Adige. What a cool region! It was part of Austria up until World War I and German is still spoken there today, as well as some madly accented Italian (I know I am not one to speak. No pun intended). I love visiting because you feel like you are in a different country, yet it is conveniently close to home.

Most of the Alpine-style hotels offer guests a half board option since there aren't many other restaurants along the snowy mountain roads. Ours was no different. And most of the food you get in these hotels is acceptable, but generally what you'd expect from a kitchen churning out meals for lots of people. Imagine cruise food, although usually it isn't even that fancy. Ours, in this case, was very different! It was amazingly amazing, and quite honestly the first night at dinner, left us worried we had misunderstood the price quote (see: weird Italian accent).

Pulling into the Hotel Ganischgerhof's parking lot you pass by a hand painted sign, advertising to passers-by the restaurant's hours:

No hint to the Michelin quality food that awaits

Glancing at that humble declaration, you would never expect dishes like sea bass served over a bed of dill risotto with saffron foam and the most delicious fennel gratin ever, rabbit with an artichoke salad and white tomato mousse, or squid carpaccio with avocado and crispy bean sprouts.

Squid carpaccio - check out the dried fennel chip on top - sweet like candy

Sweet pepper soup with shrimp



Rabbit with white tomato mousse

I loved Chef Arnold Paris' use of spices and herbs, something I don't get much of here in my part of Italy: turmeric, cinnamon, fennel, saffron, dill, lemongrass and mint to name a few.

And you know how I typically feel about Italian desserts. Clearly the pastry chef has spent some time abroad to come up with such gorgeous pairings like an ever-so-light ricotta souffle served with cinnamon semifreddo. Genius!

Stuffed chocolate crepes with mint sorbet



Poppyseed souffle with persimmon gelato

Never mind the prices. For half board we paid just 28Euros per day. True story.

And like any good tourist "abroad" we stopped by the local grocery store to stock up on goodies we can't find on this side of Italy: oats, flaxseed, sauerkraut and seed breads.


Hotel Ganischgerhof
Rio Nero 22
39050 Nova Ponente
+39 0471 61 6504