Austria has many different types of special cheese. Glündner Käse, Topfen, the different varieties of Bergkäse, and most of the standard ones you already know. The cheese in Austria is perfectly fine. But when I came here what I missed was cheddar. Didn’t have to be anything special but it had to be cheddar. I grudgingly accepted the Bergkäse and Gouda that wound up in the shopping trolley and passed it off as just another thing I would have to get used to.
Now, Austria is not at the end of the earth. You can absolutely buy cheddar in Austria, and quite easily, just not at the supermarket I was frequenting. So I assumed it wasn’t available.
And then English week came to said supermarket, and I got overexcited. Hubby was so confused. Of course you can get cheddar here, he explained patiently, we just have to go to x supermarket. I stared at him, wild-eyed, and refused to put back the five packets of cheddar I’d picked up (it does last a while and we had the space), and he ended up just shrugging and going with it.
And it doesn’t matter how many times he tells me that if I want cheddar all I have to do is go to a different supermarket, I still go nuts every time I see cheddar in our supermarket. And I buy up big. It’s just the way it is.
an aussie in austria 