Austrian cuisine in general: It is the culinary reflection of an ethnically mixed people who, during the many centuries of the Austrian Habsburg empire's expansion and contraction, have exchanged culinary know-how with Turkish, Swiss, Alsacian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German, Bohemian-Moravian, Hungarian, Polish, Croatian, Slovenian, Slovakian, Serbian, and Jewish cuisine. Typical Austrian dishes vary today according to the Bundeslander culinary history and to each Bundesland's agriculture with its export/import tradition.For example, Burgenland cuisine is influenced by its flat topography and proximity to Hungary. Its specialities are prepared with abundant locally grown fruits and free roaming chicken and geese, and include dishes like the Buergenlandisches Erdbeerkoch (a type of baked strawberry mush dessert) and Buergenlandische Gaenseleber (goose liver simmered with onions). East southern Kaernten/Carinthia and Steiermark/Styria's cuisines, with Hungarian, Yugoslavian, and Italian culinary influences, feature Mediterranean style foods, including ham, a favourite ingredient in all three surrounding countries, and mild climate herbs and vegetables. Dishes from these areas include Steirisches Verhackert's (diced Speck (Austrian cured ham) mixed with minced garlic and heavy flavoured pumpkin seed oil) or Steirisches Poulard (roasted herb stuffed capon or chicken). Niederoesterreich/Lower Austria's way of cooking reflects historic ties with eastern, Middle Eastern, and oriental cooking, and includes Serviettenknoedel mit Semmelkren (baked bread loaf with saffron gravy) and Gezogener Apfelstrudel (an almost transparent roll of pastry dough filled with apples which has common culinary roots with oriental baklava).
Vienna's cuisine is unique and international. Viennese specialities were created by, and for, people who were influenced by a monarchic system that until the early part of this century was among the most influential European political powers and which had cultural ties to Europe as well as the American New World. As Vienna's Habsburg royal family was involved in power politics as far away as Spain, its cuisine absorbed many international ingredients. Viennese cuisine includes 'Wiener Schnitzel' (breaded veal cutlet which has its twin version in Milan, Italy, called 'Cotoletta alla Milanese'), 'Parmesanschoeberlsuppe' (clear broth with diamond shaped Parmesan cheese flavoured souffle dumplings created after Vienna's political power became dominant in Northern Italy), and Fiaker Goulash (Viennese paprika beef stew very similar to chili and to Hungarian goulash), and, of course, the renowned Sacher Torte (chocolate glazed cake filled with either apricot, currant or raspberry jam).
