I want to be like mamá Bertha

On Tuesday, I was on the phone with my good colleague Sarah, with whom I have “the food conspiracy” project, and she suggested me to have dinner at Amacord, an typical Austrian restaurant. The restaurant was not far away, so I decided to give it a try.

The place was traditional Viennese (dark wood furniture, beiges walls, no music) and packed with people. I hesitated a while whether to stay or to have sushi at Kujiro instead. Kujiro is an excellent sushi bar, very small (7 seats) and the cooks and owners are Japanese.

I ordered the lamb osso buco with chanterelles and mashed potatoes. The last time I ate osso buco was about 6-7 years ago, and it was cooked especially for me by my lovely grandmother. She cooked the veal (not lamb) osso bucco in a soup with cabbage, carrots, zucchini, potatoes and cilantro. As she always does specially for me, she separated the bone’s marrow on a separate plate, so I could eat it with lime juice on a corn-tortilla.

I still remember the first time I had osso buco (called chamberete in Chihuahua) cooked by my granny. My sister and me had friends who stayed overnight and she made us osso buco tacos for dinner…it was delicious.

The lamb osso buco I had was heavy (I had to order two glasses of red wine - an excellent Zweigelt - and decided to walk home to support my digestion), but tasty. The portion was maybe too big for me, but the mashed potatoes were simply fantastic! I remembered that by mixing boiled potatoes, salt and butter you can get one of the best culinary inventions ever.

The best about Amacord were the memories that my meal triggered. Mamá Bertha, my grandmother, is a second mom for me, for my sister and for my brother…and also for all my cousins. She is always smiling and telling all of us how much she loves us.

Since I can remember, she takes medicated pills to control her blood pressure and her pain (arthritis), nevertheless she is never complaining. She is simply full of love. When I get old, I don’t want to be like the old people from my last blog, I want to be like mamá Bertha.