Amateur Hour: Atomic’s Matt Manser on Scotch, Part 3 (Ep.33)

8 comments on “Amateur Hour: Atomic’s Matt Manser on Scotch, Part 3 (Ep.33)”

1. Thanks. Have learnt some useful(?) stuff here.

   Couple of thoughts on my idea that you are expensing these trips as business costs. You can drink whisky and ski in Scotland.

   You can ski and eat Tome, Abondance, Roblechon cheeses in France where the cows spent summer in the alps some of those cows in the ski areas.

   If in the alps get into craft Cartreuse.

   Sauternes is pronounced saw-turns.

   Now you acknowledged Americans correcting other parts of the world, but I may need to consider this bagging on Austrian food over an apfel strudel and recall a trip to Taco Hell… but then there was waffle house… more pondering required here.

   When you are correcting the Scots look out for the Glasgow kiss

   • Ha, I don’t understand 70% of your comment, but I love it, and I feel like there is some very solid advice being dispensed here. I also very much appreciate the number of people who have emailed me to (very politely) defend Austrian cuisine. They are being far more charitable than I was, and it’s made me eager to give it another try.

   • More like Saw-Turn in French. The s is silent too

2. Hmm.. I may have had a cask strength, no colouring, non cold filtered Abhainn Dearg 10 Yr old in my hand. Your language gets more fruity after a drink, mine seems to get obscure ;o)

   Was trying to get at the bit about new craft topics to look at and combining that with the more central theme at Blister of testing ski gear.
   Cheese! (Not familiar with Vermont) but how about cheese made from cows grazing in ski areas. Tartiflette, a signature dish from the region around Tignes/Val d’Iseire uses Roblechon cheese and it tastes amazing but smells of poo. Ski eat and podcast on it while experiencing the French Alps.
   And just down the road in the area around Grenoble Monks make a herbal liqueur with 120 something herbs from a centuries old recipe – Chartreuse. I think it fits the crafted concept at Blister.

   Bon appetite

3. I loved the series until Matt went into the Austrian Food rant.
   This makes me question all of his taste and all his ramblings about it just makes me wonder.
   Complaining about Austrians making Pizza?
   Then talks about Italian food but is only on about Pizza and Pasta?
   Italian Food is much more than that!
   The Austrian Cuisine has influenced most (European) countries. For Europe, the coffee craze started in Vienna and it still has probably more coffee culture than the whole of Italy.
   The fine bakery and desserts in Austria are probably the best in the world. So much, that the French Croissant actually has Austrian heritage.
   In Austria you get the likes Kaiserschmarrn (Pancakes on steroids) Germknödel (sweet dumpling on steroids) and Apfelstrudel (Apple pie on steroids?).
   Then you have the whole down to earth hearty food which it shares across all of the countries with Bohemian cuisines like Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and so on.
   You get Goulash and stews anywhere.
   A true Vienna Schnitzel is a dream!

   Most of these things you can even get on a hut in a skiing area for a fraction of what a burger with fries would cost you in the states.

   And I’m not even Austrian but as a Bavarian I do have a sentiment for the Austrians and we do share some of the cuisine.

   I have no idea where Matt gets his food but he must be drinking way too much of his Scotch if he thinks his one week old Thai Curry is better than any of the above mentioned things.

   Jonathan, if you ever come to Austria again (or to southern Germany) I do hope someone with a bit of taste and knowledge takes you out and helps you. I’d be happy to, if you’d like.

   P.S. I think I’m going to return the Atomic HAWX PRIME 130 which I just got boot fitted….

   • Ha, go easy on Matt – and for the love of scotch, don’t return a boot that fits you well!

     I probably goaded Matt into my rant. But I’m really grateful for all of your suggestions. I’ve had several of them – but maybe I haven’t had some of the better iterations of them. So I look forward to getting back to Austria, and tracking some of the things you’ve mentioned down (or down again).

     (I also need to get to Vienna….)

     • Of course I was exaggerating my rant as an escalation from yours ;)
       I will keep my boot since I am extremely happy with the work Black Sheep Sports in Munich did.

       Regarding the food, I am extremely surprised of your experience, since from mine you should get most of these down to earth things from any “normal” ski hut in the Alps and I’m wondering where people took you to.

       On a side note, should you visit Markus Eder in his home, that is in South Tyrol which used to be Austrian. So their food is super related to “Austrian”, as well and you can actually see an interesting fade from the very hearty Austrian/Bohemian to the lighter Mediterranean from North to South. Italian Food is not the same in the whole country, neither. :)

       I’m no expert on it but I think cuisines are very often simplified and especially Bohemian/Austrian/German super underrated with absolute amazing stand out delicacies which differ insanely by Region.

       But like the backcountry, if you are unfamiliar with it, you need a good guide. ;)

4. Personally, I think Jonathan was a little edgy…but I can forgive. I think it was a little bit of the Scotch talking. Fun podcast and I learned a great deal more about Scotch. Interestingly, I went to a Scotch pairing dinner with 3 Scotch Scotches and 3 Japanese (Scotch style) whiskeys/whiskys. Very interesting! I don’t remember what they all were as it was 4-5 years ago, but the 3rd Japanese whisky was right up there with the higher level scotch. But that’s another podcast!