Vienna 2013: Dining

When we travel to different cities, we like to poke around the grocery stores to see how different they are from the ones in Toronto.  When we were in France, there were several aisles worth of cheese.  In China, we didn't find much cheese but there were more types of tea than you could count.

In Austria, the big seller seems to be chocolate.  Not only are there specialty chocolate shops everywhere, but the supermarkets seem to dedicate larger areas to chocolate than produce.  In the Merkl supermarket next to our apartment,  there is an entire wing full of chocolate in all shapes and sizes and so many brands that we have never heard of.  Even the brands we knew, like Lindt, came in a dizzying number of flavours that are not commonly available back home.  There were over 12 flavours of Lindor truffle balls that you could buy by weight and mix and match, including Champagne, Irish Cream, Cappuccino, Crunchy Nougat, Coconut, and Cookies and Cream.  The Lindt chocolate bars came in flavours like Creme Brule, Tiramisu and Pistaschio Cream.  We started calculating how much chocolate we could cart home in our suitcases.

Austrians must favour sweets in general since they are also known for their luscious cakes accompanied by a large dollop of whipped cream and exotic coffees with more of that cream.  It is amazing that they are not all 300 pounds!

We went to the famous Cafe Demel, located on the ritzy street Kohlmarkt, to try the Viennese signature cake–the Sacher Torte.  This is a dense chocolate cake with apricot jam and chocolate icing that was first served at the Sacher Hotel in 1832.  Cafe Demel has been open since 1786 and is famous for the artistic desserts which are displayed in the front windows.  Once during a Wimbledon match, the Demel windows hosted busts of Federer and Nadal made out of chocolate.  An open bakery is on display so that you can watch the creations take shape and you can commission custom-made cakes.
 

Cafe Mozart goes all out in its tribute to the famous composer.  Not only is the cafe named after him, but there is also a Mozart torte and Mozart hot chocolate.  In both cases, the cake and drink featured pistachio cream, which made me wonder whether Wolfgang was partial to this flavour.  My hot chocolate came with a little chocolate ball called the Mozartkugel from the Mozart Chocolate store.  By now, we had confirmed that coffee is also a serious deal in Vienna, as there is usually a separate menu full of specialty coffee selections.  Rich tried the Maria Theresa, which is a double mocha with Cointreau topped with whipped cream and candied orange

Our favourite cafe was Cafe Central, both in terms of beautiful decor and choice of cakes.  We liked it so much the first time that we returned for more cake! This cafe has been opened since 1876 and hosted well known people such as Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky and even Adolf Hitler.  At the back of the restaurant are portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth.  Evening meals were accompanied by a live pianist whose repetoire included Edelweiss from the Sound of Music and the theme from the movie The Third Man.

We are ashamed to admit that we were so enamoured by the cakes that we indulged in them not only during dinner, but sometimes for lunch and even one breakfast!  In our defense, the breakfast was our last meal in Vienna before leaving for the airport so it seemed fitting for a last goodbye cake–and we did preface this with a proper meal of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and chives and freshly squeezed orange juice.

My two favourite cakes came from Cafe Central.  The best was the Peanut Brule, which was a milk chocolate and caramel mousse, covered by peanuts and a layer of dark chocolate, and accented with thin pieces of milk and white chocolate.  I loved the different textures of the smooth mousse against the crunchy peanuts.  My next favourite was called the Nuss Kuss, which had layers of milk chocolate and hazelnut crisps.  We also tried the apple strudel which came with a wonderful vanilla sauce, and of course, the prerequisite whipped cream.  I was sure that I had gained many pounds from all this dessert, but when we got home, it turns out that I actually lost four pounds.  I've either stumbled on a new secret-weapon diet of cake and whipped cream, or the 8+ hours a day of walking we did on a daily basis successfully counteracted the binging.

Figlmüller is reputed to be the place to go for schnitzel in Vienna, so we made a dinner reservation several weeks ahead of our trip.  Good thing too, because the place is packed every night with lineups out the door. We had a nice table by the window but ended up having people from the lineup peering in at us to see if we were almost done.

We had heard that the schnitzels were huge, but did not expect them to be bigger than my head!  They were quite thin and nicely breaded but I would have liked it better if it came with a sauce, preferably a mushroom sauce.  This was our first restaurant meal in Vienna, where we learned that Austrians really like their potato, and that it is redundant to order a salad plus a potato dish.  The Viennese salad included potatoes with the greens.  What was really confusing was that our potato salad included greens with the potatoes.  We thought at first that they had brought us the same dish twice, but closer inspection showed that each salad had a different dressing.  Rich's "glass of wine" was served in a beer glass.

We went to Plachutta so that Rich could try their specialty of tafelspitz, which consists of cuts of beef boiled in a copper pot along with beef broth, root vegetables, leek, apple and horseradish.  The pot is set on a hot plate so that broth will stay warm.  You start by drinking the broth as soup for the first course, and then fish out the meat and vegetables for the main course.  The meal comes with fried rosti potatoes with a chive sauce.  You could pick the parts of the cow to be used for the meal, with a handy picture on the menu to clarify the choices.

We were recommended Brezel Growbl by our walking-tour guide as an interesting place to eat.  The building dates all the way back to 1241.  Dining in the basement by candlelight, it felt like we had stepped back into medieval times.  Our table was tucked into a tiny alcove next to the remnants of a Roman wall.  At one point, the building was used as a pretzel bakery and there is a copper pretzel hanging from the stairs in tribute to this history.  They still serve pretzels today.