Sundry Discoveries

As I was so recently on the topic and have come across a few more mentionable locales in the past week, I thought I would continue on my cuisine critiques. For ease of browsing I'll work by category.

Cafés
12 Munchies - Steffie invited me out to an impromptu lunch on Wednesday at a little cafe that she noticed had recently popped up in our neighborhood. I arrived early and waited outside as the five chairs inside were all occupied; this place is seriously tiny. While I was waiting, the owner, Dominique, came outside and offered me some water and we started chatting about how she had always wanted to have her own café so her husband helped her set this place up. They had opened only four weeks before and used a restaurant kitchen in the first district every morning to do their baking - trying to have a dozen offerings every day (though it sometimes ends up being a baker's dozen). As the name of her café implies, Dominique doesn't really offer complete meals but little snacks to browse on. When we were there some of that day's fare included absolutely delicious spinach quiche, salad, very berry yogurt muffins, and an assortment of brownies, cookies, and nut bars. It of course also had some coffee options, but as I don't really drink the stuff I can't comment on them. The other thing that I really liked about the place was that, as Steffie put it, "it's one of a dying breed." You can just as easily go by yourself and read with your munchie as you can strike up a conversation with the folks next to you and it would be perfectly acceptable. Definitely a unique atmosphere, and somewhere worth checking out if you're in the area.

12 Munchies and Café Aumann are both at Aumannplatz in the 18th district, along the 40 or 41 tram lines away from the city center; closest Ubahn is U6 Volksoper/Währinger Straße

Café | Restaurant | Bar Aumann - Last Saturday I had a rather far-fetched though convenient coincidence. I had told Steffie I would meet her for coffee in the afternoon, and my high school friend Leslie's little sister Laura was in town staying at one of her friend, Marco's, place. I was also going to meet them all for dinner at a time and place to be decided. About the time I went to meet Steffie I got a text from Marco saying he wanted to have dinner a few hours later - at the same place. Apparently Café Aumann, also conveniently close to where I'm living, is a sort of swanky new place that serves many functions. I just found it really ironic that two locals, one of whom doesn't live anywhere near the place, would not only want to go here independently, but on the same day. Steffie and I chatted so long that I didn't even need to leave between when she left and Laura and crew arrived. I have to say, though, for what it's worth it seemed like it had better coffee (I broke down and had a Karamell Eiskaffee - coffee with ice cream and caramel - because it was so hot that day) and pastries than entrées, and it all seemed a bit overpriced. While I'll go back if invited, I don't think it's one I'll be frequently recommending (though they did get extra points for calling their non-alcoholic Sex on the Beach a "Safer Sex on the Beach").

Restaurants
Regina Margherita - Two Fridays ago Ashley and I found ourselves at this pleasant little restaurant with plant-encircled outdoor seating. It's on Wellnerstraße which is off Kohlmarkt, the main street from Michaelerplatz at the Hofburg. I had their tomato and mozzarella risotto which was savory and not too light or too heavy. It also claims to have "perfect pizzas" that are freshly baked in a Napolitan pizza oven. Nothing else particularly distinct, except that they had an amusing translation for their Battuta di manzo:

Il Sestante Pizzeria - On Wednesday evening I went out to dinner with Ashley in the neighborhood she's now living in. One of her friends had recommended an Italian place in a square in front of a church. It took us some minute's wandering, but we found it behind Theater in der Josefstadt. All of the tables in the square had already been reserved, but we were able to sit inside the restaurant next to where they opened ceiling-high doors, so it was basically like we were outside and we were right across from the Maria Treu Kirche sqaure. The waiters were really friendly and all Italian, and they gave us a sucker for trying to guess what was wrong with the church facade. Oh, right, and the pizza was really good. Then again, a lot of the pizza in Vienna is really good.

Maria Treu Kirche

Flaw in the facade.
Hint: it has to do with the Latin. Answer coming in the next post.

Desserts
Cup Cakes Wien - The folks who took our table at Il Sestante were carrying a little pink box that screamed "Cupcakes!", so Ashley and I asked where they got them so that we might quiet the calling of our sweet tooth (if we each have a sweet tooth, then combined do we have sweet teeth?). Conveniently it was right around the corner on Josefstädter Straße, across from the Theater in der Josefstadt. They were just closing up as we walked up, but they let us in to purchase some cupcakes. They also had a baking class going on in the back where you could gather four friends and learn their cupcake-making secrets! Highly recommend this place. Lauren, it might even be better than DC's Hello Cupcake; I suggest you come out to compare.

Carrot Cake and Schoko-Mousse

http://www.cupcakes-wien.at/

 Xocolate - Huge selection of truffles and even more options for chocolate bars, this place has just about anything you could crave. Rumor even has it that you can find 100% cocoa bars - complete with instructions on how to properly enjoy it. Located in the Passage des Palais Ferstel off of Freyung. Or just past Café Central if you enter the passage from that other end.

Leonidas - I FOUND IT! I knew there had to be a shop in Vienna that sold Belgian chocolate, and I finally ran across it yesterday. Not only does the shop sell Leonidas chocolates, it's actually a Leonidas shop. I couldn't say what it is; Viennese truffles (and those I've eaten just about everywhere else) are really really good... but they just don't touch the truffles that I had in Brussels. This shop is on Fleischmarkt near Schwedenplatz. Don't get chocolate anywhere else.

Teas
Haas & Haas - A very traditional and well known tea shop under the arch just Southeast of the apse of Stephansdom that also has a garden restaurant. I highly recommend it, but it's not quite...

Theehandlung Schönbichler - take a stroll down the little alley on the Northeast side of Stephansdom to this tea shop. It's 140 years old, has the widest selection of teas I've ever seen (it paired up with Tee Gschwendner, a German tea shop that has branches in the US), and the fellow that helped us - ask for Jafarau if you ever go - was incredibly informative and gave superb recommendations on teas to try based on ones we already liked. Well, I don't yet know if they're superb as I've only smelled them but have yet to try the ones I bought. Also, not only did he give us free samples, but he included a measuring spoon and gave brewing instructions specific to each blend. Günter also informed me that if you make your own blend and tell them about it, they'll try and replicate it, and if it's to your liking they'll keep a catalog under your name of your blends and will make them for you any time. Supposedly you can also ask to get blends that celebrities have come up with.

Morning Run

I was taking my (more or less, if I am to be honest) daily jog around the park this morning in a more contemplative mood than usual, concerned simply with moving rather than keeping tabs on pace or distance, so for the first time in my many months of being here (last summer included), I detoured along one of the paths that cuts through a more central area of the park rather than maintaining the well-worn circuit (where I know every lap is approximately a mile). There, right in the center of the park, settled purposefully atop the crest - it's a hilly park after all - was a giant tower. Lookout tower, so it seemed. 50 cent for anyone over 14 to go up on a Saturday or a Sunday. I had no idea. All this time, I had no idea. I don't know how many times I've circled the pillar (granted, many of those times were closer to dusk where a structure shrouded as it is by trees would be much less noticeable, but still). I can't say why it struck me the way that it did, perhaps that silly contemplation.

Anyway, the other main thing I drew from this morning while really stretching my legs down the steepest incline and letting my momentum carry me, the fresh breeze strong in my face, deep lungfulls of air, they all brought it back particularly sharp: I need to get on a horse again. Soon. I think I'll be looking into that more thoroughly in the coming days.

Delectable Dining

If forced to sum up my time since returning from Venice last Friday in one word (not that anyone is forcing such a thing), I'd have to respond with: Food.

Ashley arrived on Saturday night and, shamefully, had me beat with knowledge of Vienna I didn't have despite having never been here before. She had read about "Restaurant Week", a promotional week where most of the nicer restaurants in the city were offering €25 three course dinners and €12,50 two course lunches. Unfortunately the week was ending the following day, but she already had reservations for dinner Saturday night and both lunch and dinner Sunday and asked if I wanted to come along. Conveniently enough I had not had dinner when she arrived on Saturday and I thought it sounded like a great idea. Her reservations that night were at Hill, a restaurant very close to Grinzing in the 19th district. We enjoyed a delicious variation on a caprese salad, followed with savory grilled trout over an apricot risotto (the Viennese, or perhaps the Austrians, LOVE their apricots), all with a glass of local red wine. They followed this up with raspberry sorbet in a glass which they poured champagne over after bringing it to the table. Finally dessert which consisted of a couple of still warm semi-sweet dumplings, homemade vanilla eis (ice cream), and ripe cherries, accompanied by a glass of dessert wine. Definitely a restaurant I would recommend, even without it being "Restaurant Week".

Same idea for lunch, this time at Anna Sacher. Five star hotel (Hotel Sacher) = amazing restaurant. I think I would have enjoyed the meal no matter its quality anyway just because the interior design was so elegant in a rich green with black furniture that had gold accents. However, as one might imagine, the food matched its setting so we were able to enjoy both. This, of course, followed by a slice of Sachertorte, one of Vienna's most famous culinary specialties, since we were at Hotel Sacher, home of the original Sachertorte.

Picture from last summer, though of course dined on at the Sacher Cafe

We decided to forgo her dinner reservations for that night, but I would certainly say those were a successful two meals. Ate lunch with Steffie at the Naschmarkt on Monday; it was nice catching up with her and hearing about her updates in her preparation for Bangkok where she was invited to go teach chamber music for a year.

I also learned how to make Wiener Schnitzel yesterday. Günter came by in the morning and took me to a great meat market not far from the house to get the veal. I was pleased to note that they had venison, though Günter called it "fawn" and he's completely fluent in English so I doubt that he mis-used the word.  We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few more ingredients, then back to the house to undertake my true initiation as a Viennese resident. If you have any idea what Wiener Schnitzel is, you probably won't find it hard to imagine that the preparation is very similar to a good ol' southern chicken fry. I think the whole process from market to post-meal chatting lasted two hours. I was also amused because after we breaded the schnitzel Günter dumped the breading ingredients together and mixed them to make a "veggie schnitzel pattie" to fry. I was a bit skeptical of it as it lacked meat, though I did try a bite.

Now I'll have something new to contribute next time I'm back in Winston for a med crew dinner.

Oh, other notable food-related note: I discovered a store in Vienna that sells an assortment of Lebkuchen... I think I'm going to have to start running more.