The Latest Culinary Discovery

I need to apologize to everyone who has visited me thus far. Mom and Dad, Lauren, Ashley (well, you didn't exactly 'visit', but it was still my responsibility to make sure you got the best Viennese experience possible), I'm sorry. Come back. Michael, you're in luck. On Saturday Anna, John, Nick, and I had possibly the best lunch I've had in Vienna yet. This even tops Kim's in my opinion if I'm to consider the location and atmosphere of it. Die Mutter had told me about a restaurant in the basement of the Stock Exchange building which she really likes, and unfortunately I only just got around to trying it. Fortunately, I now know about it (and may have to go back every week).

It's down a relatively inconspicuous set of stairs (I say this only because I'd never paid much heed to them before) at a Ring-side corner of the vast red-orange Stock Exchange building. We were a little perplexed when we walked in to Hansen and saw a large floral shop which opened up into a giant vaulted underground hall, but we didn't see anywhere else we could possibly have gone, so we kept walking to the far end.

Behind all of the giant potted plants there was a set of tables complete with linen and cheerful Austrians. We came in and seated ourselves, as is customary in Vienna, and were treated to a delectable lunch! Anna started with a sort of squash soup which I immediately regretted not ordering as soon as I tried a spoonful, then we both had risotto with scallops (and there was chorizo in it!), Ryan had a very tender cut of beef (though exactly which cut I'm not certain), and John devoured some freshwater fish that none of us recognized. Dessert was good too, as you might expect. Hansen's menu also changes weekly, which I love!

After lunch we wandered around the floral shop for a bit; they really had a great (and vast) selection of plants and plant accessories!

 I'd like to point out that my Mother is ahead of the game; she got me boxes like this (except with inverse colors) for Christmas last year

I'm thinking this would make a good Flow addition

It was an uncharacteristically pleasant day out, so we went to wander the Naschmarkt for a while. Nick, being from China, scoped out a few of the Chinese 'grocery stores' there and gave us insight into which ones are authentic. We helped John go veggie shopping, samples kababs, drank hot chocolate... it was great! Oh, and since this is supposed to be a 'culinary' post, I was fascinated by this little discovery:

Squid Squares! (okay, they're actually octopus, but I thought the concept had very catchy advertising potential)

We went back to the house as it was getting dark, I went out to grab dinner at the Zwölfapostlekeller with Joe, then we rendezvoused with the house group again to plan what to do for the night. There was a strong push to go to Travelshack, an Aussie bar next to Westbahnhof, so we did that. It was pretty laid back, if not a bit loud, but interesting folks there. And interesting drinks. There was one called a Fireshot that was especially noteworthy. I was driving so I didn't have it , not that I would have tried this anyway, but you basically take the alcohol in your mouth, the waitress lights it and shakes cinnamon over the flame to make it sparkle, then closes your mouth to stop the flame. Popular concept, I'm sure, but I've never seen anyone do one in person. Luckily (if you can call it that?), some of the group wanted to give it a go, so I was a witness to the fun.

We were there for a while, but I had a pretty long day planned for Sunday, so I didn't hang out too late. Saturday: Success!