Christmas in Vienna 2006, a pictorial report.

[Jerry_A]

Below is a pictorial summary of my trip to Vienna this past Christmas. I have only posted a selection of my pictures so as not to totally bore you, but additional photos (without descriptions) can be found here: Vienna Pictures

I should also apologize in advance for the lack of detail in some of the descriptions as I have forgotten a lot of details after so long. The wine or punsch consumed at the time probably did not help my memory either. If anybody has additional descriptions or information on any of these items, let me know and I will edit for clarity.

Special thanks go to cmling for all of his help, particularly on the Coburg recommendation; hervorragend!

Anyway, onto the pictures:

I’ll start with a couple of pictures from my favourite big chain Vienna eatery, Anker:

A peach pastry, with custard and a cup of hot chocolate…great breakfast!

A schnitzel sandwich, which was just schnitzel on a cheesy bun with mayo and lettuce. A perfect afternoon snack!

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned punsch. One of the greatest concepts ever; you spend your 5 Euros for a drink, which includes a 2 Euro deposit for the mug. Then you can take that mug around to the different punsch-stands in the particular Christmas market and spend around 3 Euros or so to refill it with whatever flavour of punsch you desire! Fantastic!

Maroni (chestnut) punsch

Orange Punsch with flaming sugar cube, courtesy the MQ!

Here is some Christmas market food:

Wild Boar sandwich with mustard and cheese; had a few of these during the trip…whoa boy!

Forget the name of these. Doughballs filled with chocolate and rolled in nuts, then doused in icing sugar. To be honest they sound way better than they tasted, but still good.

Chocolate-covered mandarin oranges. Not very good, but they look really cool.

Fried doughnut-type thing with jam in the middle and dusted with icing sugar, cooked fresh right in front of you. This was very good; there was also a sauerkraut and bacon version, sans icing sugar of course.

I have no idea what this thing was, but it was absolutely delicious and to call it unhealthy would be a gross understatement. I think it was potato and sausage (maybe?) deep-fried in this massive vat of oil, then you brush it with garlic butter…sinful may be appropriate?

Sandwich-shops & cafes

Trzesniewski sandwiches. They have been discussed here before; little pieces of rye bread with various flavours on top all mashed up and decoratively adorning the bread. The second picture also shows a spinach pastry we got at Trzesniewski buffet.

Duran sandwiches. We actually enjoyed these more than Trzesniewski’s, mainly due to the variety and the use of different breads. Highly recommend this place!

Meinl am Graben Nice little finger sandwiches, one egg, one cheese. Very delicious and the store itself was quite amazing. Also notable because this is one of only two places I could find the more unusual flavours of Zotter chocolates (coffee, plum, & bacon…yum)

Demel One of the most well-knows pastry shop/cafes in Vienna. We visited three times.

Sacher Torte Pretty good, definitely not one of my favourites, but I figured I should try it.

Meringue & flaky pastry squares with chocolate hazelnut buttercream in the middle. These were absolutely amazing; hence the three separate trips to Demel

Restaurants

Kristian Monastery

Recommended by the gentleman at our hotel, it is located in an old monastery. He got this one right, but definitely got ‘a day in Bratislava’ wrong. Everything here was quite good. My dining companion did not enjoy her appetizer so much and I know she would probably not admit that she was envious of my dessert over her cheese. Great meal overall and would definitely recommend this place.

2 soups: Chestnut & Celery.

Foie Gras with various accoutrements

Pumpkin pate

Langoustines with risotto

Salmon-trout with gnocchi

Beef 2 ways

Cheese course

Chocolate 4 ways

Do & Co

Great location on the 7th floor of Haas Haus right next to St. Stephans Cathedral. Atmosphere was all business, as there was a very large contingent of business people um, ‘doing lunch’. Food was pretty good if not way overpriced. We would most likely not go back here, but enjoyed it nonetheless (that soup was fantastic!).

Sushi…yeah you read that right.

White tomato soup (amazing!)

Wiener Schnitzel with various accompaniments

A different type of schnitzel. Round balls of meat, not breaded. I actually enjoyed this more than the ‘regular’ schnitzel.

Restaurant Coburg at Palais Coburg

Definitely the best meal I have had in quite a while. The food was fantastic and the service was amazing in a way only European countries can do it. Everything was delicious, but the highlight actually came quite early in the form of a terrine; one of the best I have ever had and I try, if possible, to have a terrine at every decent restaurant I visit as I find it a good measure of a chef’s salt (maybe I’m crazy). Descriptions are extremely hazy here (a little more than a tad too much wine).

The aforementioned terrine (salmon and Jerusalem artichoke)

Salmon tartare terrine

Venison on Israeli couscous

I forget (ravioli, carrot I believe)

John Dory with beet sauce (the only close to sub-par dish we had that night)

Scallop with chestnut (?) foam

Oxtail ravioli

Linguini (?) with white truffle

Venison done 2 ways with purple cabbage and quenelles (loved this one a lot)

Fish (duh) of some sort with pea foam (very well done)

Dessert ( I remember the ice cream being brilliant)

Coffee accompaniment (love that candied orange peel!).

Mignardises (I swear, they were there at some point)

Finally, here are a few other random shots:

Warm cake thing with custard (amazing!)

Taupenapfel (spelling?) which came with a side of warm vanilla sauce, almost like vanilla soup…wow!

Breakfast buffet at our first hotel.

So in summary, I would have to say Vienna is an amazing city and even more than that it is an amazing food city. Anyone who loves food should visit there, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Kind regards,

Len

[ludja]

Below is a pictorial summary of my trip to Vienna this past Christmas.  I have only posted a selection of my pictures so as not to totally bore you, but additional photos (without descriptions) can be found here: Vienna Pictures

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Meinl am Graben  Nice little finger sandwiches, one egg, one cheese.  Very delicious and the store itself was quite amazing.  Also notable because this is one of only two places I could find the more unusual flavours of Zotter chocolates (coffee, plum, & bacon…yum)

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Thanks for the wonderful report, Jerry_A! I have alot of questions and comments but thank you first for mentioning some of the places you had"belegte broetchen" or open face sandwiches... Meinl am Graben, Trzesniewski and Duran.

My mom has brought back some Zotter Chocolates and you can actually order them from the linked website. The variety of flavors are quite interesting.

So far I've had a few 70% dark chocolate bars:

"Weisser Mohn mit Zimt" (white poppyseed with cinnamon)

A layer of white chocolate and white poppy, enhanced with a touch of cinnamon and topped by a milk chocolate and apricot brandy cream. The whole thing is coated with dark chocolate.

"Sweet Chestnut"

A memory from childhood: sweet chestnut. Chestnut cream gives the special aroma to this dark chocolate. Highlighted by a lacing of rum.

"Pumpkin Seeds with Marzipan"

Styrian caramelized pumpkin seeds are processed into marzipan, rounded off with egg liqueur and dipped in dark chocolate

Gruener Veltliner Wine with Pepper"

The green Veltliner is an Austrian specialty and captivates with its fruity, peppery and spicy note. Grapes together with the green Veltliner from Wachau are immersed in a butter-cream canache. Placed on top is a thin layer of Long pepper and white chocolate. Covered with dark chocolate.

[Jerry_A]

I actually ended up coming home with about 7 of his bars (I have one left which contains greaves, just waiting for a special occasion) though looking at that site again I may be ordering more soon! The last one you listed sounds divine!

I think the thing I miss about Vienna the most is all of the wonderful sandwiches. There are so many good places to get them there, while here the good stuff is a little more difficult to find.

[insomniac]

Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............

ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands

pps. very European outfits you have there

[Jerry_A]

Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............

ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands

pps. very European outfits you have there

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Thanks and LOL at the 'ps', we try to keep our hands clean since we always seem to have food in them Amazingly I actually lost weight on this trip

We actually stuck out like sore thumbs in our jackets. I guess I should have asked for fashion advice in addition to the food advice...oh well, live and learn

[mukki]

Wow - thanks so much for sharing your pictures. Vienna and Prague have been on my list for a Christmas-time visit; perhaps this year!

[insomniac]

Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............

ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands

pps. very European outfits you have there

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Thanks and LOL at the 'ps', we try to keep our hands clean since we always seem to have food in them Amazingly I actually lost weight on this trip

We actually stuck out like sore thumbs in our jackets. I guess I should have asked for fashion advice in addition to the food advice...oh well, live and learn

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oh, Jerry, I wasn't being sarcastic, beautiful jacket, elegant scarf and yr wife's lace frock is lovely...I'm sure you blended right in as Germans/Austrians are very classy dressers....you know, when son and I went on a (very decadent, hide $$$ from the husb) michelin crawl in Spain and France we also LOST weight??

[Jerry_A]

Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............

ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands

pps. very European outfits you have there

←

Thanks and LOL at the 'ps', we try to keep our hands clean since we always seem to have food in them Amazingly I actually lost weight on this trip

We actually stuck out like sore thumbs in our jackets. I guess I should have asked for fashion advice in addition to the food advice...oh well, live and learn

←

oh, Jerry, I wasn't being sarcastic, beautiful jacket, elegant scarf and yr wife's lace frock is lovely...I'm sure you blended right in as Germans/Austrians are very classy dressers....you know, when son and I went on a (very decadent, hide $$$ from the husb) michelin crawl in Spain and France we also LOST weight??

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No problem insomniac, I always assume sarcasm since it runs so thickly in my family

Thank you for the kind words.

[Jerry_A]

Wow - thanks so much for sharing your pictures. Vienna and Prague have been on my list for a Christmas-time visit; perhaps this year!

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I could not imagine a better Christmas setting than Vienna. The whole city was alive with lights and festivities.

I do recommend going a little earlier in the month and staying over Christmas, as the majority of tourists started to show up just before Christmas eve, which made things a little busier everywhere. Tourists were fewer and farther between until about the 23rd, which was kind of nice.

[ludja]

Any comment on your accomodations, Jerry_A? We're looking at options right now so it would be great to hear your feedback.

The city is pretty compact and has good public transportation so I think it is difficult to go too wrong with respect to location and access to good food. Nevertheless, if you were going back which areas would you choose to stay in?

Thanks in advance!

[Jerry_A]

We stayed at the Hotel Rauthaus for the first leg of our trip. Great place, highly recomended.

For the second half we stayed at Le Meridien which was also very good, though quite pricey.

I would pick Hotel Rathaus over Le Meridien as it was a little more quaint and actually felt more 'Austrian' (whatever that means). Le Meridien was good and the location was spectacular, but it had that 'big hotel' feel to it.

You are right about location though, you really can not go too far wrong. We only took the train once and that was to go to Palace Schonbrunn (aside from our ill-fated excursion to Bratislava). Everything else was easily accesible by walking

Cheers,

Len