Vienna, Part 1
We flew to Vienna on Austrian Airlines. The only reason that is noteworthy is that
when one gets on an Austrian Airlines plane, the background music is a waltz.
A wall in Vienna’s airport.
(Music for The Merry Widow)
On a side note: while at the airport, we saw three airport
employees using scooters. Two were on
push scooters similar to what children use, where one stands with one foot on
the scooter and pushes off with the other foot.
The third employee was using a small motor bike to get around.
OK , one more aside. I took this picture for my kids
.
Our lunch the first day.
The bread was nice - especially the small loaf with the dark pumpkin seeds. The seeds gave a very rich pumpkin taste. Also the bread in Austria is a little saltier than an American is used to. It is of note that although the bread may be placed on the table at the start of your meal, it is not included in the price. Or at least it was not included at the restaurants where we ate. It costs ~ $1 per piece.
Beer (I think all beer tastes vile, but John seems to consistently disagree with me), goulash with spaetzle, and roast pork with a dumpling and some sauerkraut. (You might notice a lack of green.) The meals were solidly good, though not to die for.
Walking around Vienna...
One of many lovely statues that stand at the entrance of one of many lovely buildings.
Detail below.
Below is the interior of a lovely church. It is not St. Stephan's, which is the huge cathedral in the center of town. Saint Stephens is beautiful in the way that Paris' Notre Dame is beautiful. But I thought this church was lovely.
The crypt of Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
(thanks for the information Brenda)
And finally, after many hours and many many kilometers of walking:
Dinner.
I ordered "Cream of parsley root soup". Parsley doesn't have "roots". So we thought that perhaps it was cream of parsnip. Either way, it was fabulous. John ordered Schnitzel ("When in Vienna..."). Now you might be saying, "Oh, I see they got something green with their schnitzel." It was extra. The meal John ordered came with the lemon slice. It was soley a piece of flattened, breaded and fried veal. It was fine. The salad was similiar to what Americans call "German potato salad" but not as sweet. You might note the glass of white wine. It is Grüner Veltliner. It is, I think, a regional white wine, and it is very nice. Wine and beer tend to be cheaper than coffee or bottled water. More on that in a future post.
Hi Carolyn, I have just found your blog – and I have immediately read it in one go!
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to see how you experience Sweden and Europe.
Congrats for the blog and keep up with the good work!
Cheers,
Balázs
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Just a little remark for this post:
Parsley (or at least a certain type of parsley, which is very common in Central Europe and which is not the same as parsnip) does have an edible root. As we use it very often, it's very likely that you ate a soup made of the same parsley root in Vienna, too.
Not that the two plants (parsley and parsnip) would be that different anyway... :o)
“Root parsley
Root parsley
Another type of parsley is grown as a root vegetable, the Hamburg root parsley (P. crispum radicosum group, syn. P. crispum var. tuberosum). This type of parsley produces much thicker roots than types cultivated for their leaves. Although seldom used in Britain and the United States, root parsley is very common in central and eastern European cuisine, where it is used in soups and stews, or simply eaten raw, as a snack (like carrots).[8]
Though root parsley looks similar to the parsnip, it tastes quite different. Parsnips are among the closest relatives of parsley in the family Apiaceae, but the similarity of the names is a coincidence, parsnip meaning "forked turnip"; it is not closely related to real turnips.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley
Balázs,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind words, and for the information on the parsley root. Perhaps I can find it locally. I would love to replicate the soup. It was really wonderful. Thanks again.