Fotoeins Fotografie

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Posts from the ‘Food and Drink’ category

Mayer am Pfarrplatz, 19. Bezirk, Döbling, Wien, Vienna, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

My Vienna: 20 food spots from A to V

Bäckerei, Beisl, Café, Heuriger, Imbiss, Kneipe, Lokal, Restaurant.

Whatever your choice or preference, there’s no shortage of places for a sip and nosh in the city of Vienna. Over a period of 30 days, an extended stay in the Austrian capital city provides plenty of opportunities to try something new, though truth told, I also prepared a lot of food in the apartment …

I describe below 20 food visits in Vienna, for all the tasty bits including Döner, falafel, finger sandwiches, horsemeat, ice cream, pastries, raspberry torte, roast pork, Shakshuka for breakfast, Viennese veal schnitzel, and shwarma Syrian-style.

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My Vienna: Habsburg fave dish Tafelspitz, at Plachutta Hietzing

What appears to be a plate of slow simmered beef is anything but “simple”.

“Tafelspitz is a dish with a lot going on,” said Austrian chef Kurt Gutenbrunner to the New York Times in 2002. “It’s hot, cold, spicy, creamy, crunchy and soft.”

Eaten daily by Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), the dish is well-known among Vienna favourites. Among members of the Jewish community of the time, the Tafelspitz was a beloved symbol of assimilation in late 19th-century/early 20th-century Vienna.

Reading about the description for Tafelspitz brings about a sharp childhood memory of a soup made by Mum. Tender chunks of chuck roast, accompanied by carrots, potatoes, celery, shards of ginger root, and often with apple to provide extra sweet; cooked slow and simmering in a huge pot on the stovetop for hours. The resulting soup was a meal on its own, or served as a final course at dinner.

Plachutta is well-known among the Viennese for making some of the best Tafelspitz in the city. A big Plachutta is located centrally in the inner city, but I head west to the city’s 13th district for their original Stammhaus location in Hietzing. It’s fitting somehow that the Hietzing location is close to the Habsburg summer palace at Schönbrunn.

The images show a wonderful spread with the Tafelspitz dish with my choice of the Tafelspitz or rump steak cut. I started with the long slow simmered soup broth, ladled out into a bowl with big chunks of egg frittata. And provided within a bowl of soup are the specific details of family: nourishing, caring, satisfying.

After a section of slow-cooked bone is presented, I spread the soft gelatinous marrow onto slices of toasted dark bread, topped with salt and pepper. Next, slices of moist tender slow-cooked beef are laid onto a plate, along with crunchy fried potatoes, creamed spinach, apple-horseradish sauce, and chive sauce.

Certainly, I paid a little more for the meal, but the Plachutta Tafelspitz was a great dining experience, providing a new memory of Viennese cuisine, combined with a family memory of Cantonese-style home-cooked food.

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My Vienna: Beethovenhaus Heuriger Mayer am Pfarrplatz

Above/featured: “Beethovenhaus” Heuriger Mayer am Pfarrplatz. Pfarrplatz square in Vienna’s Heiligenstadt, Döbling distrct (19.)

It’s a nation-wide holiday on the 26th of May (2022): Ascension of Christ (Christi Himmelfahrt). On a bright and warm late-spring day, people are out and about, and very few shops are open.

I’m halfway through my month-long stay in Vienna, and today, I’m in the city’s 19th district, Döbling, where in his time Beethoven spent many summers resting, composing, and contemplating life with total hearing loss. I’ve spent the morning wandering through the Heiligenstadt neighbourhood, including a visit to one of his summer residences that’s now a museum dedicated to Beethoven. Not far down the street is another Beethoven summer house that’s now a wine tavern or “Heuriger“. A hanging bunch of pine branches at the front door means this tavern is open for service, with food and their own wine on offer.

The Austrian capital city is home to the world’s largest “urban vineyard” and is the world’s only capital city producing wine within its city limits. There are some 600 wine producers; 400 individual vineyards; over 7 million square metres (75 million square feet) of cultivation space producing both white and red wines in a 80/20 split, respectively; and an average annual yield of 2 million litres or over 2.5 million bottles of wine. Most of the wine is sold for immediate consumption at wine shops and grocery stores, and at the city’s many wine taverns. The Mayer family has been making wine here in Heiligenstadt since the late 17th-century after the combined European forces successfully repelled the (second) Ottoman siege of Vienna.

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My Vienna: Wiener Schnitzel at Meissl and Schadn

“Schnitzel: das ist nicht nur nach den Umfragen das Lieblingsessen der Österreicherinnen und Österreicher. Das ist fast schon ein Religion, oder zumindest ein Kultobjekt, der Mittelpunkt eines heliozentrisch-kulinarischen Systems.”

Not only is schnitzel Austria’s favourite food, it’s almost religion, or at the very least, a ‘cult object’ (at) the centre of a heliocentric culinary system.

– “Genussland Österreich: vom Wiener Schnitzel”, by Gert Baldauf (ORF 2011).

The short wood mallet strikes with a thud.

Then, a second; followed by another.

The targeted slab becomes flatter, the fleshy disk gets thinner, growing outward with every thump. The shape is closer to circular, its size as large as a dinner plate.

The prep staff in kitchen-whites, in full concentration with their labour.

And that piece of freshly cut veal pounded thin will soon be breaded, and deep-fried to a crispy golden-brown.

That Wiener Schnitzel will soon be mine.

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Central Market, Adelaide, SA, Australia, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, thirty-two

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

16 August 2012.

I’m visiting friends in Adelaide in South Australia, and one of our first stops is the city’s Central Market. Since 1869, the market’s vendors have provided fruit, vegetables, meats, cheese, and dairy products from South Australia, around the nation, and beyond. The sight of tiny little sausages pulls me towards Con’s Fine Food who’ve been present at the market since the 1960s. And I can’t forget there’s still rashers of bacon and slices of cheese.

I made the image on 16 Aug 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/100-sec, f/2.8, ISO400, and 50mm focal length (80mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mk7.

Eisfuchs, Eis, ice cream, Neubau, Wien, Vienna, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

My Vienna: Eisfuchs specialty ice-cream in the 7th district

Above/featured: Eisfuchs, at Neubaugasse 31 – 1 Jun 2022 (X70).

I’m on a 4-week stint in Vienna in late-spring/early-summer. Days are getting warmer, and I’m search of “Eis”. There are no shortage of ice cream shops in Vienna; trick is finding a really good one.

Out of their many recommendations, my host has pointed out Eis-Fuchs (“ice fox”), a small ice cream shop in the 7th district, known to residents local and across the city, but little recognized outside of Vienna.

That’s my kinda place.

All of their ice cream is made “in house,” and while they’ve got a list of favourites, they have a selection of “seasonal” varieties, which are made in small batches which last from a few days to a week or two. My favourite flavours are “Cheesecake Marille” (apricot cheesecake) and “Tarte au Citron” (lemon tart). The dessert is rich and creamy, and the fruit provides a refreshing tart edge.

With the 2nd visit, I promise the woman behind the counter I’ll visit more regularly. At the next visit, she nods at me in recognition and we chat a little about the ice cream: the variety of flavours and their production. With my final visit, I announce with some regret that my time in Vienna is ending, and I must return to Canada; I leave the shop with a double scoop of deliciousness.

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Abu Elabed, Hühnerschwarma, Hannovermarkt, Wien, Vienna, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

My Vienna: a taste of Damascus in the 20th district

I’m on a 4-week stint in Vienna in late-spring/early-summer. On a bright and early weekday morning, I go out of my way to Hannovermarkt (Hanover market) in the city’s 20th district. I only have one destination in mind: to try shawarma (Döner), done Syrian style.

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Lantau Island, Tai O, Hong Kong, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-five

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

21 June 2012.

On the first full day of northern summer, I’m on a day trip from Hong Kong proper to the west side of Lantau Island. The small fishing town of Tai O is my destination. It’s not long before my stomach growls in hunger at the sight of a woman making “Chinese pizza” (香妃卷, “heung fei guen”).

Among a variety of deep-fried seafood, Chinese pizza is a specialty of the Tai O Snack shop (大澳小食). The “pizza” consists of an egg crepe base, upon which diced spring onion, pickled radish chunks, roasted sesame seeds, crunchy egg crisps/savoury cracker, salt, black pepper, and homemade savory sauce are added. After a gentle grill, the crepe is folded and rolled, ready for takeaway or for consumption at one of the small tables inside. It’s entirely possible you might want fried-fish or -shrimp as well on the side …

I made the image on 21 Jun 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/13-sec, f/5, ISO200, and 20mm focal length (32mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-m86.

Danube, Donau, Christian Stemper, Wien Tourismus

My Vienna: 30 days of spring from the 6

Danube morning: photo by Christian Stemper, courtesy of Wien Tourismus (no.50401).

With this entry’s appearance, I’m on the other side of the world, 8500 kilometres away.

I dashed in and out of Vienna a handful of times between 2001 and 2003 when I lived in Heidelberg; but I have no visual records of that period in time. I’ve returned to Austria’s capital city for the first time since 2018. I wondered then how a stay in the Mariahilf, the city’s 6th district, would go.

That time is now, because I’m spending a month in the 6.

To minimize weight, I’m experimenting:
•   32-L backpack as the 1 and only piece of (carry-on) luggage, and
•   “no bricks no heavy glass”, but a compact mirrorless Fuji X70 camera.

The apartment location and neighbourhood are ideal. I’m within easy reach of the city’s U-Bahn, surrounded by the U3, U4, and U6 metro lines. I’ve already located a drugstore and several grocery stores, all inside a trivial 0.5 km (0.3 mi) walk. I’ve also been told I’ll have many Viennese coffees and several meals in the area.

There’s a lot to pursue, see, and do; and there’s no time to waste.

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Seattle Sunday at Ballard Farmers Market

In Seattle, a friend in Ballard recommends a visit to their neighbourhood’s weekly farmers’ market. Despite the forecast for intermittent morning showers, I’m lured by any stroll through a market for bright harvest colours and freshly prepared food.

A slow meander through the stalls, letting curiosity be the guide. Fresh apples and pears here; ripe plump tomatoes there. From an assortment of red and yellow peppers; to an array of yellow and green gourds. Quickly, the appetite is on high alert. Quesadillas prepared fresh from the grill. Hot from the fryer, little donuts sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Happy dogs walking their humans; couples strolling with children; others sitting on the curb for a chat, nosh, and sip.

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