NFR - Going to Vienna in the fall for three days, need ideas pleasse

More info Coffee houses, coffee names, food names, etc...

I found this list that I had prepared for a friend who was spending Christmas in Vienna and wanted info on coffee houses.
====================================
Zum Schwarzen Kameel-purveyor of fine quality Delikatessen (and that means “Fine Foods” in German), Pastries, Wine Cellar, Restaurant and Bar, etc. since the early 17th C. Similar to Dallmayr in Munich. Bognerstrasse 5, the next street over from Naglergasse (dead end in Kohlmarkt from Graben, turn right and take the second left into Bognerstrasse. This is a wonderful spot for supplies for your abode or a picnic lunch.

Gerstner, several locations, one in the Kärtnerstrasse. Another court purveyor of sweets still in business.

Café Oberlaa on the Neuermarkt (wonderful selection of cakes, pastries, tortes, you name it, it will be here, much cheaper than Demels for pastries with similar quality).

Café Sperl in the Gumpendorferstraße—classic Viennese Kaffeehaus.

Café Landtmann in the Ringstrasse near the University. Classic Viennese coffee house with nice pastries.

Viennese coffee ordering:
Brauner: black coffee with milk in gross or klein (large or small)
Doppelmokka: large strong black coffee
Einspänner: black coffee with whipped cream ("Schlag" or Schlabobers in Austrian)
Fiaker: black coffee and rum
Franziskaner: small black coffee with hot milk, whipped cream and chocolate shavings

Ein Glas Wasser (a glass of water): This usually is a small sparkling mineral water on the tray with your coffee and is included in the price of the coffee when served.

A normal glass of tap water is called “Leistungswasser” and will never be served anywhere unless you explicitly ask for it. The water in Vienna is perfectly safe, tastes wonderful, and the Austrians won’t touch it. (they will also die if a breeze hits their face sitting in the street car or in an auto (all windows must be shut tight), but will revel in their health if they're standing on an Alp with a gale force wind in their face). About ice in drinks. You will receive 2-3 small cubes in a cold drink. They melt and are gone in a matter of minutes. If you need more ice, ask for "viele Eiswurfeln bitte (a lot of ice cubes please), do not ask for "Eis" If you ask for Eis, you'll get the ice cream menu (most Austrian restaurants will have an ice cream menu).

Intermezzo: a mokka with hot chocolate, creme de cacao, whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Kapuziner: black coffee with several drops of cream until its the color of a Kapuzin monks robes.
Melange: have black coffee half hot steamed milk
Verlängerter: When I lived in Austria, this is the coffee I ordered. It is the strong mokka cut with hot water and a little cream added.
Eiskaffee: coffee, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream.

Austrian Food Terms (different than the German words in parenthesis that you may already know)

Menu--Speisekarte. "Menü" is a daily set prix fixe offering, and usually a very good value and quite tasty.

Palatschinken—crepe or pancake (Pfannkuchen). These are ubiquitous in Austria and every restaurant will have some form of Palatschinken on the dessert menu. Usually stuffed with jam or ice cream, then annointed with chocolate syrup and the requisite whipped cream.

Erdapfel—potato (vs Kartoffel in German)

Schlag/Schlaobers. Obers is the liquid form (for coffee, for example)—Austrian Whipped Cream, which is everywhere (vs Sahne in German ). The Austrians are the heavyweight professionals of Whipped Cream and you will encounter it everywhere it even inspired the Austrian Baroque and Viennese ladies hair styles.

Champignon--mushrooms (Pilzen)

Fisolen—Green beans (Grüne Bohnen)

Faschiertes-ground beef (Hackfleisch)

Karfiol—cauliflower (Blumenkohl)

Kohlsprossen—Brussels sprouts (Blumenkohl)

Marillen—apricots (Aprikosen)

Paradeiser—tomatoes (Tomaten)

Topfen—soft white cheese, similar to cottage, farmer’s cheese (Quark)

Kren—horseradish (Meerrettich)

Scharf oder Süß?—sharp or sweet mustard. The wurst stand will ask which you prefer if they’re serving the mustard by saying "Scharf oder Süß?". And do try the wurst stands, they're everywhere, a great value for a quick and easy lunch or snack, and the food served is usually of very high quality.

Stiege—stairs (Treppe)

Samstag—Saturday (Sonnabend)

WC--(pron. VAY SAY). The Water closet, Loo, public toilet. Damen-for women, Herren-for men. There will be an attendant in the WC (there is usually a woman attendant inside the men's room) and they will expect a coin or two. Annoying, but on the other hand if they're doing their job, the WC will be sparkling clean. If it isn't, don't tip. Ignore the screams on your way out, just as they ignored your service.

 
interesting story about Gr

Grüß Gott...(Grooose Got) Which literally means "Greet God"

Multicultural awareness tip: ALWAYS reply with this greeting when you enter a shop and the shopkeeper says it to you. You are always greeted upon entering a Viennese shop and it is considered polite and proper form to respond in kind. If you don't (which many foreign tourists don't), you will be considered rude and sometimes be treated brusquely as a result.

I was talking with an elderly lady on the train when I was in college, this was many years ago when the WWII generation were still very much out and about. She talked about her father having a "Grüß Gott" shop which I didn't understand. She told me the Grüß Gott shops were the ones who still greeted their customers that way instead of with the preferred Heil "You Know Who". It was a small act of defiance when few were left that wouldn't get you thrown into the KZL.

Also, younger Austrians are now saying "Servus" instead of Grüß Gott these days, which they consider old, fusty, antiquated, and severely unhip.

And another Austrianism you'll encounter: Auf Wiederschauen (look at you again) instead of Auf Wiedersehen (see you again).

 
Translation of the food names in the post above

Frittatensuppe--rich boullion soup with thin crepes shredded for "noodles". Austrians eat a lot of soup and most daily menu offerings will feature a soup, usually a housemade boullion with something like this.

Tafelspitz--Viennese version of Pot de Feu, or your basic Sunday Boiled Beef Dinner with all the trimmings. Emperor Franz Josef's favorite meal. Long slow simmered beef with marrow bones served with sauces (green herb, horseradish, apple), usually served with potatoes and creamed spinach.

Backhendl--Viennese-style breaded fried chicken

Wiener Schnitzel--thin cutlet, breaded and fried. Formerly veal, but average restaurants use pork these days. Toppings are added for variations to the basic fried cutlet: Cordon Bleu-stuffed with emmentaler and ham before being breaded. Jägerschnitzel (hunter's)--topped with mushroom sauce. Holsteinerschnitzel--fried egg on top. Pariserschnitzel -breaded with flour and egg, no breadcrumbs. Naturschnitzel--no breading.
Zigeunerschnitzel--topped with tomatoes, onions, and pepper sauce
Usually served with pommes frites and a green salad.

Wiener Zwiebelrostbraten (Viennese Onion Roast Beef) slices of roast beef topped with cream sauce and a mound of crispy fried onions.

Rindgulasch mit Knödel--Beef Goulash with a dumpling. Goulash can be beef (rind) or pork (schwein) and served as an entree such as this with a dumpling, or served as soup. If it's served as soup, it will be listed as Gulashsuppe.

Leberkäse--lit. "Livercheese" which contains neither liver nor cheese. A cross between a cured meatloaf and cold cut, served hot by weight in slabs, a favorite snack from a buffet.

Knödel--Dumpling. Austria is the land of the dumpling and they are available sweet and savory in many forms, stuffed, sauced, sliced and fried, etc. Some forms: knödel with a meat dish will usually be a bread dumpling (made out of the breakfast rolls calls Semmeln, i.e. Semmelknödel). If it's not bread, it will say so, "Erdapfelknödel" is a potato dumpling (my favorite).
Marillenknödel: whole apricot, filled with sugar, wrapped in dough, poached, served with butter and sugar. Can also be made with plums (Pflaummenknödel).
Dampfknödel--Dumplings steam-baked in a covered pan with butter, milk, and sugar until the liquid is absorbed and the bottom is carmelized and browned, served with vanilla sauce.
Topfenknödel--dessert cheese dumplings


Apfelstrudel--self explanatory

Mohr im Hemd--(a Moor (the steamed pudding) in a shirt (the whipped cream). A steamed chocolate pudding with chocolate syrup, and what else?, whipped cream. Prepared to order so takes a little while to get this.

Palatschinken--crepes with jam or icecream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream.

Kaiserschmarren--sweet omelette served with compote. Revered in Austria (Emperor Franz'ls favorite dessert). Also individually prepared to order, so a bit more expensive and takes longer.

Gugelhupf--a rich, buttery, yeast raised cake studded with golden raisin (Old Franz Josef's usual breakfast) and dusted with powdered sugar. Made in a gugelhupf pan that looks similar to a bundt pan (it's supposed to be a Turkish turban, a leftover from Austria being the victor in the Turkish wars 500 years ago). Every coffee house will offer a gugelhupf along with the torte selections for your afternoon coffee break. Variations: Marmor: Marbelized with a chocolate batter swirled in. Regular Gugelhupf can also be coated with chocolate glaze.

Pork: Schweinsbraten is classic--a slab of roasted pork with the crispy crackling skin, potato or bread dumpling, and sauerkraut. Add bier and oink.
Stelze--(this is called Schweinshax'n over the border in Bavaria). This is something to order at the beer garden in the Prater. A giant crispy on the outside, juicy and succulent on the inside, pork knuckle, usually spit-roasted and served on a wooden board with a knife stuck in it. They're huge and we always share one. But this is a real treat.

 
I miss the heyday of Gourmet magazine. It was the first food magazine to which I subscribed -

initially just for the pictures...LOL. Then I decided I should try making some of them.

That, along with Julia's The Way To Cook, was my introduction to the world of making my own good food.

 
Indeed--like "Bonjour" and "Merci, au revoir" in France. (Pardon the threadjack!)

Likewise, "Dobry den" and "Na shledanou" in the Czech Republic. To a large degree, I think this is just a sign of good manners no matter where you go. But shopkeepers under 30 in New York look at me oddly when I say "Thank you" and "Goodbye" if I'm leaving a store without buying anything, but my mother drummed it into me, so I can't help it!

My Austrian uncle-in-law (RIP--died far too early, a few years ago) explained to me about "Gruss Gott," the first time I visited them in Krems. I think his translation was "All hail the gods," which I found enormously entertaining and operatic, and told him so. So for about a week, we would bellow "Gruss Gott" at each other when entering a room (at home only--my aunt-in-law and Jakub both would have given us withering looks if we'd tried it in public). smileys/smile.gif

 
I love this book. Anna, if you follow the link...

and click on "look inside," near the end of the display pages you will find a list of all the recommended coffee houses in downtown Vienna (the inner-city contained within the Ringstrasse where most of the sites you will be visiting are located, as well as your hotel), with a detailed description of the ambiance, stand-out menu items, address, and nearest transit stop. A valuable list to print out and take with you!

 
Another tip: tickets for performing arts

If you're wanting to go to any of the "big" performing organizations in Vienna (Philharmonic, State Opera, Choir Boys, Lipizzaners, etc.), you'll need to purchase tickets well in advance as the performances are nearly always sold out long before they take place. With the internet, this is very easy. You can purchase and print your tickets at home for most of the major performing organizations, even some museums. Since you'll be visiting in the fall, all of these groups will be back up and running after their summer vacations.

 
I just picked up a reserved copy of Vienna Cookbook, published by Gourmet!

The Old Vienna Cookbook is a FAT book, in all ways. I'm going to sit right down and read the whole thing, bookmarks in hand! Love, love, love the public library which brought it to me for free from Sacramento to La Mesa CA! Also waiting for Rodger's Kaffeehaus book to arrive soon too.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top