Approximation Cooking

Because food is such an integral part of culture and community, the answer to the question "what's for dinner?" can be quite different around the world.  Since most of my home cooking is just for myself, I can easily adapt my meals to fit ingredients here and my personal preferences.  Usually, since my kitchen is so small, and cooking for one still can seem like a bit of an energy waster, my meals are really simple, and I tend to rotate the same three things around until I get sick enough of one to replace it with something else.  I do have amazing culinary experiences here though for sure, eating out with friends at various restaurants, or enjoying home cooking in slightly larger apartments usually from countries quite different from my own.

This is all fine and good until I am responsible for cooking for a group of people, which happens with my young adults group from church here every other week.  While living in New York a group of us got together weekly for dinners, so we all had a pretty good size catalog of recipes we knew we could whip up quickly for 6-8 people, and if not, finding a new recipe was fairly easy and fun.  Here though, I end up trying to make what we now call our "Austrian Approximation Dinners", where I generally take a recipe I already know from back home and try my best to find enough approximate ingredients to make it work.  Quite a few of the people in this group are also American, so for some of us this is our opportunity to have a bit of a taste of home that we might not otherwise get (there have been imported McCormick taco seasoning packets involved on several occasions).

This past Wednesday I tried my best to recreate a recipe we make at home that I thought could be fairly well approximated here...should involve spicy sausage and pico de gallo...but bratwurst and tomatoes worked just fine.  The shopping process for this takes me forever...finding the right spices, deciding what can be substituted and what is really necessary.

Shiri and Maya chopping sweet potatoes

Ruth expertly overseeing the polenta

And the final product...creamy polenta on the bottom...a hash of sweet potatoes, cabbage and onions with some bratwurst pieces, then fresh avocado, tomato and cilantro on top.

And everybody enjoyed it!

I do have a friend who has kindly offered to teach me how to cook some good Austrian staples, and hopefully then I will be able to start using some of these delicious local ingredients for their actual intended purpose.  For now though, I do love having the opportunity to cook for a group even if it's just a few times a month, and approximate this taste of home abroad!

My Night at the Ball

Winter and spring in Vienna is definitely synonymous with Ball Season here, all sorts of groups, some based on profession, some based on interest, and various other groupings seem to have their own unique ball.  My friend Ruth works at the UN, and in anticipation of their Spring Ball, several of her co-workers decided to get a table, and had an extra space, so I was offered a spot, which I of course took!  So this past Saturday evening we got all dressed up and headed to the Hofburg for a fancy night out.

The Hofburg, really it's a large palace complex downtown, this is just one wing of it.

Ruth and me on the entrance steps

The ballroom.  Not the largest of the ballrooms within the Hofburg, but this was the main room for this event (it did also spread out into other rooms nearby)

The dancers from a dance school here in Vienna, ready to open the Ball with a waltz.

In the jazzier portion of the evening, we had Andrew Young with his saxophone and his band...made for an interesting range of music throughout the night.

The Bratislava Metropolitan Orchestra providing some good Strauss music to begin the evening (Frühlingsstimmen of course)

Such a gorgeous space

And now for the waltzing to begin...

And now everybody can waltz!

Just so nobody gets the wrong idea that it's all waltzing and highbrow orchestra music all night, here are some pictures from the midnight show...with various tap, jazz and hip hop routines by the dance school kids.

Lots of dancing!

The whole night was super fun.  We had a great time listening to music and dancing and just enjoying the overall experience.  It's hard to capture photos of a lot of these things, but it really does come down to the experience as a whole rather than what individual images or even videos can illustrate.  I definitely need to brush up a bit on my ballroom dancing skills, but I look forward to whatever other Balls I am able to attend during my time here!

The Little Guide in my Ear

Shortly after I moved here last year, I downloaded two walking tours of Vienna through my mom's library back in Virginia.  I think I did the first one during Easter break last year, and then somehow had never gotten around to doing the second one.  This second one was entitled "The Old City" and pretty much goes around in the first district to places I go all the time, so I didn't really feel the need to rush into listening to it.  Early last week we had our first real hint of spring weather, and a gorgeous sunny clear day, so I decided I'd work the walking tour into the errands I had to run, having it playing on my ipod and then pausing it when I passed somewhere I actually needed to go.  

As suspected, it didn't really go anywhere I haven't been, or haven't taken pictures of and put on here...but I'm certainly not tired of these places yet...and there were a few new stories to add. (as a bit of a disclaimer...some of these little trivia tidbits are from the travel writer who does these tours and I did not go back and check his word against anyone else's...)

The tour began at the Staatsoper, built in 1869, one of the first big buildings on the Ring.  I don't actually have many pictures of the Opera in the daytime, since I'm sort of obsessed with the way it is lit at night...no shortage of those pictures... 

The Maltese Church.  I actually pass this at least weekly if not more and had never really paid great attention to what it was.  It was originally founded by the Knights of Malta in the early 13th century while they were helping fight off the Ottoman Turks (and would for the next 350 years). 

The Franciscan Church.  Built between 1603 and 1611, also contains the oldest organ in Vienna.

One of Mozart's apartments in Vienna, this is now the Mozart Museum here, which I still have yet to go inside. 

Stephansdom

This building was actually built in the end of the 19th century, but the towers are representative of the medieval building that once stood here, which was a large Inn that accommodated merchants coming to trade in Vienna.

The Jesuit Church. Which I have been inside and I think posted about...built in the middle of the 17th Century, although the front decorations were added slowly over the next hundred years or so.  

Apparently the house where The Basilisk was discovered in a well in 1212.  The monster then saw its reflection in a mirror and turned to stone.

I'm all for descriptive street names...this is a replica of the original "pretty lamps" on Schönlaterngasse (literally pretty lamp lane)

This is one place I had not actually been...since it's now a parking lot hidden behind several buildings...but this was originally a marketplace for monks in the Middle Ages to sell produce, and was used as a marketplace for centuries.  It is now mostly residential, although there is still a small church on the side here as well.

Judengasse...the old Jewish Quarter...although now this is mostly an area of bars and restaurants.

Ruprechtskirche. I have an entire post dedicated to the inside and outside of this church... 

Hoher Markt.  Another place I pass through often, although there are Roman ruins in this square that I haven't actually taken the time to go see.  This was the center of the Roman settlement that was in Vienna.  It has had a bit of a varied history since then...gathering place for Dark Age warlords, and then a fishmarket, gallows, and home for the mentally ill during the Middle Ages.  Yet another reminder of just how long people have been walking these same streets, it's almost too amazing to fully grasp. 

Peterskirche. Again...pictures of the inside in another post...long night of the churches I believe.

Am Hof.  I cross through here several times a week it seems, and throughout the year it is home to a Christmas Market and as well as various festivals.  It is the largest and oldest square in Vienna and has been the location of centuries of hangings, joustings and festivals.    

The Church Am Hof. The end of the Holy Roman Empire was declared on this balcony in 1806 by Emperor Franz I of Austria.

Judenplatz. This large monument is the memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust. 

That brought us to the end of that little tour.  Overall the tours are quite interesting, although some of the pronunciations of places in German are a bit cringe worthy even for me...but really any excuse to wander around town is fine by me.

And now it's back to school and reading and classes and all that.  Although considering this was the view from school while having coffee with a friend last week, I'm certainly not complaining.  We got another bit of snow yesterday and it's definitely windy and cold today, but hopefully real spring is coming soon and will actually stick around this time. 

Late Winter in the Vineyards

Now that the weather is getting slightly warmer (although they're now forecasting snow for next week...) it's nice to be able to be outside a bit more than just trudging around in the snow, as beautiful as that is.  Thankfully along with this warmer weather the sun stays up a bit later, making the days already seem so much longer and less hurried.

I absolutely love the paths through the vineyards on Kahlenberg, and hadn't been walking through there since last November before the days got impossibly short and all the ice and snow came.  There's definitely still some snow up there, especially in the wooded parts at the top of the hill, but the major paths are clear. 

It's a bit deserted since the actual vineyards (and Heurigen) aren't open to the public yet, but there were a handful of people up there enjoying the bit of sunshine.  I still just can't quite get over how beautiful it is up there, and how the light and the view changes constantly as you work your way down.  

I could sit on these benches for hours...well...except now it's still a bit cold...but soon!

There were several little rainbow strips in the sky

Looking over towards Leopoldsberg

Pretty soon we'll be back up here enjoying our wine on nice warm evenings...I cannot wait.

I loved winter, and all the snow...much to some of my friends' annoyance I think :) But now you can really feel the change in the seasons in the air around here, heavy down coats being traded out for light spring jackets, people eating at tables on the sidewalks in the sunshine, everyone seeming to be in slightly less of a hurry to run to their next indoor destination.  It's back to school time for me...I have a large stack of paper on my desk and plenty of reading to do before classes start up next week.  With the spring and back to school also comes lots of fun things on the calendar, so I'm more than ready for it! 

Klosterneuburg

As this lovely semester break winds down into its last week (seriously though this thing has been going forever...) some friends also had a break from their studies, and we decided to take a quick day trip to Klosterneuburg on what promised to be the nicest weather day last week.  The forecast was for warmer and sunny...and we got cold and cloudy...but we decided to go and just do the indoor activities and it turned out to be a really awesome day.  Klosterneuburg is a town just over the other side of Kahlenberg from Vienna.  Any day that it is clear you can see down that side of the mountain from the parking lot at school, but none of us had ever actually been down there. 

The town itself is adorable, and will definitely warrant another trip back soon, but we had decided to go to the monastery that's there (founded in 1114) and take several of the tours they offered.  Wandering around town will have to wait for the warmer weather.

Impressive lobby.

This is definitely their off season, there were only a handful of people there all day, and the tours are offered at very limited times, some only once.  And while during the summer months several tours are offered as individual with an audio guide, the majority in the winter are led by a curator...only in German.  Based on our schedule (and attention span), we did 3 tours, one through the treasury which was audio-guided, one through the "imperial" section of the monastery (as opposed to the sacred), and one down into the wine cellar.  

The treasury tour...very cool boxes and tapestries and items used in services from the middle ages onward.

They had a room entirely dedicated to vestments, these were from the early 1900s and were actually the result of a design competition in Vienna, and then completed by some textile students here.

Another room held more treasures in these large wooden cabinets built in 1677.

Again with skulls being seen as treasures.  These were the heads of 11 virgins who traveled with a saint and then were killed, and some nuns took the skulls and wrapped them and put these jewels and things on them. Still totally grosses me out.

The archbishop's hat, the "holy crown" of Austria, from 1616.

Our next stop was the guided Imperial Tour.  Our guide was super knowledgeable about all things history and art and architecture, but he sort of spoke like a graduate level textbook, and only in German.  I tried very hard to follow much of what he was saying, but sadly I don't really have many fun anecdotes to relay...so we'll go with a few pictures.

 The Babenberger Stammbaum (family tree), painted about 1490 and depicts all the male Babenbergs (ruling family prior to the Habsburgs) in various scenes, with all of their wives painted on the two side panels.  

Our final stop of the afternoon was the wine tour, and we were lucky enough for this one to be a private tour for the 3 of us.  While it was still in German, the woman leading it explained everything in a way that wasn't difficult for us to follow completely, and not feel at all self-conscious about asking questions in our less than perfect German.  Klosterneuburg is the oldest winery in Austria (900 years) and is also one of the largest. 

A neat display showing all the different areas that they grow their grapes, and what types of wine come from these various soil and climate types.  This is showing the soil and wine that comes from Kahlenberg. 

We also got to see the now fully automated machines for filling bottles.

Of course Franz Joseph and Sisi showed up too...

Our happy crew.  We're now 2 stories down below the monastery. 

The wine being stored in giant barrels

And up the winding staircase to see the pressing room

This is the press for white wine, the red wine is handled in a separate room

Then we took a short walk outside and over to their wine shop.

The tour finishes with a quick tasting of a few types of wine, and of course the opportunity to pick up a few bottles :)

At this point it had been a pretty long day, and we hadn't had a proper lunch, so we asked our helpful guide where we might go to have some local wine and food before heading back to Vienna, so we popped into this little wine tavern for some food.

We just ordered a platter of meat and cheeses and bread and were certainly not disappointed. Very delicious. 

Then...the meal ended with hands down the best apple strudel I've ever had.  This is one piece, which we had the idea to share...and even then thought it was rather large and we might have trouble finishing.  I've had some good apple strudel in the past, and probably not nearly enough homemade, but oh gosh...this was incredibly fresh, with a gooey cinnamon sauce, and perfect pastry.  Definitely not too sweet, and as we're eating it we see the woman continuing to slice apples for more strudel.  We will definitely be going back...it's worth the 20 minute drive for this dessert alone.  Wow.