I began my second morning in Vienna with a visit to the famous Café Central, an opulent room lined with rows of cream-colored pillars supporting an elegant vaulted ceiling. After perusing the dessert offerings on display, I seated myself at a small, round table of reddish marble and ordered a slice of chocolate marble kugelhopf. This Bundt cake was practically identical to the one I had baked at home from the cookbook Dulcis in Fundo.
After a little more exploring, I happened upon a tiny sandwich shop just off the Graben: the century-old Buffet Trzesniewski. Behind the glass counter were close to twenty different varieties of finger sandwiches, most prepared with egg salad and various toppings. I chose three: egg with shrimp, egg with bacon, and egg with smoked herring and pickles.
Next, I headed to the Spanish Riding School to see the morning training of the Lipizzaner stallions. I had read that the line to get into this free event, which lasted from 10:00am to noon, would start forming at the early hour of 8:30am. Not wanting to spend all morning waiting in line, I heeded my guidebook’s advice to arrive late, as most people would be coming and going, not staying for the full two hours. Even though it took a few minutes to locate an available seat, I finally found a spot on the uppermost level, where I sat to watch the horses prance around to the rousing melodies of Mozart and Strauss.
I left before the practice session was over and walked to the outdoor market called the Naschmarkt, where I marveled at the vast array of food items for sale. I soon noticed that much of it was either Greek or Middle Eastern in origin—loads of olives, feta, hummus, and baklava. I also found a cheese market selling small tubs of liptauer, one of the Austro-Hungarian specialties on my list to scope out. Unlike the white liptauer I had eaten in Trieste, this one was pinkish orange from the addition of paprika. I balked at spending the money on a full container when all I wanted was just a taste, but I did get a look at the list of ingredients for future reference.
While at the Naschmarkt, I experienced the first inauspicious incident of my trip. I had pulled out my husband’s point-and-shoot digital camera to take some photos of a display of bright orange and green gourds when the camera suddenly started to malfunction. Each time I pressed the button to turn it on, the power would instantly shut down again. The battery was fully charged, but the power would not remain on. Finally, it stayed on long enough to snap a couple shots, but the camera would continue to prove troublesome for the remainder of my trip. By the end of my five weeks, the display screen would start going black as well. At least I had my trusty old Pentax SLR film camera, which I still used for most of my outdoor shots.
On my way back to Hotel Austria, I paid a quick visit to the enormous baroque Karlskirche (St. Charles’s Church). I also stopped in at the bakery and café Gerstner, where I bought two pieces of strudel to take on the hydrofoil the next day—in case I got hungry on my way to Hungary. One was filled with apple and the other with topfen (also called quark, a cheese similar to fromage blanc).
Back in my room, exhausted from my lingering jet lag as well as from the day’s long walk, I napped for a couple of hours before dinner. At around 6:00pm, I reluctantly ventured out again. Not being able to muster enough energy to scope out just the perfect place, I settled on the convenience of Café Vienne, adjacent to my hotel. When I arrived, the restaurant was nearly empty, but it soon started to fill with patrons. Not seeing any of my “to-try list” dishes on the menu, I ordered the salmon with spinach and potatoes. The fish was pan-fried in a light coating of flour and served with a creamy sauce flavored with white wine and thyme. The spinach was garlicky, though not particularly memorable. The real star of the plate was the rösti, a savory, crisp potato cake. I had planned on staying to order the palatschinke (crêpe) for dessert, but as the restaurant had no non-smoking section—and it was becoming increasingly more difficult to breathe—I was rather anxious to leave. The palatschinke would have to wait until another time.
