How can this be that Sachertorte and Schnitzel are banned?
However this is certainly the case with Vienna food guide Lukas Hittinger.
At the relatively young age of 25, Lukas has carved out a promising new tourism sector business that looks like he is onto a winning menu.
The four-hour experience he offers does give a very useful insight into some of the key foods and drinks of the city. Looked at more from a local’s prospective rather than from that of a tourist.
Which is why two of Vienna’s most well known foods have been left off his particular walking tour menu.
At around 9,000 to 10,000 foot steps for the tour plus sampling some excellent foods clients will at least burn off a number of those calories as he navigates them mainly around the Inner Stadt or 1st District of Vienna.
Starting at one of my favorite cafes in the city which full of old fashioned Viennese style and is located near to one of the main shopping streets. Here their unique torte is the first nibble of the day, along with a drink of your choice but a café mélange is more typical for the city.
Next a stroll not to far to the market where the Viennese head to themselves for many of the fresh ingredients they require each day. This was a stop at a cheese stall where a selection was chosen by Lukas for use all to try.
Bergkase from the Tirol was the top choice for us eight members of the group with the sheep’s cheese a very Camembert like and a soft buffalo cheese almost like a Brie both running close as well.
Next door to where a taste and a background talk about the locally produced vinegars and oils was explained. A raspberry concentrate went down particularly well.
Another short walk past one of Vienna’s iconic buildings and art gallery had us all very shortly standing in line to sample the hot food snack of choice the ‘Kasekrainer’, a cheese sausage, which really should be washed down with a local beer. So we did!
It still being before noon and pretty cold it was never the less a treat although my own total indifference to the horseradish as it is nearly always served with never passes my lips!
Thinking the drinking was now behind us for a while, our next destination was a beer and wine Keller with its connections to a local monastery. Here Lukas’s contacts must have been pretty amazing as he unlocked the premises and ushered us inside to the cosy expansive underground cellar. With permission I guess?
He selected a series of local wines straight from behind the bar where three generous portions were poured out for us all to taste. With two whites and one red consumed I left feeling rather uplifted by the session with again with some interesting explanations about their provenance from our convivial host.
Buzzing from the wine and with our next stop a chocolatier some of the female members of our party were even more of a buzz as we entered the delicious smelling shop in a well-known passage in this 1st district.
Walking through and past a historical and ancient area of the city we were quickly then being warmed by the freshly baked bread and ovens in the cosy shop that on that chilly day were most welcome.
After a brief tasting session of these local mainly rye breads we then took our group’s choices to a small independent butchers shop where a specially cooked local ham was waiting. Two weeks of curing, 12 hours smoking and 12 hours cooking along with a sample of meats were sliced in the tiny shop. Eating by and on the ancient city walls was our last stop and tasting session, the sampled meats were eaten with the bread chosen at that earlier stop.
Our local food knowledge enlightened we headed off in different directions having all gained a little weight and an insight, thanks to the young enterprising Lukas, into some of the foods that helped to make the city of Vienna such tasty place to visit.
With not the smell of a Sachertorte or the taste of a Schnitzel!
www.foodtoursvienna.com
Source for all images and article – Thanks to Geoff Moore :: Travel photographer, writer and blogger Geoff Moore has been a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers for 10 years and has traveled the world for over 30 years.
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