Lately, my love for Naschmarket, the fresh food market 2 minutes away from my dorm, has been intensifying. There is a lovely tea stand where I found apricot tea and bought quite a large bag of 100 grams for about 3 euros. The cucumbers and tomatoes at any stand far surpass those in the supermarkets. Then there are stand after stand of assortments of olives, mozzarellas and everything under the sun stuffed with goat cheese and herbs. Then finally last week, I noticed that one such stand had balls of buffalo mozzarella. If you've never had buffalo mozzarella, get your butt to Southern Italy stat and have it as an appetizer with prosciutto. It will be one of the best decisions you ever make. You can now imagine my utter joy at this discovery.
This morning I had another life changing food experience. Going out in Austria and most of Europe differs from the scene I know back home in that people don't go to clubs until midnight earliest. They then drink more there and dance until the place closes, usually around 4 or 4:30. I find that discomfort the following day generally results more from just lack of sleep versus alcohol consumption.
Today would definitely fall into that realm, as I hit the pillow at 6:45 AM and woke up at 10:30.
I needed to go to Naschmarkt to get buffalo mozzarella, and wondering around all the possibilities, I felt drawn to the falafel stand for my brunch. It was like a wrap with first a huge glob of hummus, three different kinds of lettuce, three falafel balls in a row down the middle, yogurt sauce, other random stuff, and finally a thin line of scharf sauce (hot red sauce). It was so spicy my eyes watered and I think it steam cleaned the fuzzy feeling from my head.
Unfortunately, the headacheyness returned about an hour later, but I still might make it a ritual beakfast/lunch plan after a late night (one could also say early morning?) out with crazy austrians.
ALSO. It's so unbelievably nice out today (feels like april) that the flea market at Naschmarkt was happening and it was my greatest success: awesome leatherbound, gold paged german bible, luther's translation 15 euro, pair of earrings that look like long green bunches of grapes 3 euro, a unique cup the size of double espresso for my new espresso maker 2 euro.
AND NOW I have a three hour piano composers class and then I get to be a princess, wear a beautiful gown, and attend my first Viennese ball in the Imperial Palace!
Ah, the "Food Issue". Nothing like fresh buffalo mozzarella and an assortment of meat, olives or ripe tomato with fresh basil! It's also good to see how other people eat - Americans are SO predictable with meat and potatoes and fast food. Things are better now in the US of course, foodwise. Locavores unite and demand the splendor of our surroundings! James, Nancy and I grew up in a time and place that never saw golden beets, avocados, wild mushrooms, etc. We had "scratch" cooking which was WAY better than most homes and always tasty. The variety available today is unbelieveable. The best part is that it is coming full circle back to the local farm markets and stalls and away from the supermarket. We have a new place "Ploughboy" just across the street from Safeway in our little town of 5,000. It is doing a land office business in anything that is grown or raised within 100 miles. It also includes locally made artsian breads and nice cheeses. Things are looking up! If more people like you experience what it can be like in Europe's food system, then demand it back at home, there's hope.
ReplyDeleteGlad that Act II of your adventure is off to a great start. Merell and PJ