Cuisine of Vienna

The culinary specialties of Vienna maintain a strong identity amidst highly popular Austrian cuisine.  Perhaps, it is the only cuisine in the world named for a city and not a country. The famous adage "Liebe geht durch den Magen" means ‘The best way to reach a man's heart is through his stomach' in English comes from Vienna.

The countries that have influenced Viennese cuisine over the centuries the Habsburg Empire, Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, Hungary and parts of today's Germany, Italy, Croatia, Ukraine, the Netherlands and Spain has been the part of the Austrian Empire at some point of time or other. Not just that, many world cuisines have also been inspired by Viennese gourmet food.

Originally, there was a tradition of consuming five repasts every day. However, in present times, the meal is divided into two breakfasts, heavy lunch, coffee break and a very light dinner. The first breakfast usually consisted of coffee and Kipferl, a roll. The second breakfast called Gabelfrühstück consists of Frankfurter Würstel, hot dogs with Viennese Kaisersemmel, a small goulash or an open-faced sandwich.

Lunch is the main meal of the day comprising of 3 courses. It begins with Leberknödelsuppe, clear beef consommé poured over liver dumplings; Fritattensuppe, julienned pancakes or Griesnockerlsuppe, farina dumplings, followed by Backhendl, fried chicken; Tafelspitz, boiled beef or Girardirostbraten, braised beef à la Girardi, accompanied by a vegetable and potatoes, dumplings or rice.

Traditionally, jause or the coffee break is an integral part of Viennese afternoons. It is a ritual where many delicious Viennese pastries such as Guglhupf, strudel or Sachertorte fruit tart often with whipped cream toping is served with coffee. Due to busy routine of modern days, the coffee break has been limited only to weekends and holidays.

Dinner usually comprises of light meal of cold cuts and breads because of lavish lunch. However, dinner is not complete without the warm desserts, such as Kaiserschmarrn, Emperor's Trifle or apricot dumplings.

Cuisine of Vienna offers innumerable choices and can be relished at variety of places ranging from Würstelstände, typical hot-dog stand to Viennese beisls, somewhat similar to English pub or French bistro. The best places to enjoy authentic culinary style of Vienna are Viennese Heurigens. Not to be missed are the Viennese coffeehouses that serve superb food.

It comes as no surprise to know that Viennese cuisine dedicate a huge space to desserts including pastries, cakes, cookies, strudels and other sweets. The vital aspect of Viennese sweets is that they are not too sweet but are tempting enough.  The dessert in Vienna is known as Mehlspeisen meaning ‘meals made from flour'. However, the ingredients used in Viennese desserts include ground nuts, poppy-seeds, puréed chestnuts, whipped cream, fruit, butter, eggs, rum, jam and chocolate. The variety in desserts offers warm as well as cold dishes. The warm desserts include Apfelstrudel, paper-thin apple pastry; Topfenstrudel, sweet cream cheese strudel and Milchrahmstrudel, milk-cream strudel baked in a casserole.

One of the most important dessert of Vienna is the Sweet Viennese Knödel, fruit-filled dumplings, prepared with a dough made either from potatoes or farmer's cheese and lavishly covered with melted butter and either bread-crumbs or poppy-seeds. Other hugely popular desserts of Vienna are Pancakes, in various flavors; Sachertorte, chocolate cake; Metternichtorte; Elisabethtorte; Stephanietorte and Faschingskrapfen. Guglhupf is highly popular coffee cake made of similar to a pound-cake in consistency and is baked in a fluted ring form.

By: Shuchita Bist
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