The Viennese dishes have always been influenced by the gastronomic culture of numerous countries also submitted to the Austro-Hungarian empire like Hungry, Bohemia, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia and many others; Each of them with its own recipes, enlarged Viennese culinary tradition which absorbed new interesting things.
Wine culture also plays an important role in the Austrian tradition.
Vienna alone counts 630 wine manufacturers. The best way to know more about the Austrian winery culture is to go deep into a Heurigen.
Situated mostly in suburbs, the Heurigen are also known as Buschenschanken. They are a kind of restaurant or pubs very particular where, at low costs, you may enjoy typical Viennese meals with a good wine, exclusively Austrian. The stewards wear traditional clothes.
We can’t forget the famous Grüner Veltliner, the more diffused wine in Austria.
Caracteristic Viennese meals:
Here are some traditional dishes…
Wiener Schnitzel: it’s a classic viennese cutlet, appreciated also by the children.
Gulasch: it’s a soup of calf meat, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes. Even if it’s a Hungarian dish, now it’s part of the Viennese tradition.
Spatzle: made of small or long gnocchi, it’s an Austrian classical.
Tafelsplitz: also from Hungry, it’s considered like a must in Austria. They said that it was the preferred dish of the emperor Francis Joseph I.
Apfelstrudel is the apple strudel eaten hot with vanilla or whipped cream. It’s a wonder!
And the unforgettable Sacher Cake, the famous chocolate cake.
Café Sacher :
Exactly in front of the Staatsoper, in the old city of Vienna, we can find the Sacher Hotel where the homonym Café Sacher allows us to taste the original and mythic cake while enjoying the typical Viennese atmosphere. Famous meeting point, it’s a must see in Vienna.
Be patient there because the entrance row is very long.
The local is extremely soft and peculiar. The stewards are in uniform and they are kind from the beginning of your permanence there till the end. We breathe the Imperial Vienna.
The Sacher cake can be defined like Original only from Cafe Sacher, after a decision taken in 1962 which end the discord between competitors. Through the pages of the menu, you will find the story behind this cake, famous all over the world.
In 1832, the chief in charge to serve the Prince Matternich got sick when he was supposed to receive VIP guests. So the task to bake a suit cake was assigned to the second chief, Franz Sacher. That’s how is baked the Sacher Cake: its taste conquered the entire Europe and also the globe.
Even the empress Elisabeth could resist to it!
To go into this typical Café where you could enjoy the Viennese taste, the waiting is worthy.