Vienna, Austria 5: Prinz Ferdinand
We had a wonderful Austrian lunch with my old Austrian friend at a restaurant called Prinz Ferdinand. He choose the restaurant that was located outside of Innere Stadt, Vienna’s old town. We dined as if we were locals. There wasn't any tourists or a menu written in English!
One of dishes we shared was a traditional Austrian dish, Wiener Schnitzel. We also had cooked beef, served with potato, apple-horseradish sauce and creamy chive sauce, which looked and tasted like Tafelspitz that we had a day before. Both were pretty good! There was ravioli with asparagus, too, which I missed taking a photo. That was also tasty.
My friend picked a couple of Austrian desserts for us. One was Topfenknödel, curd cheese dumplings, served with berry sauce. I loved them! It is said that the dessert originally came from Bohemia but quickly became a solid part of the Viennese cuisine. I would LOVE to make them by myself. My friend told us that the cheese used for the dumplings was Quark. I hope I can find the kind of fresh cheese in the UK.
The other dessert was Palatschinke, the Austrian version of pancakes, filled with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce (Vanilleeis und Schokosauce). The pancakes were very similar to French classic crêpes while Palatschinke apparently originated from Romania. It was delicious, too!
My Austrian friend kindly introduced a popular Austrian fizzy soda drink, Almdudler to us. It was supposed to be flavored with herbs. I thought it tasted like an elderflower soda drink. When I came back home, I looked up Almdudler online. According to A Taste of Austria, the drink has been around since 1957 and now has become Austria’s national drink. "The original beverage is a sweetened drink made out of grape and apple juice concentrates and is flavored with 32 natural herbs. To some extent its taste can be compared to the taste of Ginger Ale but with a fruitier and sweeter flavor." I didn't think it was close to Ginger Ale, though. Anyway, I liked it.
Our table was in the garden space in front of the restaurant building. It was another beautiful sunny day to dine outside. The outside seatings were nicely shaded with parasols. There were only a few other customers. I didn't notice any car or people traffic around the garden space. The place seemed like a relatively quiet neighborhood. We enjoyed a nice conversations over the delicious dishes.
The delicious lunch gave us lots of energy (and calories)! We did an extensive city tour - viewing Hundertwasserhaus, an organic, colorful apartment designed by combining nature and architecture; riding the Wiener Riesenrad (Viennese Giant Ferris Wheel) in Prater, the oldest amusement park in the world; walking around the oldest part in the Old City. We had a great time and I got a suntan!
To be continued...
