Well, summer is over I guess. It's raining, it's getting dark earlier every day, temperature is dropping... I guess I don't have any more excuses left NOT to blog about my food adventures anymore... Yay! :)

I am working on my July Holiday Food "Report", stay tuned for more yummy details (aka USA Food Adventure 2014)!

The recently re-opened Cafe Heuer (former Kunsthallencafe am Karlsplatz) has the most interesting french toast I have ever tasted - with apple purree and bacon. Yes, bacon! It is surprisingly the best french toast I ever had!

I really love the interior design of the new cafe, and also the new menu which includes vegan choices and the mentioned french toast. 

Sometimes my phone decides that it's time to mock me and an alarm pops up: "memory storage full". Usually that happens at the most unconvonient times ever - asking somebody to take a picture for example and they just stare at the phone, not knowning what to do. Me standing there, my face cramped from holding the same face expression too long. And then the worst thing - deleting photos under pressure, which sounds a bit like this: "Is it working now?? Just delete something." - "Oh right. Like you would know immediately which photos to delete! Oh, crap! I think I just deleted the cute selfie/portrait/food/bunny pictures that I haven't saved on my computer yet. Nooooooooo."

Well, and one day (it was yesterday, to be honest) that happened again and I also had the chance (or more like - no choice!) to scroll through old pics. And do you know what immediately came to my mind? No, it wasn't "I should definitely stop taking so much photos of my food" nor "Well, most of my bunny pictures are blurry, grey, somethings...Cookie! Muffin! You have to learn to stand still when I am taking pictures of you!" What I immediately realised was that I had a lot of burger photos. It seemed like there are a lot of interesting (new) places to enjoy a burger! Here are some of my latest adventures:

It is not a secret that I love love love breakfast. I am delighted to introduce you to my latest visit at a newly (or not so newly acutually, my visit is already a couple of weeks ago) opened bakery/cafe/restaurant at Landstraße Haupstraße. The 3rd district seems to be a very popular with bakeries and breakfast cafes... Not that I mind, of course. :)

The downside of visiting a recently opened place is that it is always filled with hungry people. It is not only difficult to get a table without a reservation, it is also not that easy to get a table on your own and without eating from your neighbour's plate. We were sitting really really close to other people. How close? So close that we hear their conversation and (almost) eat from their plate (which - of course - I could resist. It was not easy.) Buuuuut - it is worth the visit - I had the best croissant ever and I loved their variety of breakfast choices.

Break? What break? I don't know what you are talking about. Kidding! 

Sorry for the long silence. It didn't mean that I haven't had the chance to visit any great restaurants during this weeks, I just didn't find the time to write anything down. Okay, maybe thats not entirely true, maybe I had the time, but simply was too lazy. Anyway... I have the perfect recommendation for you - not for Vienna, but for Berlin! (Don't worry. I didn't move there. I went to Berlin just for a weekend (it was actually my birthday that weekend which means I had the perfect excuse to eat as much as I wanted and also had cake. Cheesecake. More than one piece. Hrhr.)

Look here:

What kind of pictures come to your mind when you think about Greece or about Greek Food? I only have positive associations - my first vacation with my boyfriend was 2 years ago and we decided to spend two weeks in Greece. We started in Athens where we rented a car and decided to head up North to Meteora and later on to Levkada and Zakynthos. We spend two weeks doing nothing but relaxing, eating, swimming, roadtripping and I think I fell in love - with Suvlaki, Gyros, Fish, Greek salad, Kalamata Olives, Pita bread, Moussaka, Tzatziki, dried herbs and of course the mountains! Meteora was my favourite place. It was peaceful and silent and I just loved to be surrounded by fascinating mountains - it was an awesome time and I really would like to go back and spend a couple more days there.

Breathtaking, isn't it? And yes, the photos were taken by me (and/or my bf) and no, we didn't use any filters.

There is no better way to start a day with a great breakfast, right?

If you agree with me I guess you will be delighted to hear about the experience I had a couple of weeks ago. I met a former co-worker for a quick after-work-coffee to gossip about the latest rumours and we decided to have breakfast. It was already after 4 pm but according to the menu the Guest House serves breakfast until 11 pm! And we realised that there is no better way to finish a friday afternoon with a great breakfast!

We ordered Eggs Benedict and the Albertina Breakfast (including Ham, Cheese, Creamcheese, Jam, Butter, Bread, an Egg, Cappucino).

Welcome to the Guest House!

Now that Christmas, New Years Eve and probably also all your days without work are now over, I guess we all have the same thought: What now? I really miss the Christmas Cookies, the wonderful smell of cinnamon that also reminds me of Christmas and the anticipation of all the wonderful things I am going to eat... Well, I guess that (and my love for sweet things) was the inspiration for my latest baking adventure. Maybe also one of my Christmas presents, a wonderful rose-shaped baking form, helped a little bit. :)

I decided to make a simple Cake in this form since the appearance of the form is already so pretty, one does not want to distract the eater with an exotic taste. But then I thought - why not pimp it up with something healty, like apples? The other thought was: Maybe I should at least try to get some vitamins, even if they are baked in dough, they still count, right?

So I went to the supermarket and grabbed some apples. I took off their clothes.

Hello, naked Apples. You look so (Golden) Delicious.

Happy New Year! May all your (culinary) dreams come true in 2014! 

I love brunch (I mean, who doesn't?) and so for the final day (Day 4) we decided to have a Jazzbrunch @Schloß Wilhelminenberg, a Hotel that has a wonderful view over Vienna. The brunch is mainly for Hotel guests that are staying there but also "outsiders" love to have breakfast there, as I was told. Sometimes they have a Live Jazz Band there and luckily on this Sunday, where our Food Vacation came to an end (*sigh*), the Band was there too. 

The best thing about this Brunch was not the music (although it was great, of course) but the Chocolate Fountain! I ate so many fruits dipped in chocolate as I could. I still wanted to have enough room left for the rest of the grand breakfast buffett: chocolate mousse en masse, mini-cakes (yum!!), freshly cut fruit like pineapple and strawberries. Also the variety of salty dishes were great (see below the prosciutto!), but mostly we just ate the sweet stuff. Please see for yourself:

We are coming to an end (almost!) of our Food Vacation, here comes Day 3. Because we were really full from our restaurant visits on Day 1 (here and here) and Day 2 (here and here), we skipped Lunch on Day 3. To be honest, we didn't entirely skipped it, but we both shared a small Falafel Plate from Dr. Falafel ;) 

For Dinner on Day 3 we decided to try out a very interesting restaurant concept - M-Lounge is a bar but serves Tapas and has a great variety of them. I read on the internet and on their homepage that they serve special kind of Tapas (not the kind you would expect from a Spanish restaurant), but more the Fusion Tapas-type (kind of). We ordered a Japanese Radish Salad (hidden inside the salad were 2 cucumber Makis), a mini barbecue burger (and by mini I mean mini! They were tiny, but very cute and delicious.), Gyoza (also known as Chinese Dumplings/Jiaozi) with Chicken and Sesame, a small plate of Prawn-curry and the dessert - the absolute best dish ever - nougat mousse with a "cocaine" line made of powdered sugar. The dessert was named "Welcome to Hollywood". How appropriate.

Sorry guys for the silence - I just got overwhelmed with work - terrible excuse, I know. And I just realized that I haven't finished blogging about the rest of the Food Vacation we had in NOVEMBER... It is already December and Day 2/3/4 are still "Drafts" in my Blog-storage...

And the worst part of this 2 weeks without posting anything - I totally missed the chance to write about Christmas Cookies or Christmas Markets! :( Boooh. Next year! (I am adding a post-it on my pile of "To-Do" Post-its.)

Well, my goal is to post the remaining meals of the Food Vacation before December 24th. So our second Day started with a huge breakfast at Weltcafe (Click here if you haven't read it yet.). If you think that was a great start, well, then you are absolutely right! But it got even better!

And our Food Vacation continues. For those who haven't read the Introduction to Food Vacation yet and are a bit confused about what I am talking, please click here: Day 1 Dinner@Mochi, Day 1 Drinks@Le Loft

Day 2 started with a huge and healty variety of breakfast menus:

If you haven't read my post from November 22, you might have missed my introduction to our 4-days Food Vacation (click here: Day 1 Dinner).

After having eaten some of the best sushi and maki I ever had (including the wonderful chocolate mousse) we decided to end our first vacation day at Le Loft, a bar at the Sofitel hotel. Le Loft is located at the 18th floor and I think you have one of the best overview of Vienna that a bar has to offer (please correct me if I am wrong! I am open to suggestions :)

One of our first dates (before we became a couple) took place at this bar, which was also one of the reasons we decided to go there again. The last time I have been there was on Valentines Day, which is quite a while ago. Once in a while we like to go back there, not only to enjoy the view, but to reminisce about the "good old times". I remember being obsessed about the lighting in the elevator and him making fun of me about being fascinated about the lettering on the walls next to the elevator (In my defence - the letters are silver AND shiny and I am easily distracted by shiny objects.). Aaaw, how romantic. :P

Food Vacation? What is that?? Please let me explain. I L-O-V-E going on vacations. (Who doesn't, right??) City trips, island hopping, exploring other cultures(and - of course! - their food), getting away from home & just enjoy the excitment of not being at home. Wonderful. 

Unfortunately sometimes even if you really, really, really want to go away, even if it's just for a couple of days, it is not so easy. For exmpale, we planned to have a 4 days trip between October 31st and November 3rd. First we just couldn't decide where to go - city trips in Novembers in Europe tend to be cold and windy, and going farther away does require a bit more time (and money, who am I kidding.)

Disappointed we finally came to the perfect solution: why spending money going somewhere else when we couldn't even decide where to go and instead just stay in Vienna for four days and have a Food Vacation? HÄH?? I am still wondering why I didn't come up sooner with this brilliant idea?

Any plans for this Sunday yet? No? Then I have the perfect recommendation for your - go to Rudolf Ölz Bakery in the 3rd disctrict and enjoy a great breakfast with fresh, delicious bread ("Simperl" - thats how they call their breadbasket full with their wonderful bread) topped with tomatoes, hummus and cucumber, a yogurt and granola, scrambled eggs, omelettes, and so on... The menu is huge and I think there is something for everybody. I also really love this place because everything we ordered was served with garnishes and the food looked really appetizing.

Cafe Halle is located at the Museumsquarter and just next to Mumok (and the Cupcakes Wien Café). Besides desserts and cakes they also offer a great variety of breakfast possibilities.

But come on - I mean - hello? How can one order anything else if they have Topfenknödel with COOKIECRUMBS (C-O-O-K-I-E-C-R-U-M-B-S! AAAH.) on their menu?? Seriously?

One of my favourite desserts are Topfenknödel - I don't really know what the proper translation for this would be; maybe sweet cheese dumplings? 

They are dumplings made of Topfen and breadcrumbs and boiled in a pot of hot water. After that you can roll them around on a plate filled with cookiecrumbs and powdered sugar and enjoy them while they are still hot. Oh, delicious! My boyfriend often makes them at home spontaneously, he got a very easy and failproof recipe from his mother. (Hmm. I think I just got an idea for another Blogpost :) And often with a chestnut or chocolate filling. I know, they don't only sound delicious, they are delicious! :3

From time to time I like to order those dumplings somewhere else, to compare... or maybe just because I don't want to miss an opportunity to have Topfenknödel.

Sometimes we have left-over Nutella at home. I have to admit that this doesn't happen very often, because everytime we DO have a newly opened glass of the chocolate cream, it magically vanishes within 2 or 3 days. I just don't know how that happens! :D 

So anytime we have some Nutella AND a storebought flaky pastry in our kitchen, I am exited to make something that gives me the perfect excuse NOT to eat Nutella out of the jar. 

I am using storebought flaky pastry because:

1) it is time-saving

2) in my opinion making flaky pastry at home requires too much work and time (and skills that I don't have (yet) and I dont know if there is a difference in the taste, and

3) I hate knowing how much butter something contains that I am eating! It is so much easier to eat something if you don't know it, right?

First you roll out the dough and roll it a bit further so it's even thinner than it was before.

If Sunday is the perfect day for Brunch then Saturday is the perfect day for visiting a Farmer's Market. To be honest, maybe it is not exactly the perfect day because of the hectic and mass of people who also decide that Saturday is the perfect day for a visit, but once you step into the world of colorful fruits and fresh vegetables, you tend to forget everything around you.

I was inspired by Jamie Olivers wonderful looking cheesecake in his cookbook "Jamie's America" and decided to change the recipe to make it lighter. I love traditional, rich&creamy cheesecakes when I am ordering outside but I prefer the lighter and fluffier version when I am baking at home. Maybe because I love to eat fat and creamy things but only if I am not aware of it. No calories if you don't know what is inside, right? :P

What can I say about my love for Banana Bread? Or Banana Cake? Or just Bananas? I don't really like to call it "Bread" because it will give me the excuse to eat the whole loaf on my own. So by calling it Cake it is easier for me to stop. :)

I am not a student anymore, but when I read in the newspaper that the new campus of my former university is now finished I was really curious and wanted to visit the campus too. So I decided to attend a speach of two Nobelprize Laureats at the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) and have a look at the different buildings. I also heard of a good restaurant/café (name The Campus/Das Campus) and it turned out to be a perfect choice - the restaurant was stylish, the food was amazing (I had the lunch menu) and it was the best service I had in a long time. 

For almost 9 years I can call the 3rd district of Vienna my home and I was always a little bit dissapointed about the culinary choices here.

So what happened when I heard about a sushi restaurant close to the future train station ("Hauptbahnhof")? I just had to try it out. Immediately.

I was fascinated by the logo and the design of the restaurant. Before you arrive inside you can see a neon sign that says "Dots 21" (unfortunately it was already too dark to take a good picture of it. Next time. :).

Dots 21 is - like its big sister, Dots at Mariahilferstraße - known for its experimental Sushi and Maki (Hello Kitty Maki! Oh. My. God.)

They also have non-Asian dishes on their menu like Gulasch or Beef Tartare right next to Asian dishes like Chicken Curry - which is a quite interesting mix in my opinion.

I have already been to the café Rochus1030 (in the 3rd district, very close to the Rochus market) several times, and I was curious how the second location of Rochus in the 9th district would look like. A former co-worker recommended it and so we both decided to try out their "pastry of the day" - plumcake.

Why does everything in mini-version tastes even better?? I really don't have a clue. But I know that when I was finally working out how to make my own pizza dough I just thought: "Why always eat one plain, boring, 26cm diameter pizza when you can have many mini-pizzas with different toppings?

The good thing: you have a lot of different pizzas with different toppings.
The bad thing: you can't stop eating. And you don't realise how much pizza you just put in your mouth until you hear your boyfriend complaining that he is still hungry. Ooops.

I am always looking for an opportunity to have Sushi for Lunch and/or Dinner. But the best excuse is to celebrate the 30th birthday of somebody!

Happy Birthday Kathi! :) Have a wonderful year filled with joy and laughter! And let's have Sushi again soon. 

For Burgerlovers, the cool and recently opened Chiq Chaq might be the perfect place to have a "The one and only" Burger and a portion of their sweet potato fries.

The burger was really tasty, the cheese perfectly melted and the fries were crispy - just how a burger (plus fries) should be!

I think there is something superdelicious about thick cookies and coffee - the combination of the two is just irresistible! 

And the cookies that you can buy at Pure Living Bakery are just Y-U-M! The Pure Living Bakery is a very charming café, where the owner was a former stewardess and was inspired by her trips to the USA and decided to open one of those cute coffeeplaces in Vienna. They have already opened two locations, one in the 13th disctrict and one in the 7th. I really like the details of the cafe - every picture, frame, table, plate and even the cappucino foam is cute!

Nothing better than a fruity blackberry cupcake on a chocolate sponge on a cold night! 

Besides sweet cupcakes (also glutenfree and vegan versions available!) they also have salty cupcakes - I haven't had enough space in my tummy left to try one of them, but this is the perfect excuse to visit Cupcakes Wien again! 

So happy that Kathi is back home now, after a 5 week trip in Spain, walking the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago).

After such a long, long walk there is nothing better than a breakfast. Look at the Kipfler and the croissant - I can't stop drooling...

On one of my strolls through the 4th disctric I walked by this chocolate store/pattiserie - and once I saw these pretty pralines, I just couldn't resist to take a look inside.

The shop is very close to the Naschmarkt and they don't just have this wonderful chocolate but also pastries and other sweet stuff. 

For more infos you can visit the website of Fruth (www.fruth.at).

Sometimes I am really in the mood for a very sweet, very delicious little treat and I think Macarons are the best combination of sugar and colour! These Macarons below have Raspberry, Caramel and Pistachio flavour - my personal favourite is the Pistachio one - it is sweet but you can still taste a bit of the Pistachio...

I love to bake and especially when there is an important occasion like birthday parties, dinner invitations, coffee date gifts or something alike. I also love everything that has poppyseed in it and when I saw this recipe in one of my recipebooks I really wanted to try it out immediately, even without an occasion :)

You know what the good thing about cleaning up is (beside the fact, of course, that your desk including all its drawers has finally more space for the important stuff like books, pencils, etc.)? You never know what goodies you can find. For example did I not only realise that I had some DVDs that I never watched (what am I saying, they were even still wrapped in plastic! I know, it's like Christmas, isn't it??) I also founds a tiny glass of honey from our holiday in Greek from September 2012. Wow, was I happy that day (insert *happydancemovementshere*). Just kidding. I decided to check out if the honey is still enjoyable by putting it on some figs and cheese while watching my "new" DVDs :) Believe me - honey is still good even if it sits in a dark corner for over 1 year.

After walking by the newly openend (ok - to be honest, it is not so new any more) Vapiano @Wien Mitte - The Mall and smelling the wonderful scent of pasta&pizza, I just had to go home and make myself a delicious meal...

It was so good :)

I don't know why I am posting this single photo of a small sushi mix - but I am so hungry and just couldn't help myself. 

I am staring at this picture and dreaming of nigiri that I can dip into soysauce :)

Sorry, please let me correct this question... Don't we all love frozen yogurt?? Unfortunately the summer is almost over - but I am looking forward to eat frozen yogurt also on the colder days... maybe with warm toppings like chocolate sauce or caramel? Mmmh...

This yummy frozen yogurt you see in the pictures was eaten at Kurt - Frozen Yogurt! They have already opened a couple of shops in Vienna, my favourite location where I usually go is the one at Schultergasse, which is very close to Schwedenplatz. They also offer some sweet and warm dessert like waffles.

My boyfriend and I usually like to share one Big Kurt pure frozen yogurt including 3 or 4 fruity toppings (as you can see below :).

...what you really need for a great start in the morning is having a delicious & huuuuge breakfast!

This picture is actually a little bit older. It was from our last visit at Daniel Bakery (a very nice design hotel that is just a 10 minute ride from our home in the 3rd District). They have a very delicious breakfast buffet. Unfortunately we are always so hungry that we only manage to snap some picutures with our iPhones. I think I have to go back there soon and write a review about the breakfast possiblities.

In the  meantime, please enjoy this random pic.

Where should I start? Finally I can use some of the many many pictures I have stored on my computer... And I think an appropriate start would be to show this very delicious cupcake!

Yay!

Well, summer is over I guess. It's raining, it's getting dark earlier every day, temperature is dropping... I guess I don't have any more excuses left NOT to blog about my food adventures anymore... Yay! :)

I am working on my July Holiday Food "Report", stay tuned for more yummy details (aka USA Food Adventure 2014)!

The recently re-opened Cafe Heuer (former Kunsthallencafe am Karlsplatz) has the most interesting french toast I have ever tasted - with apple purree and bacon. Yes, bacon! It is surprisingly the best french toast I ever had!

I really love the interior design of the new cafe, and also the new menu which includes vegan choices and the mentioned french toast. 

Sometimes my phone decides that it's time to mock me and an alarm pops up: "memory storage full". Usually that happens at the most unconvonient times ever - asking somebody to take a picture for example and they just stare at the phone, not knowning what to do. Me standing there, my face cramped from holding the same face expression too long. And then the worst thing - deleting photos under pressure, which sounds a bit like this: "Is it working now?? Just delete something." - "Oh right. Like you would know immediately which photos to delete! Oh, crap! I think I just deleted the cute selfie/portrait/food/bunny pictures that I haven't saved on my computer yet. Nooooooooo."

Well, and one day (it was yesterday, to be honest) that happened again and I also had the chance (or more like - no choice!) to scroll through old pics. And do you know what immediately came to my mind? No, it wasn't "I should definitely stop taking so much photos of my food" nor "Well, most of my bunny pictures are blurry, grey, somethings...Cookie! Muffin! You have to learn to stand still when I am taking pictures of you!" What I immediately realised was that I had a lot of burger photos. It seemed like there are a lot of interesting (new) places to enjoy a burger! Here are some of my latest adventures:

It is not a secret that I love love love breakfast. I am delighted to introduce you to my latest visit at a newly (or not so newly acutually, my visit is already a couple of weeks ago) opened bakery/cafe/restaurant at Landstraße Haupstraße. The 3rd district seems to be a very popular with bakeries and breakfast cafes... Not that I mind, of course. :)

The downside of visiting a recently opened place is that it is always filled with hungry people. It is not only difficult to get a table without a reservation, it is also not that easy to get a table on your own and without eating from your neighbour's plate. We were sitting really really close to other people. How close? So close that we hear their conversation and (almost) eat from their plate (which - of course - I could resist. It was not easy.) Buuuuut - it is worth the visit - I had the best croissant ever and I loved their variety of breakfast choices.

Break? What break? I don't know what you are talking about. Kidding! 

Sorry for the long silence. It didn't mean that I haven't had the chance to visit any great restaurants during this weeks, I just didn't find the time to write anything down. Okay, maybe thats not entirely true, maybe I had the time, but simply was too lazy. Anyway... I have the perfect recommendation for you - not for Vienna, but for Berlin! (Don't worry. I didn't move there. I went to Berlin just for a weekend (it was actually my birthday that weekend which means I had the perfect excuse to eat as much as I wanted and also had cake. Cheesecake. More than one piece. Hrhr.)

Look here:

What kind of pictures come to your mind when you think about Greece or about Greek Food? I only have positive associations - my first vacation with my boyfriend was 2 years ago and we decided to spend two weeks in Greece. We started in Athens where we rented a car and decided to head up North to Meteora and later on to Levkada and Zakynthos. We spend two weeks doing nothing but relaxing, eating, swimming, roadtripping and I think I fell in love - with Suvlaki, Gyros, Fish, Greek salad, Kalamata Olives, Pita bread, Moussaka, Tzatziki, dried herbs and of course the mountains! Meteora was my favourite place. It was peaceful and silent and I just loved to be surrounded by fascinating mountains - it was an awesome time and I really would like to go back and spend a couple more days there.

Breathtaking, isn't it? And yes, the photos were taken by me (and/or my bf) and no, we didn't use any filters.

There is no better way to start a day with a great breakfast, right?

If you agree with me I guess you will be delighted to hear about the experience I had a couple of weeks ago. I met a former co-worker for a quick after-work-coffee to gossip about the latest rumours and we decided to have breakfast. It was already after 4 pm but according to the menu the Guest House serves breakfast until 11 pm! And we realised that there is no better way to finish a friday afternoon with a great breakfast!

We ordered Eggs Benedict and the Albertina Breakfast (including Ham, Cheese, Creamcheese, Jam, Butter, Bread, an Egg, Cappucino).

Welcome to the Guest House!

Now that Christmas, New Years Eve and probably also all your days without work are now over, I guess we all have the same thought: What now? I really miss the Christmas Cookies, the wonderful smell of cinnamon that also reminds me of Christmas and the anticipation of all the wonderful things I am going to eat... Well, I guess that (and my love for sweet things) was the inspiration for my latest baking adventure. Maybe also one of my Christmas presents, a wonderful rose-shaped baking form, helped a little bit. :)

I decided to make a simple Cake in this form since the appearance of the form is already so pretty, one does not want to distract the eater with an exotic taste. But then I thought - why not pimp it up with something healty, like apples? The other thought was: Maybe I should at least try to get some vitamins, even if they are baked in dough, they still count, right?

So I went to the supermarket and grabbed some apples. I took off their clothes.

Hello, naked Apples. You look so (Golden) Delicious.

Happy New Year! May all your (culinary) dreams come true in 2014! 

I love brunch (I mean, who doesn't?) and so for the final day (Day 4) we decided to have a Jazzbrunch @Schloß Wilhelminenberg, a Hotel that has a wonderful view over Vienna. The brunch is mainly for Hotel guests that are staying there but also "outsiders" love to have breakfast there, as I was told. Sometimes they have a Live Jazz Band there and luckily on this Sunday, where our Food Vacation came to an end (*sigh*), the Band was there too. 

The best thing about this Brunch was not the music (although it was great, of course) but the Chocolate Fountain! I ate so many fruits dipped in chocolate as I could. I still wanted to have enough room left for the rest of the grand breakfast buffett: chocolate mousse en masse, mini-cakes (yum!!), freshly cut fruit like pineapple and strawberries. Also the variety of salty dishes were great (see below the prosciutto!), but mostly we just ate the sweet stuff. Please see for yourself:

We are coming to an end (almost!) of our Food Vacation, here comes Day 3. Because we were really full from our restaurant visits on Day 1 (here and here) and Day 2 (here and here), we skipped Lunch on Day 3. To be honest, we didn't entirely skipped it, but we both shared a small Falafel Plate from Dr. Falafel ;) 

For Dinner on Day 3 we decided to try out a very interesting restaurant concept - M-Lounge is a bar but serves Tapas and has a great variety of them. I read on the internet and on their homepage that they serve special kind of Tapas (not the kind you would expect from a Spanish restaurant), but more the Fusion Tapas-type (kind of). We ordered a Japanese Radish Salad (hidden inside the salad were 2 cucumber Makis), a mini barbecue burger (and by mini I mean mini! They were tiny, but very cute and delicious.), Gyoza (also known as Chinese Dumplings/Jiaozi) with Chicken and Sesame, a small plate of Prawn-curry and the dessert - the absolute best dish ever - nougat mousse with a "cocaine" line made of powdered sugar. The dessert was named "Welcome to Hollywood". How appropriate.

Sorry guys for the silence - I just got overwhelmed with work - terrible excuse, I know. And I just realized that I haven't finished blogging about the rest of the Food Vacation we had in NOVEMBER... It is already December and Day 2/3/4 are still "Drafts" in my Blog-storage...

And the worst part of this 2 weeks without posting anything - I totally missed the chance to write about Christmas Cookies or Christmas Markets! :( Boooh. Next year! (I am adding a post-it on my pile of "To-Do" Post-its.)

Well, my goal is to post the remaining meals of the Food Vacation before December 24th. So our second Day started with a huge breakfast at Weltcafe (Click here if you haven't read it yet.). If you think that was a great start, well, then you are absolutely right! But it got even better!

And our Food Vacation continues. For those who haven't read the Introduction to Food Vacation yet and are a bit confused about what I am talking, please click here: Day 1 Dinner@Mochi, Day 1 Drinks@Le Loft

Day 2 started with a huge and healty variety of breakfast menus:

If you haven't read my post from November 22, you might have missed my introduction to our 4-days Food Vacation (click here: Day 1 Dinner).

After having eaten some of the best sushi and maki I ever had (including the wonderful chocolate mousse) we decided to end our first vacation day at Le Loft, a bar at the Sofitel hotel. Le Loft is located at the 18th floor and I think you have one of the best overview of Vienna that a bar has to offer (please correct me if I am wrong! I am open to suggestions :)

One of our first dates (before we became a couple) took place at this bar, which was also one of the reasons we decided to go there again. The last time I have been there was on Valentines Day, which is quite a while ago. Once in a while we like to go back there, not only to enjoy the view, but to reminisce about the "good old times". I remember being obsessed about the lighting in the elevator and him making fun of me about being fascinated about the lettering on the walls next to the elevator (In my defence - the letters are silver AND shiny and I am easily distracted by shiny objects.). Aaaw, how romantic. :P

Food Vacation? What is that?? Please let me explain. I L-O-V-E going on vacations. (Who doesn't, right??) City trips, island hopping, exploring other cultures(and - of course! - their food), getting away from home & just enjoy the excitment of not being at home. Wonderful. 

Unfortunately sometimes even if you really, really, really want to go away, even if it's just for a couple of days, it is not so easy. For exmpale, we planned to have a 4 days trip between October 31st and November 3rd. First we just couldn't decide where to go - city trips in Novembers in Europe tend to be cold and windy, and going farther away does require a bit more time (and money, who am I kidding.)

Disappointed we finally came to the perfect solution: why spending money going somewhere else when we couldn't even decide where to go and instead just stay in Vienna for four days and have a Food Vacation? HÄH?? I am still wondering why I didn't come up sooner with this brilliant idea?

Any plans for this Sunday yet? No? Then I have the perfect recommendation for your - go to Rudolf Ölz Bakery in the 3rd disctrict and enjoy a great breakfast with fresh, delicious bread ("Simperl" - thats how they call their breadbasket full with their wonderful bread) topped with tomatoes, hummus and cucumber, a yogurt and granola, scrambled eggs, omelettes, and so on... The menu is huge and I think there is something for everybody. I also really love this place because everything we ordered was served with garnishes and the food looked really appetizing.

Cafe Halle is located at the Museumsquarter and just next to Mumok (and the Cupcakes Wien Café). Besides desserts and cakes they also offer a great variety of breakfast possibilities.

But come on - I mean - hello? How can one order anything else if they have Topfenknödel with COOKIECRUMBS (C-O-O-K-I-E-C-R-U-M-B-S! AAAH.) on their menu?? Seriously?

One of my favourite desserts are Topfenknödel - I don't really know what the proper translation for this would be; maybe sweet cheese dumplings? 

They are dumplings made of Topfen and breadcrumbs and boiled in a pot of hot water. After that you can roll them around on a plate filled with cookiecrumbs and powdered sugar and enjoy them while they are still hot. Oh, delicious! My boyfriend often makes them at home spontaneously, he got a very easy and failproof recipe from his mother. (Hmm. I think I just got an idea for another Blogpost :) And often with a chestnut or chocolate filling. I know, they don't only sound delicious, they are delicious! :3

From time to time I like to order those dumplings somewhere else, to compare... or maybe just because I don't want to miss an opportunity to have Topfenknödel.

Sometimes we have left-over Nutella at home. I have to admit that this doesn't happen very often, because everytime we DO have a newly opened glass of the chocolate cream, it magically vanishes within 2 or 3 days. I just don't know how that happens! :D 

So anytime we have some Nutella AND a storebought flaky pastry in our kitchen, I am exited to make something that gives me the perfect excuse NOT to eat Nutella out of the jar. 

I am using storebought flaky pastry because:

1) it is time-saving

2) in my opinion making flaky pastry at home requires too much work and time (and skills that I don't have (yet) and I dont know if there is a difference in the taste, and

3) I hate knowing how much butter something contains that I am eating! It is so much easier to eat something if you don't know it, right?

First you roll out the dough and roll it a bit further so it's even thinner than it was before.

If Sunday is the perfect day for Brunch then Saturday is the perfect day for visiting a Farmer's Market. To be honest, maybe it is not exactly the perfect day because of the hectic and mass of people who also decide that Saturday is the perfect day for a visit, but once you step into the world of colorful fruits and fresh vegetables, you tend to forget everything around you.

I was inspired by Jamie Olivers wonderful looking cheesecake in his cookbook "Jamie's America" and decided to change the recipe to make it lighter. I love traditional, rich&creamy cheesecakes when I am ordering outside but I prefer the lighter and fluffier version when I am baking at home. Maybe because I love to eat fat and creamy things but only if I am not aware of it. No calories if you don't know what is inside, right? :P

What can I say about my love for Banana Bread? Or Banana Cake? Or just Bananas? I don't really like to call it "Bread" because it will give me the excuse to eat the whole loaf on my own. So by calling it Cake it is easier for me to stop. :)

I am not a student anymore, but when I read in the newspaper that the new campus of my former university is now finished I was really curious and wanted to visit the campus too. So I decided to attend a speach of two Nobelprize Laureats at the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) and have a look at the different buildings. I also heard of a good restaurant/café (name The Campus/Das Campus) and it turned out to be a perfect choice - the restaurant was stylish, the food was amazing (I had the lunch menu) and it was the best service I had in a long time. 

For almost 9 years I can call the 3rd district of Vienna my home and I was always a little bit dissapointed about the culinary choices here.

So what happened when I heard about a sushi restaurant close to the future train station ("Hauptbahnhof")? I just had to try it out. Immediately.

I was fascinated by the logo and the design of the restaurant. Before you arrive inside you can see a neon sign that says "Dots 21" (unfortunately it was already too dark to take a good picture of it. Next time. :).

Dots 21 is - like its big sister, Dots at Mariahilferstraße - known for its experimental Sushi and Maki (Hello Kitty Maki! Oh. My. God.)

They also have non-Asian dishes on their menu like Gulasch or Beef Tartare right next to Asian dishes like Chicken Curry - which is a quite interesting mix in my opinion.

I have already been to the café Rochus1030 (in the 3rd district, very close to the Rochus market) several times, and I was curious how the second location of Rochus in the 9th district would look like. A former co-worker recommended it and so we both decided to try out their "pastry of the day" - plumcake.

Why does everything in mini-version tastes even better?? I really don't have a clue. But I know that when I was finally working out how to make my own pizza dough I just thought: "Why always eat one plain, boring, 26cm diameter pizza when you can have many mini-pizzas with different toppings?

The good thing: you have a lot of different pizzas with different toppings.
The bad thing: you can't stop eating. And you don't realise how much pizza you just put in your mouth until you hear your boyfriend complaining that he is still hungry. Ooops.

I am always looking for an opportunity to have Sushi for Lunch and/or Dinner. But the best excuse is to celebrate the 30th birthday of somebody!

Happy Birthday Kathi! :) Have a wonderful year filled with joy and laughter! And let's have Sushi again soon. 

For Burgerlovers, the cool and recently opened Chiq Chaq might be the perfect place to have a "The one and only" Burger and a portion of their sweet potato fries.

The burger was really tasty, the cheese perfectly melted and the fries were crispy - just how a burger (plus fries) should be!

I think there is something superdelicious about thick cookies and coffee - the combination of the two is just irresistible! 

And the cookies that you can buy at Pure Living Bakery are just Y-U-M! The Pure Living Bakery is a very charming café, where the owner was a former stewardess and was inspired by her trips to the USA and decided to open one of those cute coffeeplaces in Vienna. They have already opened two locations, one in the 13th disctrict and one in the 7th. I really like the details of the cafe - every picture, frame, table, plate and even the cappucino foam is cute!

Nothing better than a fruity blackberry cupcake on a chocolate sponge on a cold night! 

Besides sweet cupcakes (also glutenfree and vegan versions available!) they also have salty cupcakes - I haven't had enough space in my tummy left to try one of them, but this is the perfect excuse to visit Cupcakes Wien again! 

So happy that Kathi is back home now, after a 5 week trip in Spain, walking the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago).

After such a long, long walk there is nothing better than a breakfast. Look at the Kipfler and the croissant - I can't stop drooling...

On one of my strolls through the 4th disctric I walked by this chocolate store/pattiserie - and once I saw these pretty pralines, I just couldn't resist to take a look inside.

The shop is very close to the Naschmarkt and they don't just have this wonderful chocolate but also pastries and other sweet stuff. 

For more infos you can visit the website of Fruth (www.fruth.at).

Sometimes I am really in the mood for a very sweet, very delicious little treat and I think Macarons are the best combination of sugar and colour! These Macarons below have Raspberry, Caramel and Pistachio flavour - my personal favourite is the Pistachio one - it is sweet but you can still taste a bit of the Pistachio...

I love to bake and especially when there is an important occasion like birthday parties, dinner invitations, coffee date gifts or something alike. I also love everything that has poppyseed in it and when I saw this recipe in one of my recipebooks I really wanted to try it out immediately, even without an occasion :)

You know what the good thing about cleaning up is (beside the fact, of course, that your desk including all its drawers has finally more space for the important stuff like books, pencils, etc.)? You never know what goodies you can find. For example did I not only realise that I had some DVDs that I never watched (what am I saying, they were even still wrapped in plastic! I know, it's like Christmas, isn't it??) I also founds a tiny glass of honey from our holiday in Greek from September 2012. Wow, was I happy that day (insert *happydancemovementshere*). Just kidding. I decided to check out if the honey is still enjoyable by putting it on some figs and cheese while watching my "new" DVDs :) Believe me - honey is still good even if it sits in a dark corner for over 1 year.

After walking by the newly openend (ok - to be honest, it is not so new any more) Vapiano @Wien Mitte - The Mall and smelling the wonderful scent of pasta&pizza, I just had to go home and make myself a delicious meal...

It was so good :)

I don't know why I am posting this single photo of a small sushi mix - but I am so hungry and just couldn't help myself. 

I am staring at this picture and dreaming of nigiri that I can dip into soysauce :)

Sorry, please let me correct this question... Don't we all love frozen yogurt?? Unfortunately the summer is almost over - but I am looking forward to eat frozen yogurt also on the colder days... maybe with warm toppings like chocolate sauce or caramel? Mmmh...

This yummy frozen yogurt you see in the pictures was eaten at Kurt - Frozen Yogurt! They have already opened a couple of shops in Vienna, my favourite location where I usually go is the one at Schultergasse, which is very close to Schwedenplatz. They also offer some sweet and warm dessert like waffles.

My boyfriend and I usually like to share one Big Kurt pure frozen yogurt including 3 or 4 fruity toppings (as you can see below :).

...what you really need for a great start in the morning is having a delicious & huuuuge breakfast!

This picture is actually a little bit older. It was from our last visit at Daniel Bakery (a very nice design hotel that is just a 10 minute ride from our home in the 3rd District). They have a very delicious breakfast buffet. Unfortunately we are always so hungry that we only manage to snap some picutures with our iPhones. I think I have to go back there soon and write a review about the breakfast possiblities.

In the  meantime, please enjoy this random pic.

Where should I start? Finally I can use some of the many many pictures I have stored on my computer... And I think an appropriate start would be to show this very delicious cupcake!

Yay!