{Edible Cities} Vienna, with Ania from The New Diplomat’s Wife

Meet Ania Krasniewska Shahidi, lifestyle and travel blogger, currently living in Washington, D.C. Ania studied International Relations and Economics with the intent of becoming a diplomat herself, but she ended up marrying one instead. Now, Ania is a human ressources consultant, a job that moves around with her and her family, and she also writes The New Diplomat’s Wife, a lifestyle and travel blog in which she shares her latest design crushes, travel tales and stories about regularly moving around the world as a diplo-family. Here’s Vienna, in her own words.

My Edible City

Vienna, Austria. Up until this year, Vienna was our “hometown” as we served out our most recent diplomatic assignment there. I arrived a skeptic but was soon swayed by the city’s grandness, glamour, and endless opportunities to hear music. Living right in the heart of the city, we threw ourselves in headfirst to all there was to see and do…and taste! The overflowing stalls of the Nachtsmarkt and Karmelitermarkt (Vienna’s Brooklyn) as well as the aisles of Julius Meinl kept our kitchen prepared for home dinners and entertaining, and made shopping an absolute symphony of fresh produce. We became regulars at Cafe Centrale for the schnitzel and pike perch, and at Cafe Korb for the Austrian eggs with frankfurter, although taste testing cafes was something we never grew tired of. No one does coffee and pastries quite like the former Hapsburg Empire! We were perpetually on the hunt for the best sausage stand and Bitzkringer behind the opera soon won our hearts in that category. On the rare occasion when homesickness would set in, we would head down the street to Motto Am Fluss over the Danube Canal for the city’s best burgers and a spectacular view. And finally, the wine growing regions are just a day trip away – there even some in the suburbs of the city, although the Kamptalstrasse (white wine grower’s route) in neighboring Langenlois was usually our pick for a weekend away from the city.

My Favorite Dish

…is just about anything served by Roberto d’Atri at Il Melograno. It’s hard to say what you’ll see since the daily menu is determined by what was fresh that day. But specifically, I loved the transition into late fall where the reward for shorter, rainy days and longer, blustery nights was a plate of fresh pasta handmade by Roberto’s mother served with fresh, shaved truffles that were foraged for and driven in by Roberto’s uncle at the start of the truffle season. There was a whole ceremony to the truffle addition, with Roberto bringing out white gloves and a scale, shaving the large truffle with great enthusiasm. He would then weigh the truffle again to account for the amount and place it ceremonially under the glass globe display, and remove his gloves. This truffle pasta ritual would continue on the menu until the truffle was all gone, and my visits to the restaurant would increase substantially during truffle season, sometimes going in even by myself. That, with the buffalo mozzarella salad, and a glass of wine of Roberto’s choosing and a fresh dessert of the day is a meal I would fly back to Vienna for any day.

Useful Links

• Read all posts Ania has written about Vienna (and enjoy her beautiful photos!)
• Learn about Vienna and get a head start on pastry tastings at the Neue Galerie and Cafe Sabarsky in New York
• 36 Hours in Vienna by The New York Times
• Vienna for Beginners: A beautiful photography blog featuring the beautiful coffees, gorgeous sweets, grand cafes and other “postcards” of Vienna by the photographer Meris
• Vienna Now or Never Online Guide

Also: Follow Ania on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Next Week On Edible Cities

Next week, Amy McCoy, cookbook author and food blogger on Poor Girl Gourmet, is taking us to Val d’Orcia, Italy. Don’t miss it!

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Photo Credits: Vienna’s picture and Ania’s portrait by Ania Krasniewska Shahidi; truffle picture by Boo Lee.