Lost in Germany and Austria: Kaiserschmarrn and my expanding waistline

After all of the time I've recently spent in Austria, I've developed a slight obsession with a very, very Austrian dessert called Kaiserschmarrn. Basically it's this incredibly doughy, chopped up pancake served with plum sauce and raisins and powdered sugar. It tastes sooo good and is sooo bad for my wasitline. But somehow that doesn't keep me from stuffing myself with it every chance I get. So in an effort to cut down my expenditures on doughy pancake desserts, I've located a recipe that I will now share with you.
Enjoy!

Kaiser Pancakes (Kaiserschmarren)

Imperial Austrian Cuisine by Renate Wagner-Wittula

Ingredients:

6 eggs

200 g (7oz) cake or pastry flour

50 g (1 1/2 oz) sugar

250 ml (8 fluid oz) milk

pinch of salt

40 g (1 oz) raisins

butter

confectioners’ sugar (powdered)

plum purée

Preparation:

Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Thouroughly mix the yolks, sugar, milk and flour. Whisk the egg whites, add a pinch of salt and continue whisking until stiff. Now, carefully fold into the egg yolk mixture. Melt butter in a large pan, pour in the mixture and sprinkle in raisins. Let cook on one side for a few minutes, turn over and tear into pieces with a fork. Now let finish cooking (ideally in a buttered pan in a preheated oven(. Be especially careful not to overcook the pancakes, otherwise they will dry out. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve with plum purée.

Lost in Germany: Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany (and Austria)

So after our fantastic week of skiing and lounging in St. Anton, I convinced Nick to hop back in the car and take another weekend trip with me, this time to Garmisch-Partenkirchen a small town close to the Austrian border that is also the home of a glacier covered mountain called the Zugspitze.

So the Zugzpitze is Germany's highest mountain. Actually, I think it might also be the highest peak in Austria as well. It's almost 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) high and it actually offers skiing all year round which is pretty cool. We arrived, took the gondola up the mountain and then Nick realized that he could actually step back into his home country! Just by walking through a hallway and out onto the other side he could arrive in Austria.

After snapping the requisite pictures from Germany's (and Austria's) highest point, we headed off to ski. Unfortunately I had managed to rent absolutely crap equipment, mostly the ski boots which had a disturbing habit of having the lining slide around every time I tried to set the edge on my skis. So being uncomfortable with the crappy equipment I decided to call it an early day and called it quits before lunch. But Nick had a blast and I got to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. Probably better for me anyway, I still can't quite sit down properly after my snowboarding experiment in St. Anton. No need to damage myself more this weekend.

So, random facts about the Zugspitze:

• You can get to the top in three ways: Cogwheel train, Climbing or Cable Car
• From the top you can see 4-countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy
  
• You can cross directly into Austria/Tyrol from the top of the mountain
• The highest chapel in Germany is located on the peak
  

Lost in Austria: From One Board to Another

OK, so I agreed to attempt snowboarding for two reasons today:

1. Nick said he thought I'd love it because it would be like surfing, but on the snow
2. I thought, "Hell, I can surf (sort of). I should be able to snowboard too. And I should love this sport, it's like surfing but on snow."

OK, yes it is, but no not really. First off, falling on a snowboard hurts a hell of a lot more than falling off a surfboard.

Water = Soft

Snow = Hard

Not so good for my little butt which I probably won't be able to sit down on again until next winter.

Second of all, a snowboard seems to accelerate a hell of a lot faster than a surfboard. Which often leads me to falling. Often. Also not so good. If I can just get the hang of this I think I could totally get into it. But right now I have a concussion so I'm going to bed.

And yes, Emily, I have invested in a helmut. I should have listened to you in the first place and bought one before I even tried this out. Lesson learned.

Lost in Austria: Après Ski in Lech

OK, it's been two days. I've been in ski lessons all day and today, after I finally got to a point where I felt like I was getting the hang of the whole ski thing again.

Until I met up with Nick and Konrad that is. So Konrad is a friend of Nick's who has practically grown up in Lech skiing every winter, all winter long. In fact he's now a ski/snowboard instructor on the mountain. So you could say he's a pretty good skier. So is Nick for that matter. I on the other hand still feel pretty shaky since it had been about, oh I would say probably a good 5-6 years since I'd spent any significant time slipping down a mountainside.

Anyway, I met up with them for après ski and Konrad took us down a pretty steep, pretty moguly slope. So off go he and Nick, gliding down, looking graceful and smooth. Me, I inched down on my über tired legs just hoping that I could survive without suddenly catching an edge and tumbling down. But Konrad took us all the way up to the highest restaurant that was the only one left that would still have sunlight on it so we could have a few drinks before heading back for the night.

Despite the exhaustion, the view was worth it.

But given how tired I already was, you can only imagine how I felt about things after a few glass of prosecco. Somehow it doesn't make it easier to head down the slopes on alcohol weighted legs carrying when the snow has become slushy and then refrozen so it's almost like you're skiing through sand on the super steep slopes. . . .

But I made it. In one piece. Thank god, especially because tomorrow I'm planning to try snowboarding . . . yet more opportunities to fall. I love it.

Lost in Austria: Dead animals and Christmas ornaments

OK, we have been in St. Anton now for a few days. It is lovely and so is our little hotel. Perfectly positioned just 15-20 meters from the ski lift. However, in our little hotel there is a strange preponderance of taxidermy critters. And they're really kind of
frightening. . . . Every time we come up the stairs I am greeted by this dog/fox like thing on the bench. Startling every time at night after a glass or two of wine.


Anyway, after my first day of skiing in blowing snow, I realized that my snowpants are no longer quite so snow resistant, so I have purchased a new pair on sale. Bright red. Combined with my green jacket I just realized that I resemble a Christmas ornament. Highly entertaining.

Lost in Vienna: My weekend amongst Viennese Society

So I'm here at the Techniker-Cercle Ball, my first 'real' Ball in the European sense of things (somehow black tie in Chicago doesn't really compare to this). Honestly, it's almost as if time has gone backwards for a night in Vienna. Except there are a hell of a lot more hip flasks being pulled out of men's jackets than I imagine would have happened 100 years ago. Maybe I'm wrong though.

If you look closely at the clip of the opening waltz, you'll see Nick's friend Max right in the center (he's kind of in the center closest to the camera in the opening waltz). He spent the entire waltz looking utterly pissed off and counting out the choreography for his partner. Apparently the girl is called Rosina (translation: Raisin, who names their child "Raisin"???), given her apparent lack of dancing skill I can't really blame him for looking a little pissed off. But it was a gorgeous opening to watch and when all of the dancers entered they looked so stunning. I can only imagine what some of those dresses must have cost, they looking almost bridal!

And I have to say, I'm immeasurably jealous of the dancing skills every single man in Vienna seems to possess. Can I mention how glad I am that I took a dance lesson today? Not that you can actually dance once you get onto the floor, it's more kind of shuffling and trying not to get stepped on. But if you do happen to get some space it's such fun though. I could have danced all night long if it weren't for the migraine I was still sporting.

Okay, so I must make my slightly snarky comment on some of the jewels that these girls were wandering around in. Now don't get me wrong, I love beautiful jewelry as much as the next girl, but somehow I find it slightly disturbing to see girls in their late teens sporting jewels that, well quite frankly you probably could have put a nice down payment on a house or bought a car with some of the jewelry I saw last night. Nick and I had talked about it before, that some of the girls that move in this circle are so unaware of what they're walking around with, that for some of them it's just taken for granted, they're handed a credit card or an allowance and they don't really think twice about where it comes from, so at the end of the day I have to imagine that they don't really value what it takes to acquire all the pretty things they have in their homes/apartments/dorm rooms. I don't think I would ever be able to raise a child with that much privilege handed out without a second thought.

Having made my snarky commentary on upper society, I should point out that none of Nick's friends behaved in any manner that was less that wonderful. And they certainly didn't exclude me from anything just because I happen to be from out of town, well heck, from off the continent.

So anyway, I managed to make the night last from around 8:30pm until just around 3am in the morning, the ball went on until 5am, but I was pretty much done by then anyway.

It was amazing though, I wish I could have spent all night there. I can't wait to go back next year. . . hopefully I'll be able to break away from it all again.

Lost in Austria: Waltzer Lernen

Dress picked out. Check.

Hair cemented into place. Check.

Migraine still firmly pounding behind my eye. Check

Time to learn to waltz.

OK, I know it’s a stretch for most of you to think of me waltzing, in heels no less, given how superbly coordinated I can be walking down the street, but believe it or not I can pull out some of the grace and coordination I learned in the various dance, gymnastics and figure skating lessons I took during childhood. I just need to be under duress to do it.

Today seems to be my day though. After finding myself standing awkwardly and uncomfortably with a migraine in the dance school where Nick learned to do the various formal partner dances I missed out on in childhood (once again, thanks for that Mom and Dad), I ended up with an instructor (no idea what his name was) who managed in an hour to teach me both the left and right waltzes. To some degree of finesse. Although I don’t think I’ll be winning any ballroom competitions in the near future, I should manage to twirl around the dance floor tonight with a bit more grace than I had in Baden Baden last fall.

Here’s hoping. And I’m wearing lower heels tonight.

Otherwise I think I might break an ankle.

Lost in Vienna: Melange afternoons

It is my third weekend in Vienna in three months now. This is a pattern I could get used to. . .

Sadly this weekend has been a grey and rainy one but that didn't keep the city from looking beautiful decked out in the finest of white light chandaliers that were strung down the entire stretch of the main pedestrian area in the heart of the city. It also didn't seem to impact our ability to drink rather copious quantities of punsch at one of the Christkindelmarkts last night. For those who might not be familiar punsch is the Viennese version of German spiced wine, but instead of wine they spike spiced orange tea with rum. Very tasty I have to say.

Anyhow, it's our last night here and no trip to Vienna with Nick would be complete without many hours spent in Nick's favorite Kaffeehaus, Hawelka. Unfortunately last night, Nick's phone got stolen right here where we are currently sitting. Nick said it felt like someone had walked into his living room and stolen something from his home. But here we are back at the scene of the crime, enjoying, admittedly, less than spectacular coffee, but thoroughly soaking up the inimitable atmosphere of this place for the second time this weekend with my former tour guide, Florian. And while they speak rapid fire German and Nick shakes off his sense of violation, I am busy with my German homework.

We're off for dinner with Max in a little bit to enjoy the two rabbits he shot hunting this weekend as well as some famous chocolate cake he promised to bake us now that I've brought him his US measuring cups/spoons. I admit I'm curious to see what kind of cake this is . . . then tomorrow an early flight home. Fortunately Nick has finally stopped wearing his light up Christmas cap, for a while there he was twinkling like a little elf.

Sometimes I just can't quite believe this is really my life. . .

Lost in Vienna: Part II

Well, I just got back from my second visit to Vienna (and most definitely not my last). This was a totally different experience than the firs time when I went with Marc.

That trip was all sightseeing and wandering (exactly what I wanted to do mind you), while this trip was all about family and friends and sitting in the Kaffeehaus. Completely different, but just as wonderful. Although honestly the trip didn't really start out that way.

We left Frankfurt late, and since we were driving and there's a major train strike on right now, hit all sorts of insane traffic on the way to Vienna. What should have been a 6+ hour drive turned into an 8+ hour drive and we didn't actually get to Vienna until almost 1am in the morning. Ugh. But it was still a great visit.

I met Nick's family and some of his friends, we got the chance to sit and relax in his favorite Kaffeehaus, Hawelka, which Marc and I went to in October. But the best part was that I started to see the city as someone's home as opposed to just a place to visit. That's my favorite way to see new places sometimes, I mean it's fantastic to see all of the sights, but I really love seeing how people live. I guess that's the anthropologist in me coming out.

The culture here is completely different than what I've experience before. All of life seems to center around the Kaffeehaus. It's where people meet and sit and in some cases live. There are friends Nick has that he only met because they both happened to frequent the same Kaffeehaus, where I think I mentioned before Nick's Dad used to frequent when he was at university and starting out work. It is definitely a different pace of life than what we have in Frankfurt.

Before we left for Frankfurt on Sunday afternoon, we had lunch with Nick's family, and wouldn't you guess it we had Wiener Schnitzel. How apropos. His mom made it from scratch and it was so incredibly good. And although I couldn't follow the entire conversation he had with his family (most of it was in German), I did manage to follow some bits. I guess that's at least a small testament to the fact that I might actually be learning to speak German. Shocking to be honest, but I'm glad of it. Now if only I could get Nick to speak a little slower . . .

Anyhow, horrid traffic aside, it was a really nice weekend. I can't wait to go back with him in December to see the Christmas markets, he raves about the holiday market drink, Punsch. I can't wait to try it.

Lost in Vienna: Part 1

I'm posting this a little bit late because after Marc left I got buried under an enormous pile of work in preparation for the brand plan presentations. However, I couldn't not write at least a little something about our trip to Vienna.

After a second night of drinking enormous steins of beer, we hopped on a train to Vienna. Oktoberfest is officially over and I think we’re both exhausted and I’ve definitely come down with a pretty horrible cold. But no fear on that front, we’ve still been good tourists in Vienna.

After arriving via train, we made our way to the hotel, a fantastic recommendation from Birgit, the Hotel Rathaus Wein und Design. A really lovely boutique design hotel located just outside the first district. It’s pretty much given us access to the entire first district which is where most of what we want to see is in the city.

Thanks to Nick we even have our very own tour guide in the form of his friend Florian. Honestly, it was practically a professional tour (I’m ashamed to say that after living in Chicago for almost 7 years there is no way I could give a tour to visiting friends that even comes close to his level of detail). With Florian as our fearless leader for the morning, we managed to see most of the major sights in the first district, the Stephan's Dome, the royal palace, Parliament, roman ruins and perhaps most importantly, Nick’s favorite Kaffee Haus, Hawelka, where we had breakfast.

After Florian headed off, Marc and I caught the U-Bahn out to Schloss Schönbrunn, the royal summer palace. It was gorgeous, but since neither of us felt like touring the inside because it was a really lovely afternoon, we ended up wandering through the gardens for a few hours. And it was in the labyrinth section that we found perhaps my favorite part of the castle, a math puzzle that took us (collectively) a good 20 minutes to solve. Obviously our basic math skills could use some refreshing. But we had such fun wandering through all of the labyrinths, activating the Male and Female principle stones (don’t ask, I still don’t quite understand what it was we were doing).

For dinner that night, Florian picked us up and brought us to a beautiful view over the city before we went to one of the Heurigan restaurants where they are licensed to sell the newest Austrian wine vintages.

One of the last things we did was to visit the Karlskirche which has been undergoing restoration for quite a few years now. It’s beautiful and interestingly has the Hebrew word for God incorporated into the main stained glass window over the altar. You can take an elevator up onto the restoration scaffolding to get a better view of the frescos. Marc and I actually did this and I have to say it is one of the scarier things I’ve done in a while and I’m not one who is really afraid of heights. But there seemed to be no one managing the number of people on there and quite frankly is just didn’t seem that stable to me. But we saw it and I have some wonderful pictures to show from the trip.

Not a bad introduction to Vienna, although I’m looking forward to coming back with Nick and seeing it a bit more as a local. I have no doubt that I’ll be back soon. All in all a really fantastic few days to end our trip together before we had to head home to Frankfurt for Marc’s last night/Poker game (where I might add he won! I so love beginners luck in these games).


My tips:

Hotel:
Hotel Rathaus Wein und Design
190 Euro a night

Things to See in Vienna:

Schloss Schönbrunn - the summer palace and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Parliament

Museumsquartier

Karlskirche - The scary climb to the top was not worth 5 euro

Stephan’s Dome

Food and Drink:

Dine at a Heurigen (wine bar licensed to sell the new vintage)

Have a melange at a true Viennese Kaffee Haus (I did really like the Hawelka!)

Good Resources:

Wikitravel.org