I was surprised when my wife told me that it had been seven years since we last visited Vienna, how time flies! On that occasion, however, we barely spent any time in Vienna because the purpose of our trip was to explore Styria, the bread basket of Austria, and visit Zotter Chocolate and other wonderful foodie destinations. We enjoyed our visit to Austria so much that my wife and I returned to Vienna recently, for a few days, to celebrate my birthday.

Kunsthistorisches Museum and Weltmuseum Wien

We had a wonderful time visiting a couple of the many museums in Vienna. Top of our list was the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the building itself is a marvel of art and architecture that houses the largest collection of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, one of my favourite artists.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Dutch/Flemish artist and printer who chose to paint peasants and how they lived rather the rich and powerful.

To get a better idea about how important the painter Bruegel the Elder was, here is a short BBC video on youtube .

Besides the many amazing paintings the museum holds, there are many other treasures including “The Cradle of the Museum”: a collection of over 2,200 fabulous artworks and precious items collected by the Habsburg emperors. Among its highlights are examples of fabulous goldsmith work such as the celebrated Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, outstanding sculptures such as the Krumau Madonna, magnificent bronze statuettes and precious stone vessels as well as valuable clocks, elaborate automatons, strange scientific instruments, including this amazing brass and gilt automaton parrot clock, which dates from 1580-90.

Another museum on our list was the Weltmuseum Wien which hosts the largest collection of armour that I have ever seen. Much of the magnificent armour in the Imperial Armoury has survived thanks to Archduke Ferdinand II (1529- 1595). He was the first ruler to collect armour belonging to the most famous personages of his time.

The Weltmuseum Wien also has 238 objects collected by seafarer James Cook (1728–1779). Captain Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. This collection of artefacts was acquired by Austrian Emperor Francis I in 1806 from an auction in London.

Vienna State Opera House

And of course Vienna is the city of music, so following a recommendation, we booked a tour of the Vienna State Opera House. The tour lasts approximately 40 minutes and you can book for a guide who speaks English, German, Spanish, French, Italian or Japanese. The tour was very interesting covering the history of the opera house, the opera business and the architecture and art within the building.

Also, no visit to Vienna would be complete without attending a musical performance, so my wife and I attended a performance primarily of Mozart and Strauss. In addition to the musicians there were also two opera singers and ballet dancers.

Zotter Shokolade (chocolate)

Another thing we made sure to do was look for where Zotter Chocolate could be found in Vienna. We were pleased to find a cafe and shop in the Naschmarkt.

We bought two of the hand scooped bars Chestnuts with Rum (A fine chestnut puree, tender-melting almond praline, honey, Amaretto and a generous dash of rum) and Shokobanana (filled with a sweet and fruity banana filling that has been refined with milk, honey and a dash of lemon). My wife bought a chocolate bunny made from a fruity blackcurrant couverture, with coconut eggs and marzipan eyes. The quality of the chocolate was very good but the hand scooped bars are still my favourite.

Vulcano

Last time I was in Austria we went of on a tour of a few of the local food producers in Styria, one of those being Vulcano. I was very impressed by their dried ham which they specialise in. So we also made a point of looking them up in Vienna, and discovered they had a small but stylish wine bar and restaurant called Vulcanothek.

They have a small but delicious menu giving you the opportunity to sample their products from salami with peppercorns to raw ham aged for 15 months. My wife and I had their fantastic beef goulash which had a smoky flavour to it too from the bits of  Vulcano ham.

We also bought a pack Schopf a delicious smoked ham for €4.70 and tasted as good as it looked.

When we visited Volcano in Styria, we were treated to a tour covering the history of Volcano and the production of their hams. It also includes a ‘stable tour’ where you can see how well their pigs are looked after; they’re even given beer to drink!

Volcano is a family business which began in 1999 with the coming together of four farms. They began to experiment with air drying hams comparing over 70 samples. They also researched what other producers were doing in Italy and Spain. The following year, 2000, Volcano was officially founded and the trial ripening room commissioned. In 2003 they began to sell their first 100 15 month air dried hams and in the subsequent years win awards including a gold medal for their prosciutto. They had a set back in 2008 when a large fire destroyed parts of the site but they have since successfully bounced back from this.

What makes Volcano so special is their purebred Styrian quality pigs which are fed a combination of rye and wheat rather the traditional corn maize which makes the fat look yellow. The ham is dry salted by hand, then a mix of herbs such as rosemary, coriander, juniper and others are added. The meat is matured at a relatively high temperature of 18 – 20 °C for up to 27 months or even 36 months! Often the fat in lower quality meat begins to go soft and can drop off but because Volcano meat is such high quality this doesn’t happen.

Following the tour we were also treated to a tasting of their delicious cured meats accompanied by a wonderful glass of the local wine from Georgiberg. If this sounds good you can also book a tour yourself at www.volcano.at

Restaurant Recommendations

We arrived quite late to our hotel in Vienna, Hotel Schani Salon, but the very helpful night manager recommended a restaurant called Chez Bernard. I had the wienerschnitzel and my wife had their truffle and leak quiche. We enjoyed it so much we ate there again and I had the quiche and my wife had the wienerschnitzel.

Chez Bernard Restaurant is located on the seventh floor which you can access via the entrance to the hotel Motto. In the evening time they use tablecloths, during lunch it’s a little relaxed.  Although we only tried a few items from the menu I would definitely recommend. There is also a rooftop bar which can be enoyed in the warmer months.

Whenever I eat out I want a sense of value for money, whether it is expensive or budget.  After a few rich meals we decided a lighter meal might be best, so for my birthday we went to Pho Hang, a Vietnamese restaurant which was really good value and serves delicious pho. We chose the Pho Ha Noi (Pho with medium rare beef).

Cafe Diglas

There are many well know cafes in Vienna, so many in fact we just picked one at random to try a famous Austrian dessert called Sacher-Torte. This chocolate cake invented in 1832 by Franz Sacher.  This cake became so famous that In 1934 the Demel pastry shop started selling “Eduard Sacher-Torte”, while the Sacher Hotel sold the “Original Sacher-Torte”. The hotel’s owners sued Demel for trademark infringement and won in 1938. The lawsuit was appealed after World War 2 and the hotel was eventually given the exclusive right to call its version “the original”.

I love food history stories and Hotel Sacher say  “In 1832 the court of Prince Metternich, had requested a dessert for a special occasion, but the chef was ill at the time, so 16-year-old apprentice Franz Sacher filled in. The cake he created could not have been more delicious.  The Original Sacher-Torte is still hand-made using Franz Sacher’s original recipe to this day, and is best enjoyed with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream”.

Hotel Sacher was founded by Eduard Sacher (Franz Sacher’s son) in 1876. Intriguingly Eduard Sacher did an apprenticeship as a young man at the patisserie Demel.

We did manage a visit to the Academy of Fine Arts which holds a very famous triptych  painted by the artist Hieronymus Bosch ( who lived between 1450 – 1516) called “The Last Judgment”.

Our short 5 day trip to Vienna left us wanting to come back and explore more of the history and food of this wonderful city, such as the Belverdere (which hold many paintings by Gustav Klimt) or Moztart’s apartment (Domgasse number 5) where the great composer wrote the The Marriage of Figero.

Return To Vienna ©Kevin Ashton2024