Whatever you want to call it...

I had this post all nice and typed up for yesterday and my computer ate it! I guess those brotchen looked too good for it to resist! Let's try this again...

While we were on our trip, I was already expecting to encounter one blast from my past. While we were in Austria, I encountered another...brotchen! Chris grew up calling them Kaiser rolls. I can clearly remember the packages of these rolls that my Opa would bring home from Germany that had a solider on the front of the bag. They're about the size of hamburger buns but instead of being soft, they're quite crispy on the outside. I can remember sitting at the table with my Opa while he cut open a brotchen and scooped the inside out with his fingers. My eyes would watch him deposit the unwanted glutenous filling next to his plate and then I would immediately pounce! I'd grab the bread and stuff it into my mouth and I'd wonder all the while how he could resist not putting away every last morsel of these delicious things! When I got older, I realized that it's easier to butter the inside of the rolls if you scoop out the extra bread. However, I still eat what I remove from the brotchen!

These rolls are hard to come by in the U.S. Oma and Opa live near a Vietnamese bakery that has a pretty good brotchen but they aren't round. They're still tasty and when I visit, they always make it a point to have them for breakfast several times! My Opa is probably their best customer.

While we were in Austria, I kid you not when I say that I easily ate a dozen of these things in four days. I should rename this blog The Brotchen Diet.

Viennese Coffee

Hello! I'm back from my AMAZING trip to Austria and Germany. I am surprised I was able to fit into my seat on the plane to come home because I ate SO MUCH! I suppose that the large amounts of walking helped! I definitely put some mileage on my Converse! I've been making up for it these past few days by being pretty darn lazy! This jet lag has me barely able to keep my eyes open!

We didn't have a single bad meal the entire time we were away. Everything that passed through my lips was to die for. No joke. I figured I'd kick the post trip posts off with something that Vienna is quite famous for: Coffee!

Coffee in Vienna isn't just a drink, it's an experience. The craftsmanship that goes into each beverage along with the velvety smooth espresso is unmatched. I ordered the same thing every time which was a caffe macchiato

Macchiato translates from Italian as "marked". The dark espresso slightly stains the white foamy milk. A proper macchiato is almost an even mixture of liquid milk and foam. I've had one that comes close at Starbucks but the espresso tastes so scorched that you have to mask it with caramel flavoring. This was perfect. You can see the beautiful layering of the drink in this picture. Pardon the dark shots. I was trying to photograph my food without disrupting other patrons.

We decided to share some dessert to go with our coffee and Chris insisted on Kaiserschmarrn. As you can see in the picture, it is a thick German pancake that is cut into pieces, sprinkled with sugar and served with a warm compote of plums. This picture doesn't really convey how HUGE of a serving that was given to us. We couldn't even finish it which is practically unheard of! Ha! We had some serious food envy from the table next to us when they brought it out. I can't say that I blame them. It should also be stated that Chris had serious drink envy when he tasted my macchiato.

ETA: I went to Starbucks tonight and ordered a macchiato. It tasted like I was drinking a campfire.