The Rake Magazine

"Probieren Sie mal, Herr Professor," says the guy behind the counter at the market stall, as he holds out a freshly fried felafel ball. "Have a taste." (I guess the beard and glasses make me look like a Herr Professor.) A few feet away, another vendor holds out a green olive on a toothpick. Strolling through the Naschmarkt, Vienna's open air market, is like running a gastronomic gauntlet. The market stretches out for about a mile through the heart of the city, with scores of vendors on either side of narrow pedestrian walkways.

On loan from the Minnesota State Fair: The Vegematic guy!

Most of the fruit and vegetable vendors seem to be Turkish, but you can also find bakeries, cheese shops, wine merchants, doner kebab vendors, Oriental markets, and stalls offering everything from artisan vinegars to fresh pasta, fish, meat and sausage. There are also a lot of little cafes in the Naschmarkt, offering everything from traditional Austrian Wienerschnitzel and brathaendl (roasted chicken) to palatschinken (crepes) to Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine.

**Click here for more pictures from the market and take a look at the video (below).**

Zum Alten Fassl, a typical Viennese tavern-restaurant. Image from Zum Alten Fassl website.

Greetings from Vienna, one of the great food cities of the world. Americans may lump Austrian cuisine together with German cooking, but Vienna has its own distinctive cuisine, and it's a lot better and more interesting than German cooking. In part, this might be because the Austrians are Catholics, and the Germans - or at least the northern Germans - tend to be Protestants. The farther south you go in Germany, the more Catholic it is, and the better the cuisine. I have a whole theory about this, that I will have to save for another time.

photo by Kobako, used under Creative Commons license.

At any rate, there's a lot more to Viennese cuisine than Wienerschnitzel and Wiener wurstchen, (hot dogs, not to be confused with wiener dogs.) The classic Wienerschnitzel is made from veal, and is actually an adaptation of Italian veal scallopine, but most Wienerschnitzels in Vienna nowadays are made from pork, followed by chicken or turkey. A proper Wienerschnitzel is supposed to be pounded very thin, breaded in egg, flour and breadcrumbs, and then pan-fried. Done right, a Wienerschnitzel should be so un-greasy that you could sit down on it, if you were so inclined, and not get grease stains on your pants. Wienerschnitzel is about as ubiquitous in Viennese restaurants as hamburgers are on Twin Cities menus - even Turkish and Italian restaurants seem to feel the need to offer a schnitzel for less adventuresome diners. Another popular variation is the schnitzel semmel, a chicken or pork schnitzel on a bun, which has a strong resemblance to the classic Minnesota pork tenderloin sandwich.

Vienna is the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which made it a cultural crossroads for centuries - and besides, emperors usually like to eat well, and tend to do a lot of high-end entertaining. Today, Vienna is still a crossroads - you can hear dozens of languages on the streets, and find restaurants serving practically every cuisine in the world. Thanks to an influx of Turkish immigrant "guest workers" starting in the 60s, the most popular street food in Vienna is the doner kebab, the Turkish cousin of the gyros sandwich, sold on practically every street corner for about $5. Pizzerias are nearly as popular.

Last night, I took my son and his girlfriend out to Zum Alten Fassl, a typical Viennese beisl (tavern-restaurant), for some traditional Viennese cooking - he had Zwiebelrostbraten, roast beef with crispy fried onions, and I ordered one of the classics, Tafelspitz, tender boiled beef in beef broth, served with carrots, parsnips, applesauce and creamy horseradish sauce (it's a lot better than it sounds), all washed down with local Gosser beer.

photo: diners in Bad Lauterberg listen to the bawdy stories of Fra Davolo

Goettingen, Germany. Most people don't come to this German university town in search of great cuisine, and I didn't either. I came because my father is recovering from quintuple bypass surgery at a clinic near here.

Everything you have heard about prices in Europe is true, mostly. I pulled off the Autobahn to get a quick bite at a rest stop, and spent $4 for a bottle of water (same price for soda pop), and $4.50 for the German equivalent of a hot dog. (Of course, this was a much bigger and better hot dog than you get at SuperAmerica for $1.39, but still...)

For a town of 130,000 or so, Goettingen has a pretty impressive selection of restaurants. You name it, they've got it - Thai, Greek, Italian, Indian, Turkish, Middle Eastern, Chinese, etc. About the only cuisine that's hard to find here is German. This part of Germany has never been known for great food, and the local populace has eagerly embraced foreign cuisines.

My first night in town, my mother and I headed to what we are told is the best restaurant in Goettingen, the Gauss-Keller, on a hot tip: They offer a late-night three course menu for 18 Euros (about $28, including tax), including a glass of Bordeaux, a bottle of mineral water, and a cup of espresso. This turns out to be a truly great meal, and an amazing value, since their regular prix-fixe menus range from $59 for three courses to around $89 for five.

It's actually four courses - if you count the appetizer-sized amuse bouche of chicken pate, served with a marinated cherry compote and herb infused oil. The courses are simple but ample: a salad of field greens; Serrano ham and melon; followed by a main course of maultaschen, the German version of ravioli, stuffed with minced beef and bathed in a rich mushroom sauce accented with chanterelles. The dessert was a strawberry pannacotta, accompanied by a house-made strawberry sorbet and fresh strawberries. The after-dinner espresso arrived with a little plate of tiny sweets, and when the bill arrives, it is accompanied by a pair of tiny white chocolate truffles.

The next morning, before visiting my father at the rehab center, we strolled the Goettingen farmers' market, which offers a great selection of local fresh fruit and vegetables, plus stalls and wagons selling a big selection of cheeses, meats, olives, etc.

Bawdy tales: The next night's dinner was a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous-- a special outing organized for cardiac patients and their families to a nearby café (in the resort town of Bad Lauterberg), for a Tuscan theme dinner, organized around the fictional adventures of a Tuscan monk named Fra Bartolo. About 40 people sat around a U-shaped table garnished with abundant tomatoes, heads of iceberg lettuce, red and green peppers, parsley, onions and other seasonal veggies, plus what seemed to be an unlimited supply of cheap but decent Italian wine.

The first course was a do-it-yourself salad, assembled from the table decorations, and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The remaining courses were served by two waiters dressed as monks, in brown cassocks with white rope belts, and between courses one of the monks entertained the diners by reading ribald stories about Fra Bartolo's adventures, gastronomic and amorous. Who says Germans don't know how to have fun?

The courses of penne tossed with ham and tomato, and roasted chicken cacciatore with mashed potatoes, and the dessert of semifreddo custard with Amaretto and biscotti were all only a notch or two above the Old Country Buffet caliber of volume cooking, but a good time was had by all. Cost for the whole extravaganza - a mere 10 Euros, or $15.60, all-inclusive.

Where would Count Dracula dine if he visited the Twin Cities? We don't have any Romanian restaurants, but if he misses the cooking of his native Transylvania (now a part of Romania), he'll have a once-a-year opportunity on Saturday, July 26, when Saint Stephen Romanian Orthodox Church, Saint Paul, sponsors its annual Twin Cities Romanian Festival. The menu will feature Romanian sausage, grilled chicken, salad, Romanian pastries, beer and more. A Romanian music ensemble will perform in traditional costumes, and tours of the church will be offered.

On second thought, this probably isn't a good bet for the Count: the festival will be held only during daylight hours (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.), and the tour of the church is sure to include an abundance of crosses.

July Special At Saffron: I've never really understood why the 112 eatery always seems to be jam-packed, and the terrific Saffron, right across the street at 123 N. 3^rd Street is often half-empty. Don't get me wrong - Isaac Becker is a great chef, and I love the food at 112 Eatery, but the decibel level can be awfully high, and the last couple of times I have tried to dine there, the wait for a table was longer than I could handle.

I have never had to wait for a table at Saffron, which, for my money, ranks as one of the best restaurants in the Twin Cities -- and offers a much quieter and more relaxing setting. Some of the entrées are a bit pricy, but there are also a couple of options for under $20, and sometimes we just share a few of the mezze (Middle Eastern tapas, $4-$6) or small plates (mostly $8-$10).

The owners call the cuisine "Mediterranean and Middle Eastern," but that doesn't really convey the sophistication of chef-owner Sameh Wadi's cooking. They're offering a three-course tasting menu again this month, but this time it's a dinner for two, for $55 -- or $50 for a vegetarian version. The July menu starts with a selection of mezze, followed by paella for two -- made with chicken, seafood and saffron-flavored rice, with assorted ice creams and sorbet for dessert. Call 612-746-5533 for reservations.

Drinking Organically at Agri: The cuisine at Cafe Agri, 4300 Bryant Ave. S., Minneapolis, may be a little too healthy for my tastes, but I would gladly go back, grab a sidewalk table and try some of their extensive list of organic and sustainably produced wines and beers, especially at these prices: lots of choices wines from Argentina, Chile and Italy, priced at $4.50 a glass or $18 a bottle, plus an interesting selection of organic and gluten-free beers, both domestic ($4) and imported ($7).

meat parillada - photo by Denis Jeong

I’d driven past La Poblanita, 1617-23 E. Lake St., for years, but I dined there for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been back twice since. The two addresses are actually two businesses – a restaurant at the corner, and a tortilleria next door, which houses a small tortilla factory, meat market, and grocery store.

They make their own tortillas from scratch, first cooking the corn, then grinding it into masa, which may explain why the restaurant menu offers so many different kinds of street food based on masa. Some of these are familiar – like the tacos and tostadas, but others are more unusual – like the tlacoyos, gorditas, and huaraches (“sandals”). These are mostly variations on a theme – fat cakes of masa, stuffed or topped with beans or cheese or meat. They’re cheap, filling, and very tasty.

The clientele seems to be almost entirely Latino, which is usually a good sign, and the big screen TV seems to be permanently tuned to Univision, the Spanish language network.

I’ve sampled about half a dozen menu items so far, including the chiles rellenos (poblano peppers stuffed with cheese, battered and deep-fried) and the camarones al ajillo (shrimp sautéed with mild dried peppers and staggering amounts of garlic) – much milder than it looks, but very tasty. The pozole rojo, a hearty pork and hominy soup in a red chile pepper broth was spicy but not overpowering, and was served with two tostadas on the side, which made it an ample meal.

I’d like to go back with a bigger group and try some of their charolas (platters) that serve three to five people ($36-$38), topped with various combinations of chicken, pork chops, quesadillas, rice and beans, or else one of the parilladas (table-top grills) -- either the meat version, with chicken, pork and beef ($24, serves three) or the seafood version ($36), piled high with shrimp, tilapia, crab legs, and more.

Best time for a visit might be on a Friday evening, when La Poblanita hosts a karaoke contest, with cash prizes.

Tortilleria, Taqueria & Carneceria La Poblanita, 1617 - 1623 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, 612-728-0383.