Just some take-away Chili con carne...

that I ate last week for lunch at work. It's available at The Roast for 5,90€ and includes an onion bagel, which was delicious (and unfortunately isn't in the pic).
The Chili con carne is moderately spicy, has loads of minced meat, some beans and some corn in it. I was full from half the cup and the bagel... so the price is pretty ok. I just wished it came with two bagels haha, but you can buy an extra one for 1€ anyway...

Maredo... like 3rd, 4th time?!

I went there relatively often as you can see... their food is good and something besides Pizza that my bf likes.
So here is another piled up salad. They never change the range of salads though. Even though I love what's there I'd be happy to see a new noodles salad or something every once in a while.
My rib-eye steak rare, with sourcreme and french fries. Nice meat, but I still prefer the much tender filet.

My bf's rumpsteak an wedges.

Fried veggies as side dish. This wasn't that good though, mainly onions and peppers. Wouldn't order it again (actually my bf ordered it).

Well, I'd recommend you going there for lunch (between 11 AM and 5PM) since they have special prices for the steak+salad+potatoe side. The 180g filet steak is ideal for my and the whole menu 'only' costs 12,80€, while you usually (dinnertime, weekend and holidays) have to pay 18€ (I believe) for the filet steak alone.

Luxemburgerli

It's been a while, this week has been really busy. I had visitors, started working fulltime and finally I have time to post some new things. Let's start with the Luxemburgerlis that my friend brought with her from Zurich. You usually can't get them anywhere else besides Switzerland, they need to be eaten on the same day (or at least the following day), BUT they are the swiss version of the french Macaroons, just a tiny bit smaller and with different flavors.

The glittering one in the bottom row middle is light champagne. Yes, it really shimmers, as if they dusted some golden shimmering pigment (MAC Vanilla ^^) on it. The pink one is raspberry, the dark brown chocolate (obviously), the orange tastes like mandarins and the other ones are cinnamon, hazelnut, coffee.
Had to show you the shimmer up close. It doesn't only look great, but also tastes great. There are other flavors to choose from when you're in Switzerland though. The one that intrigues me most is the Grand Cru (Black with gold dust...). Will definitely try that one if I have the chance. I'll also get several gold champagne ones since they taste really good.

All in all they're quite expensive from what I've heard, but really tasty. Not comparable with the so-so Macarons in Vienna... but I have yet to try more French Macarons. I ate some years ago, but can't remember if they were Laduree or not.

Dots Lounge - Fabulous Sushi again!

Today I went to Dots again with an old friend who is reading this blog frequently :D She loves butterfish too... so we went here again, around dinnertime.
The pics here are only of a small part of the lounge. There are several rooms at the back which seem to be for bigger groups (we saw them while looking for the restrooms).

For drinks I had a passion fruit lemonade (on the left) and my friend had a strawberry lemonade because they ran out of raspberry sirup... both tasted fruity and sweet without being overwhelming. We actually got bigger sizes and only paid what was stated for the 0.25l (2€).

Next came prawn crackers with a mayonnaise-dip for appetizers. They are included in the cover charge (2,90€) and came out cold, but crispy.

Finally our Sushi Mixed Sets arrived. I had butterfish, salmon and tuna (4 maki, 6 nigiri, 6 sashimi).
My friend had the butterfish-only set, also 4 maki, 6 nigiri and 6 sashimi.
Both Sets cost 19,90€ and is a decent price for what you get. The fish slices are generous, fresh, juicy and oh so yummy! The rice is well seasoned, the maki more complex than your average maki, the carrot and radish stripes under the sashimi is moist/fresh (not dried out as at other places), the wasabi has a good strenght and never came out stinky, like I already experienced at other places.

So Dots is staying my favorite place for sushi right now. Not only is their butterfish to-die-for, the tuna and salmon are delicious as well. If only they were cheaper... then I'd probably eat more often there (get fatter), but perhaps a lower price would give you not-so-nice quality... so my real hope is that the food simply stays the way it is ^^.

9/10 overall, upgraded because I love the butterfish so much... I ordered the mixed fish set since I didn't wanna order all the same things as my friend XD and to see whether their other fish would be as great too... they are, but I'll take the butterfish set too next time since it's my all time favorite. Salmon comes close, but it's just not the same delicious taste. And tuna is totally different, good in it's own sense, but doesn't have that buttery fattyness I love.

Haribo Frogs...PEACH???

I was munching on some of these
(pic from worldofsweets.de)
When I looked up product info on them. So according to Haribo they should have a peach taste... WOW, after 23 years I finally get to know they should actually resemble a fruit taste... I mean I always liked the way they taste, but the brigh green color was always most intriguing. So I'm pretty surprised those bright green froggies have the taste of an orange-red fruit... well, random thoughts.

Go grab a bag of Haribo Quaxi! They're only 11 calories a piece (yeah, counted the frogs in my packet and did the maths...).
pic again from worldofsweets.de

Cookie cutter results and a recipe

Remember my post about new cookie cutters? Well I have been experimenting with not so stable dough (chocolate cookies and oat cookies), but finally tried a receipt again, with slight modifications. It gives you a dough which is perfect for cookie cutters.
Here is the batch of what I call 'Spekulatius with a hint of orange'. They can be stored for quite some time without losing their flavor or shape.

The following recipe will give you about 1.5 times the amount of what is pictured.

- 100g butter

- 50g white sugar

- 25g brown sugar

- 200g flour

- 50g grated almonds

- 1/3 teaspoon of baking powder

- 9g Spekulatius spice (I use the Kotanyi brand)

- 5g grated orange peel (you can buy it packed by the Dr. Oetker brand)

- 1 pinch of salt

- 1 egg

Mix the butter with the sugar, then add the egg for a creamy mixture. Then mix in all the other ingredients and knead it thoroughly, but not too long. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Then roll it out (3-4mm thickness) and play with the cookie cutter... place the cookies on a baking sheet and let them bake for ~15min in the preheated oven at 180° Celsius.

Feel free to coat them with a sugar glaze or a dark chocolate glaze (would suit them better than milk chocolate IMO).

The easiest Oreo-Shake...

consists of 3 ingredients:
- 250ml cold milk
- 4 oreo cookies
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla flavored mass gainer OR sweet white chocolate powder OR sugar (then I'd use less than a full tablespoon lol)

Ok, the mass gainer sounds funny, but it's one of the few vanilla flavored things I have at home that isn't vanilla sugar or even vanilla itself. If you happen to have vanilla or milk ice cream at home you can leave out the spoonful of whatever and add a scoop of ice cream to the milk and Oreo cookies. The sweetness depends on your third ingredient. Mix thoroughly with a (hand) blender and enjoy! Even though Oreo cookies are a bit expensive in Austria it's still more affordable than the Oreo shake at the Coffee Shop, around 4€ and so easy to recreate.