Cupcakes in Vienna... @ Gerstner

I was astonished to find a local, traditional bakery suddenly offering cupcakes. It is Gerstner on Kärntnerstrasse, the main shopping street in Vienna's 1rst district. Of course I had to try some flavors and in order to justify buying more than 1 I talked my bf into eating one too, at least partially :D

So here we got a peach cupcake on the left and a chocolate one on the right. Let me tell you: both are delicious! The frosting is lightly whipped butter with some flavor, sooo not good for your health but sooo great tasting. The chocolate cupcake is filled with a bit of hazelnut paste (like Nutella) and the peach cupcake has yummy sweet peach pieces in the dough.

I have a slight preference for the peach cupcake, sind the whole thing goes together very well. The frosting isn't too sweat and the peach pieces add a flavor boost one piece at a time. Me likes :D As for rating: 8.5/10 for the chocolate and 9/10 for the peach cupcake. They cost 3 or 3,50€ I believe. However, I've never eaten an American (original, so to say) cupcake, so I can't really compare how authentic the Gerstner cupcakes are. If anyone has the knowledge please share!

Long time no see again :P

I promise I'll be posting more regularly again in the future :D I've been busy with an internship for 6 months that ended just some weeks ago. Now I'll have plenty of time to show you more food. What's coming up? Steirereck (yeah, finally went there), Mraz und Sohn (which is kind of a Steirereck Knock-Off IMO), Business Class of China Airlines and much more...

All-you-can-eat teppanyaki in Vienna

In the last couple of months I got to know 3 Chinese style restaurants in Vienna (you know, the westernized 'Chinese' food that doesn't even exist in China...). All of them with teppanyaki or mongolian barbecue until you can't eat anymore. They are:

- Banyan (in the 9th district) near WU Wien)
- Red Apple (in the 1rst district, near TU Wien)
- Bamboo (in the 4th district, not near any University :P)

Their prices are pretty close, I can only remember Banyan exactly: 9,80€.
While Banyan claims to have Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Malay food their selection is pretty average, not anymore special than other Chinese restaurants. I was pretty disappointed since I'm looking for good Thai and Malay food (the best Thai restaurant I found in Vienna is called Bangkok, the prices are mid high). Ok, enough bashing, the food itself is okay, typical all-you can eat plus the Teppanyaki with average sauces to choose.

Red Apple has a bigger selection of sauces, but they didn't really taste that differently from each other (went there with a couple of friends, so I could try almost all of them) and their 'super spicy' sauce was mild IMO.

The last one is Bamboo, which impressed me most with its dessert selection actually. The main dishes and Teppanyaki are average (even though you have a bigger choice of Sushi there, which doesn't really taste that great, but whatever...), while for dessert you can choose from fruits as well as a wide array of cookies (not typically Chinese...).

My verdict: Bamboo is the winner out of the 3, if I had to rate it I'd give it a 7.5/10, but in general these Teppanyaki-style buffets didn't really WOW me, KWIM? The sauces are mostly bland and the result is not too impressing. Could have done the same at home if I had that many seafood and veggies to choose from.

Next up is the vegetarian restaurant, this time with pics again!

Long time no see...

I haven't eaten anything exciting lately, thus the lack of posts. However, some days ago I went to an interesting eatery, organic, veg and cheap... will be posting pics and a review soon. In addition I had my third Teppanyaki style all-you-can-eat experience today... It was a restaurant called Banyan, the other ones are Bamboo and Red Apple. Stay tuned for detailed reviews.

Weird food combinations

reading a thread on a forum made me think about this again. Here's the initial question:

Are there any things you like to eat together that really don't go together or most people find weird?

Well, most stuff I eat people find weird. Sometimes I eat desserts before the main dish... but aside from that, here are my favorite weirdo-combis:

- banana slices on a peanutbutter toast
- blue cheese with figue jam and roasted pumpkin seeds on bread (that's actually how one gourmet cheese restaurant serves it. loved the combination ever since)
- pickles and ham
- French fries with regular mayonnaise
- breaded deep-fried chicken with mayonnaise (baked in fat, dipped in fat, love it)

That's all I can come up with right now. Next time I'll post pics again

Trying to eat less calories...

Looks pretty healthy, eh?
Forget it, I was offered some cookies afterwards and couldn't say no...

And guess what, I even ate more cookies than pictured :D

Other lunch options

Working fulltime leaves little time to cook, so I've been checking out the Bagels by the Roast. Today I got the Thai chicken-coconut soup again (yummy, just wished it was spicy and costs less). Last time it had soy sprouts in it though, this time only chicken, carrots and mushrooms. The bagel was a pumpkin seed one, I think it's kinda random with that soup, last time it was either the oregano or tomato bagel, while dishes like chili con carne scream for an onion bagel... And I had the blueberry bagel (not pictured) for dessert. But I like the raisin-cinnamon one (next pic) better. Still have to check out the chocolate bagel.
Here we have the pic of a different day. On the left is raisin-cinnamon, right is poppy seed and bottom is onion bagel. The last is still my favorite out of the salty flavors. I was surprised 2 of them would keep me full for several hours. Good value for 1€ each.
I might need to go to the weekend brunch at that place, quite pricy at 17€ (I think), but endless amounts of bagels...