Carol's foot is ailing so CJ goes out for a "short walk". Two hours later he returns soaking wet from his "short" stroll around Vienna in 90+ degree heat having taken in the sites.
For lunch we cross the street to the main city park of Vienna to a Klaus recommended restaurant, Meierei im Steiereck. We have an incredible melon and tomato chilled soup appetizer with CJ following with beef tartare and Carol fresh fish sticks (nothing like Mrs. Pauls). These were shredded fish with shredded vegetables coated with panko and lightly deep fried.
For dinner we're meeting with friends for Tafelspitz, a quintessential Austrian dinner. Boiled beef doesn't sound appetizing to us but you know what they say, when in Rome.
We meet Klaus, Joanne and their DC friends Lyn and Dee at
Plachutta located a few blocks from our hotels.
Plachutta is one of the most renown, if not the best for tafelspitz.
To the table come large copper pots filled with broth. Unseen in the pots are vegetables, marrow bones and boiled beef. For the first course, soups bowls arrive filled with a shredded pancake (think hashbrowns) into which the server ladle's the broth. Well at least the first course will be delicious.
There are two sauces served with tafelspitz: the first is sour cream and chive and the second is horseradish and apple.
The boiled beef (looking like a terribly overcooked piece of beef) is fished out of the pot and placed on the plate with creamed spinach and hash browns. The sauces are generously applied to the beef. It is a delicious meal. The meat is fork tender and with the sauces, incredibly tasty.
There are six huge chunks of marrow. Klaus feels he must uphold Austrian values by taking one. All ladies opt out leaving five of them for CJ. He is in heaven.
And what of the wine. We need to remember that first, Klaus in Austrian and second he is one of America's foremost Austrian winemakers. Do you think we had good Austrian wine with dinner?
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