First up: we went to the market!
It started off the usual market - mostly produce, the occasional butcher, cheesemonger, and spice merchant - and then we got to our goal: THE FLEA MARKET:
Row upon row of some truly terrific junk.
I was mildly surprised at how many men there were shopping, and not a little assertively. It was like they all had eBay businesses to support, and God protect the person getting between them and that broken hair dryer. Jostling, pushing to the front, there were several stalls - on the cheapest row of the market - where I couldn't even see the wares through the line of them leaning over, shoulder-to-shoulder.
Then we had the most glorious lunch at Restaurant Grace, recommended by Mast yesterday.
Local milk bread stuffed with jerusalem artichokes and chestnuts, served with a jerusalem artichoke flower emulsion, and chive cream, the classic Austrian dip.
Perigord truffle with egg (slow cooked Japanese-style), sesame, and mushroom
Smoked trout with crosne, medlar and peanut with shaved terragon.
Prawn with salsify (THOSE STICKS! but now . . . tasty??), coconut and basil
We shared the main (well, we shared it all, but this was the heftiest boy) - venison, red cabbage roll, with pine nut polenta and pickled cherry gravy. Fun fact: we were served by the owner, and she told us that her father and his friends hunt the meat they serve in the restaurant - including this venison! Talk about local sourcing!
We didn't have room for dessert - in fact, I don't know we're going to be eating dinner in an hour, I'm good to not eat again until tomorrow - but they brought us each a zwetschkenknodel, the famous Austrian plum dumpling. They hand-make these themselves, slow-cooking the plums until they're a beautifully condensed, sticky jam, and dust the dumplings in poppy seeds before drizzling on the cream.
It was so warming and comforting; just perfect in this winter weather.
Okay, time to get ready to go . . . to dinner. Oh God.
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