Food for thought!

I have been eating too well! I am spoiled. As my German teacher would say, 'ich bin eine Naschkatze,' meaning 'I have such a sweet tooth!" It is true. I have to hold myself back from buying sweets at the grocery store, and even the temptation of just being able to go in pretty much any shop and buy a 60 cent Mozartkugeln to satisfy my Naschkatze!

The food here is more delicious than you can imagine! On this trip that was so well planned for us, they fed us like we were royalty. On Friday, we ate two 3-course meals!! For lunch, we were started with a clear soup with dumplings, the main meal was Wiener Schnitzel with cooked potatoes, potato salad, and cucumber salad, and for dessert we had apfelstrudel. Ugh so full! We realized that we eat through pain, just because it tastes so good!

For dinner, I was adventurous once again. When we arrived at the hotel, we were given keys, and asked, "fish or eggplant?" He had told us that the fish was fresh from the sea, so I decided I should probably try the good stuff! The first course at this meal was a glass of wine with proscuitto ham and a slice of melon. And for the main meal? A fish: head, tail, scales and all, slapped on my plate and staring at me! I got a little nervous. The taste was unlike anything I have ever tasted before and it was delicious. I was so proud of myself for being brave enough to take my fork through the skeleton bones of the fish to get the good meat and actually eat a real fish, fresh off the sea! And for dessert we had a rhubarbstrudel.

On Saturday, even though we woke up still full from Friday's eating escapades, we were treated with a real European breakfast. If you have never experienced what a European breakfast buffet looks like, put it on your list of things to do right now! The scrambled eggs were the best I've ever tasted in my life, and they stayed warm for at least 10 minutes! I love it when my food stays hot. One of my pet peeves is food getting cold. Just to name a few, at the buffet there was bacon, eggs, tea, coffee, juice, nutella, jam, rolls, crissoints, cold cut meats, cheese, fruit, yogurts, veggies, and juice. My favorite is eating the rolls (semmeln) with butter and marmalade on top. Sometimes, dipping it in a bissel (a little) nutella!

In Bad Ischl, Emily and I went to an adorable little cafe and sat outside and I had a raspberry soda and a raspberry-chocolate cake for a late lunch! When we arrived back in Vienna at 8 pm, we went to a pub to watch the USA soccer team lose to Ghana and I ate a quesidilla at this Irish pub. The quesidilla was not like the ones they have at Otto's at Penn State--it was more like a crispy pita pocket with veggies and cheese inside! After I picked out the jalepinos, it was delicious!

Today, (Sunday) I laid off the food a bit more, but we ate Sacher Torte at the famous historical Hotel Sacher right next to the Opera house. Calling all chocolate lovers: Sacher torte may be dangerous.

Don't worry, if this makes you hungry, just ask Emily Janser for some photos! She has taken pictures of exactly every meal she eats! The presentations here are amazing. It is very cute: Emily will not touch her food until she captures it in a photo. She could make a whole album of food!