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Ube Ice Cream in Vienna
Eating Dessert in Austria
A few weeks back I was in Vienna. A German friend told me before I left— skip dinner if you must, but always eat dessert in Austria. After my visit, I understood why he’d given me this advice.
Simply having a pastry at the train station was an experience. We arrived from Budapest tired and cranky. So we stopped to refresh ourselves at a coffee shop in the train terminal. It was a revelation.
The coffee, the simple, plain coffee — amazing. I understood now why European friends over the years had grumbled about American coffee. The pastries — at the train station, mind you — were mind altering.
I quickly became a believer in eating Viennese desserts and took the opportunity to do so whenever I could, even if it meant stinting on my dinner.
Yes, vegetables in Austria were also delicious — they pride themselves on the freshness of their produce and having the best quality ingredients from their local farms. Their breads — let’s just say I need to write a separate article on those. Even the meats were better, as they treat their animals more humanely and generally pasture them.
But Viennese desserts are in a category of their own.
Among the delicious treats I enjoyed while in Austria — amazing ice cream. In the…