SJK Travels - Vienna, Austria

Hello, friends! Please excuse my blogging hiatus this past year. I've been a tad busy! With my first full-time job, part-time school, getting married, buying and renovating our first home, and traveling a bit, I've had zero time for blogging. But I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! Just fallen off the face of Blogger, but I'm back now, and I hope to always be able to squeeze in some blogging time from now on. :)

Speaking of traveling, I was lucky enough to be sent on a business trip to Vienna! Tough gig right? This was my first trip to Europe, and I was completely swept off me feet with the beauty of the old buildings and the fantastic food. I'm excited to share the highlights of my Vienna trip!

I lived out the tea party fantasies of my childhood at Hotel Sacher, home of the famous Sacher Torte! My colleagues and I split one LARGE continental breakfast, but each ordered our own torte of course.

I loved how intensely flavorful the Sacher Torte was without being overly sweet! A thin layer of apricot jam is a lovely surprise among all of the rich chocolate. And it is served with UNSWEETENED whipped cream! I ate unsweetened whipped cream several times in Vienna actually, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I grew to appreciate the purely textural addition to the pastries. 

I could wander around Naschmarkt, a farmers market + shops, for days... With everything from farmer's stands to delis to bakeries to spice shops to restaurants to soap shops, everything was fresh and pure.

It's probably a good thing that they limit the food you can bring with you through customs, or I would have brought was too many Naschmarkt goodies home with me! I bought only some handmade soaps for my parents and ate a very European lunch of prosciutto and a baguette, with macarons for dessert! Dessert can be after lunch too... don't judge me! :P

As if all of the glorious pastries, coffee, and meat and potatoes Vienna had to offer weren't enough to win me over - The Austrian dry white wine Grüner Veltliner is so delicious! I'll have to hunt for it in the states!

My foodie takeaways from the trip:
1. Sometimes less is more when it comes to sugar in desserts. I actually LOVED the unsweetened whipped cream that topped many of the desserts. And oftentimes a non-overly-sweet flavor was the star of the dish, like fruit puree, liqueur, or coffee. I'll keep this in the back of my mind the next time I'm whipping up something sweet!
2. Sliced deli meat and a hunk of fresh bread is one of the best lunches ever. I find myself craving this for lunch, especially on days when I feel lazy. Some deli meat, a hunk of cheese, and some fresh bread as finger food, and I'm tooootally content. Luckily Publix is the best grocery store ever, so high quality versions of all of these items are always readily available to me. 
3. Grüner Veltliner wine is fan. tastic.
4. A week of eating lots of meats and starches is best followed by a week of eating salads. ;) I'll have to say, a lot of the food in Vienna was HEAVY. I got home and all I wanted to eat was green things. But all the goulash, wiener schnitzel, and spaetzle sure was fun while it lasted!

Browse around #SJKTravels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more wanderlusting-foodie pictures from my trip!