Meierei - Vienna, Austria

We ate some fantastic food on our European holiday. Most of it we cooked ourselves, like quinoa with sausages and chanterelles, potatoes with lardons, creme fraiche and red peppers, and pasta with mushrooms, fresh soft cheese and more lardons. There were also so many amazing things to eat straight up. Thick, Greek natural yogurt, creamy with an amazing tang. Fresh sheep's cheese slathered on bread. The best pistachio gelato I've ever had in Paris. Fresh-smoked soft cheese in Denmark. Spicy, chewy, fatty and highly addictive sausages that we munched while walking around the streets of Vienna.

We only ate out a few times, and in the next few posts I'm going to tell you about some of those places. Let's start with Meierei.

Meierei is a cafe and milk bar in Vienna. (Meierei is the German word for dairy.) There are lots of great things about this place, but one of the best? Definitely its location. 

Meierei is inside the Vienna Stadtpark (city park). You can take the U-bahn line (subway) right into the park, although we walked here. Meierei is right below another, fancier restaurant called Steirereck im Stadtpark. The park is gorgeous, a long green rectangle with a canal running through it, big old trees, benches and statues. The restaurant sits overlooking the canal and the park. We didn't see where the entrance to Steirereck is, but we were beckoned down the stairs to Meierei by a big milk bottle. 

Once inside, the theme is definitely milk. Lots of milk. In fact, the walls of the foyer are covered with floor-to-ceiling photos of milk, all froth and bubbles. Inside the restaurant, there are milk bottles lining the wall behind the bar and white everywhere.  

We sat outside on the deck. It was beautiful out there, with a little shade from the awning. 

With J's lactose allergy, a restaurant specializing in milk might not seem like a natural choice. But I read about this place online and I knew they offered all different kinds of milk he could drink. They have cow's milk, goat's milk, soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, and even horse milk! That last one kind of freaked us out. On top of the plain milk they have all kinds of flavoured milks, warm or cold. J ordered strawberry goat's milk and I ordered warm cow's milk with cardamom.

We enjoyed them both, although the cardamom milk was very sweet. But of course we couldn't stop there. On top of milk, Meierei offers a full cafe menu, but one of their specialties is, of course, cheese. We are not ones to turn down a good cheese plate. Because of J's limitations, we went for the cow-goat-sheep plate, although I would have loved to try the selection of Austrian cheeses or raw milk cheeses as well. 

The presentation of the cheese plate was outstanding. I really loved the way they did it at Farm in Calgary, but this plate had so much elegance and panache. The smear of apricot preserves, the pumpkin seeds tossed haphazardly, and all the tiny labels on the flat porcelain made it very luxe.

Of course the cheese was fantastic. I don't remember how they all tasted and I definitely didn't take any notes, but we loved all of them but one. You see the little dish with the runny cheese in it? That one was vile. It was the consistency of gluey cheese fondue and tasted like strong, moldy garbage. We could barely smell it.  

But everything else was delightful. Of course the plate came with a basket of bread that I couldn't eat, but we had just bought some gluten-free bread, so I discreetly slid it out of my bag and into my lap, and ripped chunks off the slices to eat my cheese with. Very convenient.

While we were eating I felt the urge to try another kind of milk, so I ordered the milk with chocolate, orange and ginger. This concoction is something I can't get out of my head, and if I ever open a restaurant (not likely!) it is going on the menu. The concept is brilliant. A glass of warm milk arrives at the table accompanied by a frozen chocolate popsicle. You dip the popsicle into your milk and swirl it around until it tastes the way you like it. You can leave it in there to melt or eat it right off the stick. Amazing! And it tasted fabulous - rich chocolate spiced with orange and ginger. The most original hot chocolate I ever drank. 

We had already eaten a lot that day and I could barely finish the three cow's cheeses on the plate (of course I tasted all the others as well). It doesn't look like much, but with all that milk in me I was full to bursting. J decided to try one of the desserts, Rhubarb Snow with Violets. I was intrigued as to what this would be, and it looked gorgeous. It was basically a granita - shaved ice with sugar and flavourings. Despite the bright pink colour it didn't taste all that much like rhubarb. The highlight was the sugared violets. They were crunchy, sweet and like nothing we'd eaten before.   

Although we didn't sample the other food at Meierei, given the cheese and milk offerings I'm sure it's good. When we are next in Vienna I hope we can visit this place again. The temptation of amazing cheese and milk plus a beautiful location is a winner. 

Meierei im Stadtpark
Am Heumarkt 2A, A-1030 Wien
http://steirereck.at/wien/meierei/

A New Direction

I'm not sure what's the best way to share big news on a blog, so here goes: In July I was diagnosed with celiac disease.

Of course there are two ways of looking at this. As someone who revels in all types of food, loves to cook and bake, and adores eating out in restaurants, I could see this as a major handicap. Or I could see it as a challenge. I feel lucky that I know how to cook and I already take time to do it each day. I'm happy that I've already tried my hand at gluten-free baking. I'm grateful that I was diagnosed at a time when there is more information and awareness out there about celiac disease than ever before, when I can go to most mainstream grocery stores and buy gluten-free granola bars, waffles, bread and cereal. Most of all, I'm happy to have my health back.



I was shocked when my family doctor told me back in May that he thought I probably had celiac disease. Of course, I had been getting sporadic stomach aches since I was about fourteen, but no other doctor had ever suggested this could be the cause. I thought I had already ruled out a gluten intolerance after my cleanse in 2009. My first thought was relief that it wasn't something more serious, that I wouldn't have to take any medication or have surgery. But then I began to feel despair. What about eating in restaurants? What about continuing my restaurant reviews? What about being a food writer? It all seemed impossible.

But the despair didn't last long. In the two months between my blood test and the confirmation of my illness, I had time to realize this was actually good news. Yes, I had a serious disease, but unlike most I could completely cure myself just by what I ate. What freedom! I knew it would be a challenge, but I was determined to feel better. I also resolved to continue writing about food in my job at CBC and here on this blog. Who knew where this new direction could take me?





I have now been eating gluten-free for nearly three months. Although my health isn't entirely on track, I do feel a lot better. And I'm still discovering what I can eat every day - I'm sure I'll be learning for the rest of my life. There is so much to explore and experiment with. The food we eat at home still tastes fantastic, and I've recently started my adventures in gluten-free baking, which I hope to write about soon. The internet is awash in gluten-free websites and blogs (for a few of my favourites so far, see my new GF blogroll). The amount of information out there is astounding. I can't imagine having celiac disease even ten years ago, let alone 30 years ago. It must have felt like such a struggle. Today, it is getting easier and easier.

Here is just one recent example: J's brother and his wife are planning a dinner at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant in Edmonton, for next month. "I'll have to call them and see if they have gluten-free options," I told J. "They probably don't". He berated me for being too pessimistic and handed me the phone. Sure enough, the friendly woman at the restaurant informed me they have an entirely gluten-free menu. Every one of their fondues can be made gluten-free.



So this is our new adventure, and I plan on writing about it as much as possible. Fist up, travels in Europe. Then we'll get back to home cooking. Although this blog will now be entirely gluten-free, I'm not planning on changing the name. I might add some kind of GF sub-title, but I'm not sure yet. The main ingredient of The Little Red Kitchen hasn't changed: personal stories about cooking and eating real food that tastes fantastic.

These photos are all from our travels in Europe, and they are making me hungry! I'll be back with stories from our trip soon.

My sister's wedding cakes

My trip to Halifax in early July was everything I hoped it would be. Fun. relaxed. Full of wedding-ness, family and cake-baking. It felt awesome to be back there. Awesome and a bit weird. It's my home, but my home is also in Charlottetown, and now sort of in Edmonton too. It makes for a strange feeling.

I ate some great food, home-cooked and out in restaurants. Of course there were places I wanted to visit that I didn't, but I have a couple of food posts in the works about the trip.

And the cakes! Oh yes, the cakes. Well. I made eight cakes, which was not as hard as it sounds. We wanted to have layer cakes so they could be filled, but the thought of baking 16 cakes instead of eight was, frankly, terrifying. So instead we baked eight, and cut each one in two so we could fill them. The final formula was orange cakes with lemon buttercream and lemon filling with sliced strawberries.

First I baked them, split them and froze them by wrapping first in plastic wrap and then in tin foil.

Then I made the buttercream and the filling. That meant a LOT of lemons. Thank God Claire has a juicer. This used to be my parents' and I love it.



Then it was time to put the cakes together. After thawing, I spent the morning before the wedding filling, crumbing and frosting in stages. Crumbing is when you put a thin layer of icing on a cake to seal in the crumbs. Then you have to chill it before frosting.

These steps actually took less time than I thought they would - I think I really got into the zone. I made sure the decorating was simple: I just piped a single border on the bottom of each cake. I don't have a lot of experience piping, but I managed to make them all look pretty good. The frosting was super fluffy and fantastic to work with.

I definitely learned a few things through this whole process. If you are baking wedding cakes, or any large-scale baking project for a special occasion, this is my advice:

1. Make sure you have all the right equipment. I couldn't have done it without my mini palette knife to spread the frosting in straight lines, the right piping tip (in my case it was the star tip), and a turntable (or a revolving cake stand) to help ice the cakes easily.

2. Plan the transport of the cakes. We bought cardboard cake plates and cardboard cake boxes at the Bulk Barn in Halifax. The cakes were 9 inches and we bought 10-inch cake plates and 12-inch boxes. Emma, one of the other bridesmaids, helped me transport the cakes from Claire's apartment to the hall where the wedding was (thanks Emma!), and even with a little sliding around in the boxes, there was no mussing of the icing.

3. Buy extra of all ingredients. It took me about half an hour to calculate what I would need to octuple (is that a word?) these recipes, and I erred on the side of caution when I was at the grocery store (although of course I forgot a few things and had to make a few extra trips later). There's nothing more annoying than running out of lemons when you're still 2 tablespoons short of lemon juice.

4. Make sure your leavening agents are fresh. To be honest, I've never really thought much about this, but it really makes a difference. We made the first cake as a test with older baking powder and it did not rise that much. When we made the others with new baking powder they rose way more.



I would recommend all three of these recipes to anyone - and not just vegans! Not only are they all delicious, but practically they really hold up too. The cake recipe freezes well and was firm enough to cut easily without any crumbly bits. Despite the hot, muggy weather in Halifax, the buttercream (made with vegetable shortening and vegan margarine) showed zero signs of melting or separating even after the cakes sat on the display table at the reception for 12 hours (and no air conditioning in the room). Impressive, I say. The orange cake and buttercream are both from the fantastic book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World - a solid investment if you are a vegan or if you have any vegans in your life you like to bake for. The lemon creme filling is from another vegan dessert book called Sweet Utopia.




I was very lucky to be making these for an extremely grateful and non-demanding bride and groom. It was so great to be able to do this as a gift to both of them. Since they both love food, I knew the cakes had to taste amazing (hence the four test cakes before leaving Edmonton). But they weren't very picky about appearances, which I appreciated very much. We ended up decorating the cakes with an array of fresh summer fruit - red and Rainier cherries, strawberries, and blueberries. We left the fruit whole so it wouldn't bleed onto the white icing, which meant we had to remove some of it to make the cakes easier to cut, but it was okay. The cakes were all displayed together on one table on cake stands we had borrowed from friends and family. The final effect was very pretty and summery.


I got lots of compliments on the cake from people at the reception, which felt great. I thought it was good too. Although, to be honest, I probably won't be making another citrus-flavoured cake for a long time.

After a fantastic wedding and party, Claire and Alex went to Turkey on their honeymoon. Congratulations guys!! Maybe I can bake a cake for your anniversary party in the future ...

Just a Taste

I can still taste the silkiness of this poached pear, the vanilla-scented honey syrup with a faint aftertaste of anise, the perfect warm ending to an amazing meal.

This is just a taste of a transcendent lunch we ate in Paris, and just a nibble of our entire European adventures. We are back in Edmonton after an amazing summer. Three and a half weeks in Europe, and so many stories and experiences. Plus my sister's wedding in Halifax and some fun times here at home too. I'm so lucky to have these memories - it truly was the summer of a lifetime.

I can't wait to share it with you all, but unfortunately the blogging software I use isn't working on my computer right now, so we'll all have to wait a little bit longer. (I'm using blogger to post this but I really can't stand it for long posts).

I promise lots of good things coming up - photos of Claire's wedding cakes, plus more food experiences in Halifax, excessive amounts of cheese and sausage products in Europe, some special meals, and also some big news. This blog is about to head in a new direction ... and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

See you soon!