Paging Dr. Falafel! World Cuisine in Vienna; Plus, I Get Interviewed on Egyptian-European TV

Take two falafel and call me in the morning:

You might not think that a trip to Vienna would include dim sum, dhal, stuffed grape leaves, and lots and lots of delectable falafel, but mine sure did. And then some. (Of course, along with my adventures in international cuisine, I also had more than my fair share of knodel, knockerl, spaetzle, dumplings,  and cheese, which I'll talk about in a future post!)

Falafel and kebap stands, shops, and takeaways are everywhere in Vienna.  While many stores and restaurants in the city close relatively early, there is always a place to grab a late night schwarma or durum kebap - in fact, the cool kids swarm these Turkis joints at all hours:

Not being cool kids ourselves, Poppa Trix and I decided to get our falafel fix during daylight hours at  Dr. Falafel in the Naschmarkt. I've certainly enjoyed this type of food many times in the past, but there was something special about these plates. The falafel was perfectly crispy on the outside, and well spiced and moist on the inside, while the curried hummus, warm pita bread,  and various peppers - from hot to sweet -  really hit the spot. Maybe all food tastes better when you eat it outside, at your leisure:

 

The last thing I expected to find in Vienna was good dim sum, but when we heard that Happy Buddha serves up destination dumplings all day long, we were all over it.  It's a good thing we checked this place out, because the juicy prawn and chive dumplings, eggplant stuffed with fish, and prawn rolls with sesame gave us the strength to get to the Kierlinger Heuriger later that day. 

Our next world cuisine excursion was at Der Wiener Deewan, a Pakistani all-you-can-eat buffet located in the University district where you "pay as you wish."  

I love this concept! While we paid the full suggested amount, I have a feeling that the many hungry students gratefully chowing down on heaping portions of dhal maser, tory masali, and alu palak were avoiding starvation thanks solely to this relaxed approach to payment.

Plus, you can write on the wall, so what's not to love?

But of all our many food adventures on this trip, I think our impromptu visit to the Egyptian Cultural Center may be the most ... strange.  Wonderful, to be sure, but strange. You see, each day, on our way to and from our apartment, we noticed a little sign for the Egyptian (Aegyptische) Cultural Center at the foot of a staircase in a courtyard. Being the food obsessed person that I am,  I invariably (and wistfully) said something like: "I bet if they have events there the food is awesome. I wish we could go and taste it." But what were the chances they'd have some event we could attend during our stay? Oh well.

Lo and behold, one day, on our way back to the apartment, we spy a group of boisterous teenage boys handing out flyers right near the Center ... and one of them is about 6' tall and dressed in some sort of pharaoh costume.  This looked promising. As we approached, one of the kids handed us a flyer and announced (in German):  "Egyptian bazzaar! Today only!"

No way.

"Is there food?" I asked, forgetting, in my excitement, to try to say it auf Deutsch.

"Yes! This way!" the kids all replied in Austrian-accented English, and we were off, running pell mell up the stairs, led by Mohammed,  a really sweet (and very tall!) kid - he's the one in the pharaoh outfit:

As the only non-Egyptians in attendance, Poppa Trix and I seemed to be attracting a bit of attention. Several people stopped and snapped photos of us, and before I knew it, I was approached by a man with a video camera and a woman with a microphone. "You will be interviewed for Egyptian European TV?"

To say that this took me by surprise is a massive understatement! "Um ... sure. English okay?"

"Ja, ja, English okay! Just talk about how beautiful all this is - " and here he waved his arm to indicate the Cultural Center - "and also how much you love it!"

Okay, you asked for it  ... and so I launched into a rambling and possibly slightly insane account of how much I love food, and enjoy different experiences, and how I was so thrilled to be at the bazaar ... and I think I said something about my blog: "Ich habbe eine food blog," or some such thing.  It was a fun and confusing blur:

Poppa Trix was interviewed too, but I was too flustered to snap his photo. They told us our interview would air on TV, but that we could also view it at EgyUroTV.net "at some point in the future." As I write this, that future has not yet arrived ... but you can check it out to see if it's posted yet if you're wildly curious.

But on to more important matters. Was there food? Oh my, yes! A lovely long table of beautiful, homemade goodies:

Except there was one wrinkle.  As it turned out,  this was the night - the only night of our entire stay - that we had dinner reservations.  Could we possibly eat two dinners?? This was asking a lot, even for me. "No problem!"  Our incredibly welcoming hosts assured us: "We'll make you up a plate for later." Next thing we know, Egyptian women are fussing over us, making sure we have enough food to take with us:

Hmm, stuffed grape leaves, stewed eggplant, falafel, succulent flatbread, and besara, (a broad bean dish I will try to recreate in a future post) ... yeah, I think that's enough! The next day, this made the best breakfast ever.

Because we had to rush out to freshen up and make it to dinner, we promised Mohammed that we would come back later to say goodnight.  True to our word - and despite being very stuffed and very sleepy - we stopped in on the way home. Zachariah, one of the men we had met earlier, greeted us: "Welcome! You would like an Egyptian drink?"

Before we know it, we are seated in this room:

And brought this tray of sweets and orange soda:

Full as we were from dinner, we minded our manners, and of course we ate all this goodness up!  The men all spoke to one another in Arabic, and every now and then one of them would turn to us and smile, and maybe take our photograph. Meanwhile, we quietly munched our sweets, sipped our sodas, nodded our heads at we-knew-not-what, and smiled politely.  Once our host Zachariah got up to leave, we took that as our cue to go as well. 

This whole experience reinforced to me the importance of mindfully observing the world around you and being open to whatever comes your way. If we had been rushing about and walking with our heads down in an effort to stick to some plan or other,  we never would have made it to the Egyptian bazaar.

Thanks, Mohammed,  for leading us up those stairs!