Day 7

Austria

Another birthday celebration overseas and another surprise trip to a mystery destination! One of Ali’s musical icons is the Californian singer Josh Groban and when Bob learned that he was performing at the Vienna Konzerthaus Vienna, tickets were purchased and flights were booked.  

Like most of our travels, we take the opportunity to tie food in with the experience and Vienna was no exception.

Restaurant Steirereck, located in the Stadtpark was one of only two locations in Austria to hold three Michelin stars. Informing them of Ali’s birthday, we were greeted with an illuminated table displaying “Allez Gute zum Geburtstag” and a classic white tablecloth room. Waiting staff in suits and bow ties, a dutiful nod as you passed, chairs pulled out before sitting and a napkin placed delicately across your lap. First class silver service and what else would you expect from a three-star Michelin restaurant?

Well, that’s really where the formalities ended because what was presented on our plates was just an extraordinary experience that was informal, relaxed and hugely enjoyable. Porcini mushroom with sea lettuce and marinated fois gras: Marrow with Jerusalem artichoke and acacia honey: Tree spinach with baby white radish and bone marrow. The menu was absolutely bonkers. Java coffee with yellow dates, plums and cinnamon flowers was served in an actual coffee press handle. It was astounding.

This series was devised from an evening where we were reminiscing about some of the best meals we’d ever had. Steirereck was one of the first ones mentioned – and for good reason – but what is it about one particular location that makes it stand out above the rest?

Is it the welcome? The atmosphere? The service? The loos?! The flavour? The price? Or just everything all combined? To be honest, it’s an inexplicable combination of many of those things, but suffice it to say that there were some standout dishes at Steirereck that will stay with us for a very long time indeed.

We opted for the “tasting menu” so we got to explore a number of smaller dishes and a wider range of flavours. Each course was presented with an individual menu card, which was something that we had never experienced before. It was placed in a small card holder that sat in front of your plate throughout the entire meal. Normally, a menu is provided to you at the start and then removed when you order. As each dish is presented, the waiting staff explain the dish, the ingredients, the cooking technique, the flavour profile, the origin and many more things. It’s part of the performance but sometimes you either cannot hear what they are saying, cannot quite catch what is being said, cannot remember what was on the menu in the first place and cannot quite recall each component of the dish to understand what you are tasting.

At Steirereck, the menu card placed in front of you had all the details you needed to fully understand what you were eating. The difference that this made to how well you experienced each course was phenomenal. Not only did the card detail the dish and its ingredients, it also explained the cooking process for the dish so you could really understand how each element had been prepared. The card had a unique number, which represented its place in the overall “codex” of Steirereck recipes that the chefs had at their disposal to produce a different combination of dishes and flavours each night. You could come back the next day and the menu would be completely different based on the previous day’s service, market availability of produce and seasonality.

It was a concept that was utterly astonishing and something that we’ve taken on board in the form of a side quest by Ali. Every single soup that Ali has ever served in the café has been documented and recorded each year as a record of the seasons, colours and flavour combinations offered for our three soups each day that form our unique “soup meze”.

It’s created an anthology of soups that Ali holds very close to her heart and, yes, someday it may well form the basis of a recipe book based on the repeated requests from customers.

The meal at Steirereck was outstanding, Josh was outstanding and the following day we rounded off the trip to Vienna with a visit to Hotel Sacher to indulge in, yes, a touristy experience but a large slice of Sacher Torte and a glass of sparkling wine was the perfect way to end this birthday trip to Vienna.

This is Day Seven in our series sharing 31 Food Memories for the 31 Days of August.

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