So many restaurants. So little time.
That’s been our lament as we attempt to eat everything in sight in Vienna in just 10 days. But we took a break from the adventure over the weekend and cooked dinner at home.
We did it for several reasons. First, was the opportunity it gave us to shop for ingredients at the famous Karmelitermarkt, one of Vienna’s best-known outdoor markets. Secondly, we wanted to repeat the successful roast chicken dinner we had made during our October visit to Vienna. Lastly, with evenings in the high 70s, we could eat on our apartment’s Dachterrasse (roof-top terrace).
The Karmelitermarkt is set in a picturesque square in the middle of the 2nd district, known as Leopoldstadt. This was a walled Jewish community in the 1600s, and remained a predominantly Jewish neighborhood (without the walls) up until WW II. Today, it’s a bustling community of Jewish families who have returned, as well as ethnic groups from Eastern Europe.
The market includes about a dozen permanent shops, peddling meats, poultry, flowers and produce, as well as a handful of restaurants and cafes with Austrian, Russian and Turkish owners. But it’s on Saturday mornings that the Karmelitermarkt really shines. That’s when it turns into an authentic 
Bauernmarkt, or farmers market, and dozens of farmers from the countryside set up their wares. That’s when you get chives and carrots just pulled out of the dirt; mushrooms gathered from the forest before dawn; eggs still warm from the hen house.
It was frustrating to pass up most of the gorgeous produce, but since we were cooking just one dinner we had to settle for a hefty bunch of fat, white asparagus; a bunch of heurige (new, “from this year”) potatoes; a handful of salad greens; a couple of tomatoes; some fresh rosemary and chives; and exquisite strawberries for dessert.
We snatched a plump chicken from the poultry lady, a bottle of Prosecco and a bottle of Zweigelt from the upscale “deli” on the edge of the square; and dark, walnut-speckled bread from the bakery, then headed home. A quick stop at Billa, the tiny neighborhood grocery store, gave us the rest of the necessities. You can see from the photo that I have finally gotten the hang of bringing my own bags to the market. After being embarrassed a few times in October (see my post on getting a wagon-full of stuff home without bags), I was smart enough to bring two reusable bags from home this time, including this one I received last weekend at my Hood College 40th reunion.
Dinner was simple and spectacular. We rubbed the chicken with olive oil, stuffed it with an onion, garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs and roasted it at high heat; roasted the potatoes with olive oil and more rosemary; steamed the asparagus and topped them with melted butter and a blizzard of snipped chives; and prepared the tomatoes Provencal style (pan-sauteed with garlic).
Unlike our October visit when I had most of my favorite kitchen tools at hand, this time I had to manage with what the typical Vienna apartment kitchen offers.
For anyone planning to rent an apartment in Europe – and renting an apartment is the way to go these days because it’s so much cheaper than a hotel and makes you a real part of a neighborhood – here’s a short list of things you’ll go crazy without:
**Plastic measuring cup and spoons
**Saran Wrap
**Baggies
**Coffee mugs
**Cutting board
For just 10 days I couldn’t rationalize schlepping my beloved Froth-au-Lait milk steamer but I did bring my slim, wand-like BonJour Automatic Milk Frother. And since the tiny stove-top espresso maker I found in the kitchen last time was gone I had to buy a new one for about $15.
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