The wines
of the country of Retz, Mailberg, Pfaffstadt, Gumpoldskirchen,
Klosterneuberg, Nussberg, and Voeslau should all be tasted, most of them
being more than drinkable. Beer, however, is the real Viennese drink,
and the very light liquid, ice cold, is a delightful beverage.
"Stay at what hotel you please, but dine at the Bristol," was the advice
given me nigh a score of years ago when I first visited Vienna, and it
holds good now; indeed of late the "smart set" of Vienna has taken it
greatly into favour, and dines or sups there--the opera and plays begin
at 7 and end at 10--constantly. The prices, _a la carte_, are high, but
the cooking is good. Some specialities of the house are trout taken
alive from the aquarium, _Huitres Titania_, _Homard Cardinal_, _Poularde
Wladimir_, _Souffle King Edward VII._, _Oranges a l'Infante_.
Sacher's, in the hotel of that name just behind the Opera House, is very
well known and may be taken as the typical Viennese restaurant. It is
expensive, as indeed all the best Viennese restaurants are. It is not
quite so exclusively French in its cuisine as some of the other good
restaurants, and one of its _plats de jour_ is always a national dish,
as often as not a Hungarian one, so that by dining or breakfasting at
Sacher's one obtains some idea of what the real cookery of the dual
monarchy is like.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220