Sucker for Sachertorte

I resisted the temptation to title this post ‘Suckertorte’, because, well, that would have been unkind……

The story goes that, in 1832, the Austrian minister for foreign affairs ordered his chef to create a dessert for a special dinner. The chef fell ill, however, leaving the task of devising a suitable dessert to Franz Sacher, then a second year apprentice in the kitchens. The result was the now-famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam, covered in chocolate icing. Franz Sacher’s son, Eduard Sacher, founded Vienna’s Hotel Sacher and registered the trademark for the “Original Sachertorte”, which is still made to this day from a secret recipe and served daily to hordes of tourists (us included).

The rights to the “Original Sachertorte” have been the subject of a legal dispute between Hotel Sacher and Demels, which claimed to have acquired the recipe from Sacher. The Hotel Sacher won the exclusive right to serve the “Original Sachertorte” based on the family connection. Demels still sell their version of “Ur-Sachertorte”, the main difference being that their apricot jam is layered underneath the icing instead of in the middle of the cake.

All this pre-amble aside, the Hotel Sacher is a nice place for a mid-afternoon pit stop if you feel like getting out of the Viennese rain and indulging in a piece of culinary history accompanied by a frothy cup of mélange (a Viennese cappuccino, usually served with whipped cream). In my opinion, the cake itself is over-rated. Apparently, the reason why it’s usually served with whipped cream is because most Austrians find it too dry to eat on its own, which makes one wonder why they don’t just make the cake more moist. It’s also not very chocolate-y. Oh, and Austrian coffee, while nice, is over-frothy, although the Viennese don’t seem to care too much about the size of bubbles in their cappuccino froth (no latte art here….). If you’re ambivalent about the Sachertorte, you can try their apple or cheese Strudel, both very good. And there is a bewildering range of other Sacher-related drinks and confectionery, all involving some or other combination of chocolate and apricot liqueur.

Original Sachertorte

Viennese mélange

A brief interruption…for Vienna

We’d like to take a small break in telling you about our adventures in Ethiopia to bring you tales of our travels in another direction, and on another continent. Never fear, loyal readers, we are far from finished with Ethiopia and promise to bring you more episodes shortly. But… in the not so distant past (i.e. last week) we flew off to Vienna for an extended weekend. It was a meeting of the siblings (G and N) and their close associates (CCT and R), on the tail end of N and R’s travels through Europe. Never being ones to pass up an opportunity to check out the people and the food of a new city, we were quick to book our flights to Austria. After our rather arduous journey to reach Ethiopia, we shouldn’t have been that surprised that we’d need to run through the Zürich airport with 10 minutes to catch our connecting flight, that our onward flight to Austria would be held up due to a hostage situation in Vienna, or that, despite the delay, our luggage wouldn’t make the dash across the tarmac, meaning that we would arrive in Vienna with nothing but the clothes on our backs, which we would have to wear until our bags finally made it from Zürich the next morning.

Secession Building

Nevertheless, we made it safely, picked up the rest of our party at the Südbanhof Wien (the south train station) and had a great 4 days in Vienna - a city overflowing with Mozart kitsch, an abundance of beautiful architecture, museums and palaces enough to make your head spin, and an equal number of restaurants offering Wiener Schnitzel and Turkish specialties.

Majolika House

My list of ‘must-see’ places in any city I visit always includes a market, so of course we had to visit Vienna’s famous Naschmarkt. Crowded with local Viennese and tourists alike, the market is a feast for all your senses. Mountains of fresh vegetables and fruits, dozens of barrels of vinegars, the mandatory beer and wine stands, and stall after stall offering stuffed olives, tomatoes, cheese and humous met our eyes.

The city is also known for being the home of the Viennese Secession movement, as exemplified in the architectural works of Otto Wagner and the paintings of Gustav Klimt, most of which are displayed in the grand Belvedere museum.

Belvedere

And, of course, there’s the Sachertorte. Ah, yes…. the Sachertorte. More on that to come…

flyBMRoyalJordanianEgyptAirI…how NOT to fly to Ethiopia (Part I)

Plot summary: a heart-warming sequel to Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with two young travelers taking on the role of John Candy on their way to an exotic African country, and falling victim to a series of misfortunes, often with comic circumstances.

[Opening scene: a group of about twenty strangers having buffet breakfast in a non-descript hotel in an unfamiliar country, scattered in small groups around white-clothed tables. Hushed murmurings can be heard. Close-up of centre table nearest to entrance, where a young couple are complimenting the houmous. A tall, thin, bespectacled man approaches and starts talking to them:]

Tall man: “Any gossip?”

Young woman: “No, we haven’t heard anything. Have you?”

Tall man: “The latest I heard - mind you, this is third hand - we might be here all day.”

Young woman: “Really? We were just talking about whether we’d be able to go outside. Did you notice on the bus last night that we had to go through a military checkpoint?”

Tall man: “I don’t know. I wonder if we need a visa. Did you hear about the Ethiopians? They had their passports confiscated at the airport.”

Young man: “Yeah, and have you noticed that this place is in the middle of the desert? We’re probably in a detention camp and they’re never letting us out.”

Tall man: “I heard that two passengers traveling in business class paid $1000 to fly out this morning via Dubai.”

Young woman: “No way!”

Tall man: “Guess they must really need to get somewhere. By the way, my name is Bob.”

[Camera pans out to long shot of arid, desolate desert. Dramatic orchestral score in minor key. Suddenly, screen blacks out. Sound of tape rewinding. Title appears on screen: "24 hours earlier"]

Jackie Chan

OK, while we’re on the subject of Jackie Chan, I have to interject here, because I found out today, while listening to my Chinese podcast that not only has Jackie Chan, at the tender age of 54, appeared in over 100 movies, but the guy also SINGS! And his singing voice ain’t half bad either. Here’s a fine example of cheesy mandopop. Even more impressive, the theme song for The Myth is even available as a duet in Mandarin and Korean with Kim Hee Seon.

How’s that for cross-cultural diversity. Bet you wouldn’t see Jay-Z rapping in French with Diam’s…..

Hello China! Namaste India!

A tukul - traditional Ethiopian hut

…and welcome to Ethiopia! As most of you know, the month of May brought a new and exciting stamp in our passports. One of the many great perks of living in London is that when you are accepted to speak at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the relatively short flight gives you an added excuse to extend your trip and experience more than just a passing glimpse of one city. That being said, our trip from London to Addis Ababa was anything but straightforward, and added an unexpected Jordanian stamp to our passports. Stay tuned for another blog entry in which we will relay the FULL adventures of BMI flight BD913.

Ethiopia is a country that defies preconceived notions, and it’s safe to say that if you ever travel there, it’s best NOT to have any expectations. The western media love to portray it as a country of drought, famine and misery. While there certainly are parts of Ethiopia that suffer from a growing water shortage, and poverty is widespread, we found Ethiopia to be a beautiful country, in parts lush and green, with a rich history and culture.

We spent a week traveling through northern Ethiopia, on what the guidebooks call the historical circuit. We started our adventures in Bahir Dar, on the shores of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile river. From there we traveled by minibus (using one of only 2 paved roads in the country outside of the capital) to Gonder (not to be confused with Gondor, which is in Middle Earth). Despite many offers to trek into the Simien Mountains to see baboons and ibex, we skipped the mountain adventures and went to Lalibela (formerly known as Roha [beginning to see a pattern here....?]) before returning to Addis Ababa for the last 4 days.

The most common greeting we heard throughout our two weeks were: ‘Hello-mister (or Mrs.)-how-are-you-what-is-your-name?’ said in one breathless phrase. People, especially children, were quite keen to know what country we were from. Confused faces surrounded us when we tried to convince them that the person who LOOKED like he should be from China (or Korea or Japan) was in fact from Spain. Some refused to believe it, and some even excitedly called out, ‘Jackie Chan!’ as we walked by. Sadly, my accent meant that there wasn’t too much room for error, and young men seemed quite pleased when they guessed, correctly, that I was from Canada. Predictably, no one had heard of Edmonton.

And so it begins…

After a long absence of newsletters and frequent requests for updates on life in London and other world adventures, I have finally entered the world of blogging (a move highly encouraged by my co-editor and contributor to this blog). Hopefully I will be better at updating this blog than I have been at sending out regular newsletters! And for those of you who prefer pictures to words, I’ll be including plenty of those too.

Our biggest adventure of the year (so far) was a 2-week trip to Ethiopia. We’ll be sharing stories of our (mis)adventures there soon. There have been plenty of other adventures closer to home, however, including wellie tossing in Herefordshire, going to Wimbledon (the Williams sisters in the flesh!), Paris in the springtime, enough culinary adventures to fill a cookbook, and lots and lots of music. Stay tuned for all those tales and more. Oh, yes, and contrary to popular opinion, I am working on my PhD and hope to bid farewell to my student status by this fall!