By Jonathan Byrne
European Travels and
Great Times With Friends
My Travelogue starts with Eurostar to Paris for Andrew’s significant birthday where Dante, our Italian
Wine Importer friend, organized a wine tasting with nibbles. Of course it started to rain, hence the
umbrella protecting the wine table on the balcony, but that did not stop us all crowding into Dante’s
room for the fun. Later we ate in the most amazing delicatessen in Marais.
Food is the main
feature in almost
everything I do.
Weekend visits to
European cities,
home cooking
dinner parties and
my new venue have
served me a range
of delicious food,
visits to some great
sights and huge
amounts of fun with
my special group of
friends. So here’s a
Photo Travelogue of
my recent food,
drink and dining
experiences:
A long weekend in Vienna meant a trip to Café Demel to sample its Sachertorte. Demel’s is a less sticky
version with fewer layers of apricot jam. During the Torte Wars of the 1960’s Demel Bakery laid claim to
being the original home of the Sachertorte before the son of Franz Sacher went on to establish the
Hotel Sacher. After a tour around the Spanish Riding School and the Austro Hungarian Treasury, Linda, a
friend from my Dubai days, and I needed a restorative Apple Strudel at the Hofburg Café.
For traditional Vienna Schnitzel, potato and cucumber salad we visited Café Lugeck in Vienna’s old town
and the next day shared the very filling Kaiserschmarrm – basically baked pancake resembling a sweet
Yorkshire pudding filled with rasins and served with cherry jam and ice cream. A good job we had done a
fair amount of sightseeing and walking, including a trip to Schonbrunne Palace, to burn off the calories.
Returning to work Anna, our Chef in the Yurt Café @YurtCafeLondon, asked me to sample her new Vegan
sandwiches – roasted courgettes, aubergine and peppers with a cashew pesto and roasted Italian plumb
tomatoes with rocket and alioli. Absolutely delicious! Plenty of lemon juice gives the pesto a great fresh
zingy taste and the alioli is ‘knockout powerful’. My tasting versions were not strictly Vegan as served on
Soda Bread though future servings will be on homemade Vegan Rosemary and Olive Oil Focaccia.
Next to visit was Verona for a night at the Opera, this time with my American friend Alison; Il Trovatore
was captivating. Overlooking the Roman arena Ristorante Vittorio Emanuele is a beautiful setting. The
first night we even got a bonus opera performance of the haunting strains of Turandot floating in the
background as we feasted on Ricotta Ravioli with generous shavings of Black Truffle, Aubergine and
Tomato stack, seared Tuna with Sesame Seeds and fried Seafood. Not very inventive choices but
beautifully cooked and served with style. Life is certainly here to be enjoyed!
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THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK