Back in the Bronx, the equivalent would be a Halaal Guy's food cart. I also wasn’t expecting to see as many McDonald’s as I have so far, with one being right next to where I take classes. The cool thing about McDonald’s here is that it maintains the spirit of Viennese cafes. Here they have gourmet cakes and pastries for sale and allow customers to sit down and drink coffee for hours on end.
A big aspect of my food and drink class is the concept of authenticity; what is authentic Viennese cuisine? Certainly, McDonald's is not authentic, but Vienna has had so many outside influences that maybe nothing was ever traditionally Viennese to begin with. For my class, we also read an Austrian cookbook from the 1950s that we treated as a historical document. The cookbook, holding onto nostalgia and the way that Austrians made food in the 19th century, had an entire chapter dedicated to just soups. In the foreword, the author discusses how soups were appropriated by wealthy elites from the lower classes and diluted from these heavy, filing soups to become smooth purees. The Kübiscremesuppe from the Styria region of Austria resembles something that elites would have eaten, especially with its clean and simple look. I first tried pumpkin soup at a Viennese cafe and it quickly became one of my go-to meals to order. It looks so unassuming, but its flavors are otherworldly. This soup is only available for a limited time, during the fall months, which means that I have to eat as much of it as I can until it's gone.
While I am loving the experience of trying completely new foods, I often miss my mom’s cooking. Dominican food is comfort food for me; it reminds me of home. Pumpkin soup is delicious, but it just isn’t home.
