magical market meal

On the last day before flying back home, I spent half a day at the Naschmarkt, a big market in Vienna not unlike the famous Pike’s Place market in Seattle. On Saturdays apparently there’s also a flea market that gets setup right next to the Naschmarkt.

The flea market was incredibly crowded.

The variety of items for sale was quite impressive, you can buy designer handbags, fur scarves, and vintage camera equipment, sometimes all in the same stall.

The Naschmarkt’s produce selection was excellent. I was quite impressed. I never would’ve imagined being able to buy mangosteens or dragonfruit in Austria in winter.

There was an incredible array of spices too. I was thinking of bringing back home some saffron, but in the end I decided against it because I didn’t wanna fill out a customs form. (Does bringing home spices even require you to fill out a customs form?)

They even had fresh oysters, which I thought was quite impressive for a landlocked country.

There was a guy selling bouillabaisse right outside of a fish stand. It was quite tasty, with big chunks of fish and tons of shellfish– definitely one of the tastiest fish soups I’ve had. It’s a pretty awesome experience, eating bouillabaisse and sipping on white wine at a marketplace stand, but it ended up being just the first course of an incredible meal.

These pork shanks were calling out to me, as soon as I saw them in the window.

They chop it up for you and serve it up on a plate so you could eat it right at their counter. It was quite tasty, the meat was moist and flavorful and the skin on the outside was crispy.

But it was missing something to eat alongside it, so I ended up packing it up and continued exploring the market.

Almost immediately I found this bread and cheese stand. I ended up buying a loaf of olive bread and a small portion of goat cheese.

Then I just needed something to wash it down, maybe some wine or beer. I found this cart that had both, and there were barrels set up that you could sit at and enjoy your meal.

And so I ended up with a complete meal, there was even music to listen to as I sat and enjoyed my meal and people watched. It all came together like magic, better than I could have ever planned myself.

The musicians were pretty decent in my opinion. They definitely added to the meal, so I took a short video of them.