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Neeta Lal

A kaffeehaus is where you can sip your favourite brew and soak in Vienna's kaleidoscopic culture.

Pretty much like a London pub, a Viennese kaffeehaus (café) too is a spectacular institution seeped in tradition. Typically located amongst cobblestone by-lanes, this quaint and timeless establishment offers delightful food and atmospherics. In fact, you can catch up on your reading here, people-watch, sip your favoured brew and watch the world pass by. Café-hopping is thus an interesting way to soak in Vienna's kaleidoscopic culture.

So one fine morning, as the mercury crashed to a numbing minus-five degrees Celsius, I set out to discover the charms of ritualistic coffee drinking at a Viennese kaffeehaus.Each of the coffeehouses has a distinct character and ethos. From sybaritic, plebeian or downright Bohemian, there's one to suit every taste... and pocket.

A Viennese kaffeehaus is also distinguished by its smell. As you pass by its heavily curtained door, an overpowering aroma of freshly milled coffee will tantalise your senses. An olfactory ploy to pull you in, perhaps! Inside, the decor could be lush baroque, contemporary classic or plain functional with crisp international newspapers staring at you from polished racks lining the sides.

Visit the same coffeehouse thrice a week and the sharp Kellner (attendant) will remember your order. On the fourth visit, your coffee will sail to your table — in a gleaming white cup and saucer, even before you've asked for it.

One of the largest cafes in Vienna, opposite the Austrian Parliament building, is the Landtmann. With both the Burg Theater and the University in its vicinity, its regulars are a curious mix of heavyweight politicos, actors, artists and students. In downtown Josefstadt, behind the Rathaus (City Hall) is the more `academic' Eiles with its blond waitresses and a substantive billiards room. However, Café Hawelka was the most atmospheric of them all, its extraordinary parade of regulars trickling in from breakfast to lavender-hued dawn.

Choose your coffee

After choosing a kaffeehaus, comes another tough choice... which coffee to order? Not an easy proposition simply because there is no such thing as an ordinary `coffee' here — only a mind-boggling, palate-teasing repertoire to choose from! The basic black Austrian coffee is called a Mokka; a Brauner comes with milk, while a Mélange is half coffee, half milk. Even these come with several nuances. Then there are the calorie-dense, extravagant varieties — the Italian Cappuccino, often retailed under its German name `Kapuziner', and the Einspanner, the most famous Viennese coffee served in a tall glass with lashings of foamy, whipped cream. A Pharisaer comes with rum and whipped cream, while in a whole range of others a tot of alcohol plays a defining role. Not all coffees are appealing though. Some cafes serve abrew with glutinous egg yolks added to it.

But the best part about a Viennese kaffeehaus is that once the coffee lands on your table, you can sip and savour it for as long as you like... even the whole day, and nobody will ask you to vacate your table. Perhaps the owner prizes a repeat customer to make up for the lack of a quick turnover.

Go for the strudel

And while the caffeine courses through your veins, it's a good idea to try some of the exemplary Viennese snacks. In fact, these mouth-watering savouries can throw one's diet into serious disarray. For a quintessentially Austrian experience, though, one ought to plump for puddings, the most famous being Apfelstrudel or apple strudel. Austrian chefs say that as long as you get the snack's dough flaky enough, anything could be morphed into a strudel — almonds, curd cheese, cream, cabbage, poppy seeds, nuts, herbs, meat, crayfish, plums, cherries, ham, Parmesan cheese, cinnamon, or even the humble potato.

A close second is the Topfenstrudel, a gooey, raisin-filled confection served with oodles of whipped vanilla custard. As for the delicious Austrian nudel, it has little to do with the English noodle though it's just as delectable. A fat, long dumpling, generally crafted from potato flour, it has a divine golden constitution. A variant is the knodel — which can be salty or sweet, depending on the chef's inclination. My version was crafted out of breadcrumbs, its hollow cavity stuffed with apricots. Though apricots are the most favoured filling, apples, pears, cherries or pineapple do just as well.

Another must-try snack with Viennese coffee is Krapfen — these apricot-oozing doughnuts are stocked in abundance at all coffeehouses. Faschingkrapfen, particularly, are a great feature of Austrian life in the pre-Lenten (carnival) weeks, and every coffeehouse andkonditorei (pastry shop) offer these.

And why not? The carnival is taken very seriously in Catholic Austria, with the best Viennese balls happening in the weeks between Christmas and Lent. And while this social whirligig unfolds, villagers munch through mountains of Faschingskrapfen...

Picture by the author

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