Last night, my host and I decided to cook dinner at home. That was a nice ending to the 'living in Vienna' day. I shopped for food, worked in a library, commuted by U-Bahn (subway), and relaxed at the dorm. She bought some kind of meat - she thought it was pork roast but it was hard to figure out because it was already marinated and rubbed with spices. I had some spinach spaetzle and vegetables. She had some vegetables as well.
My host once lived in France for a while for work so... of course she would serve some fresh cheese and crackers with red wine from Sicily. The microwave oven here is multipurpose: it bakes, grills, broils, defrosts and zaps. Without any instructions in English, I was able to figure out how to get it to bake. While waiting for the meat to be done, I thought the spaetzle had to be boiled in water like fresh pasta in America. It was in a similar type of packaging. Luckily I read the front cover to see that it just needed to be pan-fried or microwaved. So it was ready to go. Whew. Glad I did not ruin perfectly good spaetzle! With what we had available, I made herbed goat cheese sauce for spaetzle. I sauteed zucchini and garlic. I made a simple mixed green salad. Dinner was ready to be served.
I never eat pork at home so I was not sure what to expect from the pork roast. At the first bite, I suddenly realized it was not pork... it was corned beef! My friend and I laughed. When traveling to a foreign country, you have to be open-minded and willing to put whatever food in your mouth blindfolded. I have not eaten corned beef in years. I remember hating it when we had it for St. Patrick's Day one year. This one was honestly flavorful and not as salty. We ended the meal by sharing a truffletorte from Demel. We all agreed it was more orgasmic than the sachertorte! The meal was simply sensational. I loved that we put in the time and energy to prepare a beautiful meal in a simple dorm kitchen.
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