Vienna Christmas Market – Rathausplatz Vienna, Austria

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The cold and wet snow aside, I love heading to Europe in December.

Why? Christmas Market!!! The Christmas Market in Europe always makes me feel like I’m being transported to a glittering fairytale land. It’s like reading my childhood story books and seeing pictures from my nursery rhymes come to life! Come to think of it, I love Christmas market more than Disneyland…

This year, we were lucky to have the chance to drop by Vienna, Austria just in time for their Christmas market. Yay !!! I was very excited. Even though Christmas market originally started in Germany (and is still VERY much celebrated and visited), the Vienna December market dates back to 1294.

There are a few locations for the Christmas market. But, hub and I decided to head to the one around the city hall in Rathausplatz. It’s really convenient to get there as there’s a underground station right behind the City Hall.

Vienna ChristmasMarket 03You will know you are near a Christmas market when you smell the sweet smell of chestnut being roasted. And also the smell of warm hot Glühwein . (Hot Red wine with various spice and raisins)Vienna ChristmasMarket

TownHall - RathausVienna ChristmasMarket 02

After strolling around for about 20 minutes, it started snowing ! LOL. It was an amazing experience to walk around the Christmas market while snowing and sipping hot Glühwein. It really felt like Christmas is here and fills me with a nice warm and loving feeling inside.

Snowing !!!We didn’t stay long as it was getting a bit too cold and we have a plane to catch…

But, I really enjoyed the short stroll we had there. If you happen to be in Vienna in December, don’t miss out on this !

Vienna Christmas Market
16 November – 24 December 2013
daily from 10.00 am to 9.30 pm, Fr & Sat until 10.00 pm
24 December until 5.00 pm
Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna

Brasserie 1806 – Dusseldorf, Germany

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I read heaps of reviews on this ‘fine-dining’ restaurant nestled inside the Breidenbacher Hof Hotel, closed to the old-town (altstadt). What attracted me to this restaurant is that the Manager at Brasserie 1806 replies reviews people posted on Trip Adviser and make effort to improve (thumbs up for that).

Hence, during our recent trip to Dusseldorf, we decided to head over to this brasserie for lunch. Aside from their normal menu, they also serve plat du jour – Very typical French style (I like!!!). Hubby decided to try their Goose menu.

Goose Menu

While waiting for our food, I took the moment to enjoy the beautiful view outside the window and also the majestic ambiance inside. This restaurant overlooks the old town and you can see that they are setting up for the Christmas market! (OOO… I LOVE Germany’s Christmas market).

Beautiful view

The bread served inside a seal paper package. When the waitress unwrap it, the smell of warm bread and thyme spread all around us. Yum yum… We were both quite impress.

Bread

We were served our soup shortly after.

Chicken broth

I was prepared for it to be a tad salty (from experience, food in Germany tends to lean towards the salty side).

BUT, we were not prepared for it to taste of ONLY salt. Mine tasted nothing like chicken broth.

Consomme with geese dumplingHubby’s consommé was worse. It was so salty he left the whole bowl untouched after 3 spoonfuls. He say it was like drinking sea-water ! hahaha. It was TRUELY a horrific experience. I had NEVER had such salty soup in my life ! and to have it in a ‘fine-dining’ restaurant is seriously unacceptable.

 

 

 

When the main course was placed before me, I actually hesitated. Normally, I would have dig straight in. Thankfully, the venison veal goulash was an acceptable salty level. The sauce was pretty good. The choice of cut for the meat was a little tough in my opinion. It would also be better to have more vegetable in it (chunks of carrots, onion and tomatoes would have add extra texture to the dish).

venison veal goulash

Hubby enjoyed his goose leg. The meat was tender and skin crispy. Overall, the main was slightly above average but nothing spectacular. And, considering the ‘fine-dining’ tag this place is attached to, I’ll say it’s a tad disappointing.

Goose Breast and Leg

Dessert time! I was really looking forward to dessert time as my menu allows me to select from their dessert trolley ! yay!!! I took my time looking thru the whole trolley. My tummy told me to take everything on the trolley. But, my brain only allow me to take 3. Sob sob… I really enjoyed the dessert. The egg custard was really good.

Dessert trolley My Desserts

Hubby’s dessert was pretty good too. The donut was really yummy. The crème bulee was so-so. The sorbet was unique. (hubby is not a fan of cinnamon – so, he was not impressed with it).

Winter Apple Creme Bulee
Truthfully, the food during lunch was not too impressive for us. The presentation for the food was really pretty. But, looks can be deceiving, eh? ;p

The only thing we had really enjoy was the beautiful setting of the restaurant and also the top notch services from the serving team. Perhaps, all the ravings review online was for the dinner. We are not sure. But, from the lunch experience we had, I’m not so tempted to return and try… Oh well.

Burger & Lobster – London, UK

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** This post is written by chulet’s hubby. He kindly agreed to write one post after much begging from me… hehehe…Thanks dear!

Even before we left our home country, the wife was going on and on about the eatery that her friend recommended. I thought I saw her salivating when the plane landed in Heathrow… or maybe it was brought on by the rather cramped and uncomfortable seats on the Airbus A380. I do not know if it is the same for other airlines, but I was rather disappointed with the humongous A380 that took a significantly longer time to seat all its passengers in those tiny little seats.

So anyways, we met up with her friend who gladly brought us over to a Burger & Lobster joint. Apparently, there are several outlets in London. Hmm… a chain restaurant? I mentally prepared myself to console my poor wife who loves good food, but is devastated after any under-promised dining experience.

BurgerLobster

The first impression was very decent actually. I felt the facade looked like a reasonably classy cafe or restaurant. Stepping in was even better, it had a nice clean environment – lots of wood but nothing tacky, and a layout that featured a bar but still managed to maintain a comfortable dining ambience. We were shown to our table near the back of the restaurant and I enjoyed the natural lighting that lent a picnic-like atmosphere.

There is no menu. Well, no FOOD menu anyways. Already on the table was the drinks menu and we got the friendly waiter to explain that there are only 3 food items on the menu – whole lobster, lobster roll or the beef burger. Hence their name: Burger & Lobster.

Grill Lobster

We all went for the variations of the lobster. We had the steamed lobster, the grilled lobster and the lobster roll. There was a choice of butter or garlic butter as the sauce, but that is a no brainer to me. Garlic butter of course!

Just to get it out of the way, the garlic butter was good! Very fragrant and creamy.

The lobster was even better! Steamed, grilled or chopped up in the roll, it made no difference – all delicious! The steamed version kept most of the natural taste and sweetness of the Boston lobsters. The grilled version gave it an additional grilled (well…) and creamy flavour. The roll contained a convenient (for those of us too lazy to “strip” the lobster shell) and yummy mix of tender lobster meat and dressing.

Lobster Roll

And only ONE price. £20 for any food item. I think it’s a great deal for friendly service and well-prepared food! Delish!

Our Delicious Lunch

And yes – the Wife is HAPPY !