Shakshuka @ Neni

When asked what food I miss most in Toronto, it is usually a toss up between Chinese food and Israeli/Middle Eastern food.  For that reason, I made a beeline to  Neni, the hip Israeli cafe located in Vienna’s Naschmarkt.  I went not once for breakfast at Neni that week but twice! It also helped that the hotel I was staying at was only four blocks away from Naschmarkt, so it was a quick walk over.

Neni is a chic Israeli cafe furnished with light wood tables, modern industrial furniture and no walls, which gives it a nice outdoor cafe feel. For my first breakfast I ordered their Shakshuka.  It was spicy, flavourful, messy and everything Shakshuka should be.  It came with a bag of pitas packed into a cute cloth bag. The pita, is a necessary accompaniment to sop up all the gooey egg yolk and tomato sauce you can’t get on your fork.

The second day I sampled the muesli which was decent but not the best I’ve tasted.  I would stick to the Israeli food here!  After eating my somewhat disappointing yogurt and oats, I wish I had ordered the Israeli breakfast or the Jam breakfast but because it was so hot outside the second morning, I opted for something lighter which was probably the better decision in hindsight.

If you have never tasted shakshuka, keep your eyes open for this dish where ever you live.  You don’t have to get on a plane and fly to Tel Aviv or Vienna!  However I will warn you, for some reason, shakshuka is not one of those brunch items that pops up often enough on menus.  This is a shame because as a dish it is filling, healthy and blows your taste buds away with its winning combination of herbs, spices, tomatoes, eggs and peppers.

On the weekends, my fiance and I make one “special” breakfast and we decided, after eating shakshuka at Neni, we are going to test out replicating it at home for our Sunday morning breakfast treat.  We’ve been on a pancake run for about two months now (well he has- trying to perfect the perfect pancake recipe) and we were looking for our next experiment.  I think shakshuka is it.

For more shakshuka inspiration:

David Lebovitz just wrote a great post about Shakshuka earlier this month: Israeli Breakfast

Epicurious posted THEEEE Dr. Shakshuka recipe from the famous Tel Aviv restaurant: Shakshuka a la Doctor Shakshuka (or fly to Tel Aviv and taste the real deal yourself!)

Or if you are looking for something a bit more modern, try Yotam Ottolenghi’s version published by the Guardian: Shakshuka recipe or this one from the LA Times.

Polka Gelato

I think I am in gelato withdraw from my mini-getaway in Vienna.  I kid you not, I ate gelato every day I was in Vienna and on one particular day, when it was 38 degrees and I went bike riding for three hours, I ate gelato twice in one day (and it was double-delicious). The gelato scene in Prague is decent.  There are a couple spots around town that make a good cone, such as Vanille on Namesti Miru, but most gelato shops are not conveniently located in my neighbourhood, so I often don’t indulge!

Polka Gelato in London (pictures below), looks fabulous.  Vonsung, the design firm behind this space certainly created a designer-ific interior.  Nothing like poured concrete says gelato!! The branding and logo is simple and bold and the black and white works so well to make the bright hand crafted artisan ice cream pop out of the case.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Polka Gelato has three categories of ice cream: Gelato (matcha, vanilla, coffee, torrone, chilli chocolate….), sorbet (strawberry + balsamic, mojito, pink lemonade sherbert….) and super sonic (superfood based ice cream like goji berries, and pomegranate). In addition to ice cream based treats, they also carry ice pops, gelato cakes, ice cream to go (take home tubs) and light lunch.

Has anyone tried something from Polka lately? I’m sure this place will be rammed as the Olympics gets underway in the city.

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Love This!: Rossana Fani

I would die for one of these necklaces by Rossana Fani, the Florence based jewelry designer.  Her lengthy design career has evolved from being a window dresser, to collaborating on tableware designs, creating handbags and now to making stunning fashion jewelry.  The necklaces below are made of leather and resin beads (some cases, crystal beads).  Rossana’s necklaces have a beautiful minimalist quality to them but are textured, sculptural and interesting to look at.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Corns n’ Pops (and more)!

Breakfast is my ultimate meal.  I am one of those people who could eat breakfast three times a day.  I am” mildly” obsessed with starting the day off right with a bowl of something.  Be it cereal, oatmeal, or muesli, or if I have extra time- eggs, pancakes or french toast.

While some people are happy to eat breakfast at the hotel and get their day of exploration underway, when I travel, breakfast is part of my exploration process.  You don’t have to ask me twice to forfeit the hotel menu, unless of course the hotel is known for its breakfast menu.  I tend to integrate breakfast AND city exploration into my travel itinerary.

On my recent trip to Vienna, I decided to check out Corns n’ Pops (Gumpendorfer strasse 37,Vienna’s 6th district by Saint Charles Alimentary), a cute breakfast cafe focused on serving interesting combinations of cereals and muesli!  This place had to be good, right?

Corns n’ Pops has a great menu where you can choose from a pre-mixed muesli or a mix your own concoction from their show-stopping, rather extensive cereal-muesli-goodies counter.  They also offer snacks, sweets, smoothies, coffee, tea and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (a nice breakfast accompaniment!).

On the day I visited, I was unfortunately in a bit of a rush and did not have time to mix my own muesli at the bar so I went with their daily muesli special.  The muesli was dense, not overly sweet (they brought honey to the table to self-sweeten) and full of good things like poppy seeds, dried fruit, nuts oats and topped with lots of fresh fruit.   I would have liked to try mixing my own creative bowl but that will have to wait for my next trip to Corns n’ Pops (which I hope will be soon).

I was so inspired by the poppy seeds in my muesli, when I came home I added poppy seeds into my batch of granola.

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Here are some other bloggers who are talking about Corns n’ Pops:

1. Spotted By Locals: Corns n’ Pops DIY Cereals

2. Sushi and Strudel:  Corns n’ Pops

3. Irene’s Vienna: Corns n’ Pops

4. Jules Lazy Days: Corns n’ Pops

Cioccolato

Good morning.  I am busy working away on re-formatting two of my marketing classes and close to the launch of a new digital magazine.  Did I tell you about the project?  You will get to see a sneak peak soon and the full version by end of July.  The topic of the digital magazine is entertaining (at home) globally and I have been working with a really talented graphic designer who has made the visual process a lot more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined.

In my role as marketing lecturer, I have to admit, it is quite nice to have the summer “off” so I have time to think about how to better present material, make my business classes more interactive, creative and fun for my undergrad students in September.  I am surprised by how creative the process is to develop and create lesson plan decks.

On to more visually attractive topics this morning: How amazing is this bakery/pastry shop/decor spot in Mexico City?  It reminds me of the stylish Mexico City macaron place I wrote about two years ago called Theurel and Thomas.  Cioccolato (website under development) is shiny and white with a laboratory-esque feel.  The interiors are kicked up a notch with a heavy dose of  colour, fun and playfulness as a result of the plentiful eye candy around the shop from the pictures on the wall to the center “work bench/island” that looks like it had a bucket of pink paint or icing was dumped down its side leg.   The branding and interiors were done by a fabulous firm named Savvy Studio (based in Nuevo Leon, Mexico) who has also worked on some cool projects like Villa de Patos and Costa Nueva. Why am I not in Mexico City enjoying all of these fun restaurants and bakeries?  As a blogger, the travel list gets longer and longer by the day….

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Doughnut Vault

Happy Monday.  I am back in Prague after spending a couple days extra hot days  in Vienna with our house guests.  We had 35 degree plus weather every day but still managed to tour new parts of the city and stay cool with lots of gelato (even tried poppy seed gelato)!

Before I delve into Vienna later this week, I wanted to  briefly blog about the Doughnut Vault in Chicago.  This place looks awesome for a couple reasons.

#1 The Doughnut Vault makes fresh, home made doughnuts in interesting mouthwatering flavours such as Dreamsicle, Coconut Old Fashioned, Powdered Sugar Stack, and Double Chocolate Yellow Cake (to name a few)….

#2 The Doughnut Vault close after they sell out of their doughnuts- which is usually sometime before noon!  Using various forms of social media these doughnut experts alert customers what doughnut flavours (their blog/Twitter) they will have on offer that day and how long the line up is out the door. Brilliant digital marketing!

If you are not in Chicago, or don’t have a plan to visit the city, I thought I would provide you with a visual of the Doughnut Vault process.  Below is a beautiful time-lapsed video to illustrate the company’s popularity and impressive sell out rate.

Doughnut Vault Timelapse from Mark Pallman on Vimeo.

And don’t think I would leave you without some pictures!?!

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

Daniel Hotel

With daily temperatures well above 30, one would not think it is the ideal week to go touring around the country.  The heat can be tiring.  As my fiance says, “We’re Canadians. We can travel in all weather.” I agree.  However I think he was referring to colder weather.

I was having a conversation with a friend last week saying there weren’t enough well-appointed, reasonably priced boutique hotels in North America.  It seems once you mention boutique, the prices jump to at least $200+.  In Europe, it’s not the case.  Every country we travel to it is quite easy to find a design forward, reasonably priced hotel that is not going to cost you an arm and a leg to stay in.

Here is a new one I just found:  Daniel, in Vienna.  I am not staying here as I just learned about it yesterday but I would totally consider it when I return the next trip. (There is a second location in Graz (Daniel Graz), my other favourite design city that I have blogged about here and here).

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

It’s adorable right?  You have nice wooden floors, funky lighting, plants, an in-house bakery, nice looking rooms, iconic design furniture pieces.  It looks like you are walking into someone’s really nice vintage chic living room.  I wonder why this model has never quite taken off back across the Atlantic?

See you Friday….

Neni Modern Israeli Food in Vienna

I am off to Vienna tomorrow for a couple days to take my visiting guests to explore a new city.

When I travel, I am always on the look-out for interesting and new food concepts as well as flavours that I am missing/can’t get. Israeli food/middle eastern food certainly tops that list.

Neni is an Israeli restaurant with two locations, a cookbook and a catering operation (take away dips).  I love the interiors of their restaurant and their menu looks stacked with items such as shakshuka, hummus, ful, tomato salad, kibbeh, red lentil soup and pita bread. I look forward to reporting back on their breakfast next week as I plan to pay their Naschmarkt location a visit! Hummus and falafel, here I come.

Photo Sources: Neni