Friday, January 05, 2007

Haben Zie Special Dounts?


If you came looking for something called "special dounts" you have come to the wrong place
OK that was probably a flat out lie.

In Vienna Meghan and I went this place called Cafe Hawelka. It is the place you expect young Austrian intellectuals to sit around, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and lament over their county's forced neutrality. They are especially famous for some kind of special donuts that they only serve after 10PM. I know this because I went to Vienna with a friend Alberto two years ago and we went to Cafe Hawelka ONLY to get these special dounts. Needless to say that they are good, or at least their forced scarcity made them seem really good.

Meghan and I had two pretty funny conversations about these dounts.
First I was trying to tell her about said donuts and she just didn't seem to get it
Me: We have to go to this place called Cafe Hawelka, they have these special dounts and they only serve them after 10PM
Meghan: What makes them so special?
Me: I don't know but they are SPECIAL dounts
Meghan: What flavor are they?
Me: SPECIAL
Meghan: Yea but what does that mean?
Me: That they only serve them after 10PM.
Meghan:URGGGH!


I just have little memory of Cafe Hawelka other than that the donuts were "special." Alberto sometimes would become a crazy traveler sometimes. We ended up seeing so many parts of the city Lots more than you would think you could reasonably fit into 2 days and you would end up thinking that you saw everything but will remember none. In Veinna Alberto and I stayed in the worst hostel ever . It was a one room hostel with about 20 beds in it. Seriously what were we thinking staying in the Believe-It-Or-Not Hostel? We had it coming to us.
End parenthesis

The second funny conversation was when I tried to order the 'special dounts.' I didn't want to sound like an idiot and ask for special dounts. My inferior German skills tell me I would say "Haben zie special donuts?" and then the waiter would have probably laughed in my face. So I opted for the more eloquent "Excuse me Sir, could we please have some of those pastries I have seen people ordering?"

It turns out they are made with a plum sauce, a special plum sauce, according to the waiter

3 comments:

meg said...

as long as we can all freely admit it wasn't apple butter, albeit a similarly colored substance (!), i'm cool.

Stephen "The Devastator" Solomon said...

Do you even know what color apple butter is?

meg said...

ahem

http://www.spiceadvice.com/favoriteRecipes/recipeContent/APPLE_BUTTER.html