The Cooking of Vienna's Empire

While we were in Vallecito, we came upon a small bookstore called the "Book Shed". It literally was a shed outside an old woman's house, selling used books for $2-$5. We decided to check it out, as much of our vacation was spent reading. Imagine my suprpise to come upon a weathered old cookbook entitled "The Cooking of Vienna's Empire", a Time-Life book published in 1968. I picked it up, hoping to find some Austro-Hungarian recipes. I did. There is a whole chapter with charmingly outdated yet beautiful pictures of Hungary, representing the still Communist regime, though the book is about the cooking of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So I have taken to calling it, "an out-dated book of out-dated recipes"- that is, the Communist take on Austro-Hungarian cooking. It is fascinating; examining a regime examining a former regime.

I didn't buy it the first time around, choosing a historical fiction novel set in Renaissance Florence instead. Though when night rollled around, I couldn't stop thinking about the faded technicolor photographs; the sweet smell that only old book pages can exude. So in the next few days I obsessed over returning to the Book Shed, (which kept strange hours, naturally) yet finally leaving with my cookbook a mere two days later.

The cookbook is a gem, in perfect shape yet still retaining the qualities of an "old" book. After reading an entire history of Hungarian cooking (which is fascinating by the way, including Gundel, gulyas and paprika) I decided on bacon-dumplings for Sunday dinner. This is actually under the "Austrian Provence" section, yet it sounded too decadent to pass up. The book also provides a lot of information on the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and other Communist gems.



Here are some picture I took of the beautiful Hungarian photographs.

The cover, showing some beautiful pastries:

The opening "Hungarian chapter":

Csardas cooking:

"The country fair flourishes in a Socialist land":

Balaton fogas, curved into its traditional shape:

Traditional Hungarian dress:

Gorgeous paprika spread:

Copyright date:

The recipes all look delicious...and I am so happy to have a bit of history on my shelf.

Edit:

We have been trying to teach my 7 year old neice a touch of Hungarian. She is just learning to write in English and decided to write on my arm this afternoon:



Gotta love the adorable misspelling: "egen"