No supermarket can compete with the variety of products to be had at Vienna’s Naschmarkt market. Its style and atmosphere are unparalleled too. The Naschmarkt, located not far from the Secession, has always mainly been a local source of groceries. Shoppers can find fresh fruit and vegetables, cold meats, cheese and all kinds of deli products there, ranging from the conventional to the exquisite. Particular specialties include goods from the Balkans, as well as Central European and Asian fare.
This market is on a central sidewalk between two streets called Linke and Rechte Wienzeile. As soon as one enters one can make it out that it is a fruits and vegetables market. One will find here some traditional Viennese products too.
Snack stalls and small eateries are the reasonable complement to life at the market. Nowhere else in Vienna is the concentration of sushi bars so high. What’s more, a young creative scene has emerged at the Naschmarkt Deli, which dishes up not only food ranging from Turkish to American, but also electronic music. The Naschmarkt and its surroundings has always been a good haunt for night owls. Places such as Café Drechsler witness a constant coming-and-going of early-rising stall holders and party revelers for whom the night is too short.
The Naschmarkt is Vienna’s most popular market. Located at the Wienzeile over the Wien River it is about 1.5 kilometers long. The Naschmarkt has existed since the 16th century when mainly milk bottles were sold. From 1793 onwards, all fruits and vegetables brought to Vienna with carts had to be sold here, while goods arriving on the Danube were sold elsewhere. These days, one can buy fresh fruit and vegetables from around the world, including exotic herbs. There are also a lot of small restaurants which offer e.g. sushi, kebab, fish, seafood, traditional Viennese food such as Kaiserschmarrn or Palatschinken and stalls which offer clothes and accessories. Since 1977, the market extends further along the Wienzeile to an adjacent area every Saturday, when a flea market takes place there.
The unique atmosphere of the Naschmarkt is famous far beyond the borders of Vienna, and huge amounts of tourists visit the market every year.
Its many food stalls comprise one of Europe’s last and most colorful food and produce markets, a great holdover from the days when all foodstuffs were sold in open-air markets. Today, of course, there are supermarkets, but the Naschmarkt is such an institution - and such a spectacle - many Viennese including the top city chefs among them, prefer to do their food shopping here. The variety is amazing; the noshing can be fun, the sales folk manning the stalls snappish and ill-mannered. Stalls open at 5 or 6 AM, and the pace is lively until 5 or 6 PM. Saturday is the big day, when farmers come into the city to sell at the back end of the market, but shops close around 3 PM. Also Saturday there's a huge flea market at Kettenbrückengasse end.
There are quite a number of markets where one can buy fresh vegetable and assorted tidbits. But Naschmarkt is arguably more than that: it is a Viennese institution dating back to the 16th century.
Anil Gupta recommends that you visit www.bookings.be/city/at/vienna.html?aid=305255 for more information on Vienna hotels. |
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