Music Monday

Hey there! I am totally in love with this song. It has such a great summer vibe. I'm so excited and I can't wait for summer to come, so I thought I'll share it with you! It is actually produced by to guys from Austria. - Just thought I put it out there. I'm also leaving for Athenstomorrow. Yeeey!! I'm so excited to see my family again and the city I love soo soo much! Tomorrow will be such a stressful day, because I haven't even fully packed yet and I have so much stuff to do, but I'm really excited, so it doesn't matter! I'll be blogging from Greece so stay tuned! :)

♥

A "Mini" Review

A few days ago I went to a restaurant here in Vienna and I really liked it. So I thought...why not make a review about it! I think reviews are really helpful! I always read through them on yelp before I go to a restaurant I've never been before.

The restaurant is called “Mini“ and it is in Vienna (Austria). It is actually also a winebar and it serves internationally inspired Hungarian gourmet cuisine.

I went there a few evenings ago with my best friend. She actually found it on yelp. We wanted to eat good quality food somewhere, so this was the place to be.

We ate a “Grilled goat cheese with garden salad, pears and walnut dressing“ (sounds fancy when you actually write it down haha) and the daily cream soup, which was a “Peas soup with mint and almonds“ for starters. They were really tasty, but the plating techniques took me away! All the plates were designed with so much detail! I've seen a lot of gourmet food plating, but in this restaurant I saw some I've never seen before....I liked that!

For my main dish I made a great decision choosing the “Braised beef cheeks with mushroom-potato puree, romanesco and red wine reduction“. (Wow it really sounds fancy!) The meat was high quality and nicely cooked, the puree with the mushrooms made a beautiful combination with the meat. And the sauce was of the charts! I don't even wanna start talking about the plating! Just magnificent! :)

And to top it off we decided to treat ourselves with a dessert, that we shared, because there was no way we could both eat one. We were sooo full! So for dessert we chose the Chili flavoured chocolate souffle with sour cherry sorbet. (Are you drooling yet?) I have kind of a thing for souffles, so evertime I go out and they're offering a souffle in the menu, I have to try it! :P It was delicious! Crusty outside and when you cut it in the middle the chocolate poured out like a waterfall of happiness!! As you can see I kinda liked it. :P

I accompanied my meal with a non-alcoholic raspberry-lime juice. They had A LOT of options. I just chose this one, because it combined my 2 faves...raspberries and lemon oh yeah! :P If I had to say one “bad“ thing...the juice was OK. I've tasted better ones, but it's not that important. They had a lot other options to choose from. Plus it's mostly known fot it's wines, so if I have the chance to go there again, I will definitely choose something from their wine list!

It is a bit pricey, but it's high quality! There is no way you'll find something like that cheaper! Plus it is not the place you'll eat every day. But it is very suited for when your parents come to visit you hahahah! I always use that, because it's obvious that they are going to pay! :P But it is also suited for a nice romantic dinner!...It calls for special occasions!

I can only highly recommend it! The food was delicious, the service was fast and very friendly and the whole ambiance was really nice!

If you live here there is no excuse to not eat here at least once! And for everyone who wants to visit this lovley capital city, I can only recommend it!

Hope you liked my review. Feel free to leave comments.

M

Healthy Salad With Mushrooms

We all get lazy, when we have to decide which healthy meal to cook. I totally hate it. Especially when you have to boil everything separate and make something out of it. It just takes so much time. Fun fact: Vegetables are healthier in their raw form. 
This salad is an easy and nutritious way to fill your dinner schedule any day. I enjoy it every time and the good thing about it, you can totally put your own twist on it. I'll give you just some basic ingredients and the dressing and everything else I will leave to your imagination! :)

Let's begin! 

First choose all the vegetables you want to put in your salad. I chose lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red peppers and a cucumber.

Cut them anyway you like and put them in a bowl.

After you're done with that, cut your mushrooms again anyway you like. I like to slice them first and then cut them again in the middle, but it's up to you. Whatever you prefer. And that is me making stupid faces with vegetables and taking pictures of them.

After doing that haha take a pan and heat some vegetable oil over medium heat. Afterwards add the mushrooms and leave them in for a couple of minutes.

Then turn up the heat and deglaze them with some balsamic vinegar. As soon as the vinegar disappears and they get a nice brown color, turn off the heat and put them in the bowl with the rest of the vegetables.

 

Choose a small jar to prepare your dressing. I always keep all the jars from marmalade or honey for this purpose. ;)

For the dressing you'll need: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and pepper.

The proportion of olive oil and vinegar in a dressing is always 3:1. That means if you put 3 tbsp of oil. You have to put 1 tbsp of vinegar. (For more dressing just do 6 oil and 2 vinegar, and so on...) This depends on how much dressing you want.

Then 1 tablespoon of each mustard and honey and some salt and pepper and that's really it.

Pour the dressing over the salad when you're ready to serve it , otherwise it's gonna get soggy.

Now to give you some variations....you can also put some chicken in or cheese cubes.

Croûtons are also a very nice addition you can make. Just mix it up. The only thing that really stays the same is the dressing. You can use a little bit more mustard, if you put chicken in your salad. Chicken and mustard are just a really tasty combination. Just make it your own and enjoy eating it.

I hope I could give you some ideas. It is actually a pretty easy recipe that everybody can enjoy.

So Bon Appetit!

M