Crazy Bobos? Fun Food Finds in Vienna, Austria

If I’m traveling anywhere, I’m bound to pop into a grocery store or at the very least a convenience store, to learn about local foods.  Even though I was on a river cruise with Viking River Cruises, that didn’t stop me for pursuing one of my favorite activities as I was definitely on the hunt for fun food finds in Vienna, Austria.

If I'm traveling anywhere, I'm bound to pop into a grocery store or at the very least a convenience store, to learn about local foods. Click To Tweet

Snacks: If you’re looking for pure entertainment, always head to the snack aisle wherever you’re visiting because the snacks may seem the same, but the ingredients will always be different.  Yes, they had Pringles, but in Focaccia or Chilli Samba flavor.  Crazy Bobos? You’d have to be crazy not to buy them.

Candy: Under the heading of “candy that could probably use a better name” we find “Negro.”  Turns out the candy is named after the inventor of this Serbian candy, Pietro Negro.  The man on this bag of black menthol candy is a chimney sweep and their slogan that’s been used for the past 80 years has been, “the chimney sweep of the throat.”

Baking and breakfast options: Maybe you want to check out the baking and breakfast aisle.  Who doesn’t love pretzel bread or muesli? But it was the shelf stable coffee cream that was rather strange for me. Was it the consistency that bothered me or that it was shelf stable? You decide.

Meat products: For the carnivores among us, there’s plenty of meat to be found in an Austrian supermarket including frozen meat based balls, funny sounding deli meat (Puten Schinken), and of course, pressed sausage.

Beverages (non-alcoholic): While you could find just about anything from Fanta to Paloma “Mexican-style lemonade,” I was intrigued by Almdudler, which is sweetened carbonated grape and apple juice concentrate beverage flavored with herbal extracts and is considered the “national drink of Austria.” Who knew?  I’m still trying to figure out the “Mexican-style” lemonade.  Apparently, it’s based more on the margarita than actual lemonade.  Sneaky!  Other drinks include fun flavors of Fanta (say that three times fast) and passionfruit and pineapple soda.  Of course, if you know of anyone needing to cheer up, slip them some “Happy Day sirup.”

Beverages with alcohol: Otherwise knowns as beer heaven.  Do you see the prices?  Insanely low, like that €12,99 for the Heineken mini-keg (partyfass) or less than €1 for a single bottle of most beers. They even stocked several varieties of non-alcoholic beer, but I’ve never quite gotten that concept.

My travel partner striking a pose with chocolate.  Yes, that’s Karla who has clearly had enough of my photographing items in grocery stores and is showing her true “feelings.” Don’t worry, she wasn’t drinking or upset, she’s only playing along with me!

I thought this was diapers or toilet paper, but no — it’s cat litter.  Well, if kitty’s happy then you’re bound to be happy.

Never forget the store policy of no dogs, roller blading, or smoking inside the store. So the kitty can be happy but the store wants to be sure we can’t bring our dog into the store while smoking and on rollerblades?  Not fair! Do you think I could get away with bringing a service cat into the store? The price you pay for going off in search of fun food finds in Vienna, Austria.

Do you like to go to local markets and supermarkets when you travel abroad? What’s the strangest or weirdest thing you’ve found in a foreign supermarket?

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I was a guest of Viking River Cruises for this cruise, but as always — all opinions and photographs are my own.