We've all done it. You buy some mass-produced cake and ice cream because it's less expensive than getting something at the bakery and Jann's Sweetshop. You go home, eat it all, then wonder why you just did that. I mean, it wasn't that good, was it.What's amazing in Austria, though, is that you can buy store-bought cake, like Guglhupf, and ice cream for not too much money, take it home, and convince yourself with the first bite that you brought home top-shelf desserts! Austria just doesn't know how to do things cheaply.
You see it everywhere you turn. I often comment on doors. I know, you probably don't comment on doors. But in the U.S., we have a lot of hollow doors. I don't know if there's a technical term for it. But they're hollow. Hollow is cheap, both in the quality and in the price. However, it's hard to find a door that isn't made of solid, heavy wood that you know must have cost a lot of money.
That goes for floors and stairs, too. There aren't a whole lot of squeaky floors and stairs here because everything is made of solid wood or rock or tile.
Lastly, food in restaurants is in a different league. Very little is not hand-made on the premises. Maybe a kids meal will have fish sticks or something like that, but everything else is freshly prepared. You'll notice this especially with Schnitzel, or breaded pork or turkey cutlets. Every time one is ordered, you can hear the cook in the kitchen tenderizing it with a hammer.
Bang, bang, bang--yep another Schnitzel was just ordered. I remember taking a Pennington group to a restaurant and they thought all the banging in the kitchen meant it was under construction.
