A Dairy Free & Egg Free City-Break to The Sound of Salzburg, Austria

After weeks of trying to guess the location of F’s surprise mystery city-break I was amazed that his last ridiculously easy hint of ‘the city is literally filled with the sound of music’ was not actually a trick hint and that the location was in fact the infamous and entirely beautiful Austrian city of Salzburg! (On the off chance that you're interested or would like to tempt your travel bugs I’ve posted a couple of my tourist shots at the end of this log).
I was somewhat nervous about my food allergies and how I was going to manage the weekend maintaining at least a dairy free and egg free existence without any pre-planning but it all turned out easier than anticipated. It even started off with a few interesting finds like Lufthansa airport offering complementary Rooibos tea, herbal teas, green tea and lemon juice sachets with hot water in Frankfurt airport and the Austrian airlines having ‘Soletti Happy Mix’ crackers as their in flight snack which were naturally dairy free and egg free...

The best find in Salzburg was The Heart of Joy Café. As much as I genuinely enjoy trying out all of the new and exciting local foods and wading my way through foreign language menus while trying to avoid my food allergy enemies sometimes towards the end of a holiday it’s just really nice to have a laid back sunny meal in a healthy café where you’re not weighed down with meats and grease and indigestion. It’s especially magnificent when you can do all of this with the added pleasure of not having to guess about the menu! ...and that is exactly what The Heart of Joy offers:

- Dairy free
- Egg free
- Gluten free (minimal)
- Sugar free
- Vegetarian
- Vegan

F and I shared a beautiful hearty lentil ‘soup’ (Indische Bio-Linsen mit Bio-Reis und Salat) which was more of a main course and I had a delicious vegan Wurst bagel (Wurst [vegan] Seitan, Tomate, Salat, Senf) with a desert of apple cake made with ‘Dinkel’ which I believe to be either Spelt or similar to Spelt (Dinkel – Apfelkuchen vegan und zuckerfrei) which all tasted so wonderfully healthy and fresh.

The waiter, who was extremely lovely, also told me that despite his not being a huge fan of vegan food that the vegan chocolate cake was his favourite of all but that it was sadly sold out for the day – sigh. The best bit was that the whole thing (1xsoup & salad, 2x bagel sandwiches, 1xcake and 1x mango lassi drink) all came to just about €20.

Elsewhere in Salzburg:

Reformhaus Martin was a great little health food shop that we fell upon. Located in the new city (North of the river) on the lower part of Linzer Gasse which is, in essence, the ‘Henry Street’ of Salzburg (for all you Dublin residents). This large health food shop is part of a 20 strong Austrian chain and has all of the food allergy friendly products that you are likely to need during your stay in Salzburg. Among other things I was delighted to see a good selection of dairy free milks, and an entire Gluten free section (gluten frei) which even had Gluten free beer so you don’t have to feel left out … I tried out some really nice Provamel soya yoghurt ‘Lime with Lemon balm’ which I had never seen before and F uncovered some gummy bears made with honey which were a slow burner but heartily enjoyed by the end of the package! There was also a small salad/juice bar in the shop but I didn’t get the opportunity to try it out.

We also came across another centrally located health food store in the old city (south of the river), Mayreder’s Reformhaus - Verwaltung which looked quite large and beautifully

decorated inside (as was everything) with garlands. I didn’t get a chance to browse around inside though because it was surprisingly closed before 4:30 on Saturday! ... Which was the same for one of the few Spar market ‘convenience’ stores which we found – oh the joys of travelling ;) but there was an advertisement for diabetic foods. Also, please note that I’m not 100% sure about the name of this shop. From what I could figure out it seemed to be independent but there was a logo which matched Reformhaus Martin – possibly a health food group association? or potentially recently bought out?? Sorry to not know more...

Other little gastronomic things that crossed my path in Salzburg:
- Almost all of the fresh breads seemed to be egg and dairy free (note: not the case with the sweet breads sadly but as expected).

- Becel Margarine (available in the Spar market convenience shop in the old town) which was a vegetarian, dairy free spread (frei von milchbestandteilen: Free from dairy ingredients) that was also preservative free and hardened-fat free
- In the restaurant on the hill attached to the Mdm (Modern Museum of Art) you can enjoy a coffee etc. with soya (soja) milk if you like while taking in the glorious view!
- The ever popular Ritter Sport Marzipan chocolate square bars which are naturally dairy free, egg free and gluten & wheat free (note: may contain traces of peanuts, walnuts, wheat and dairy products as Ritter Sport uses all these ingredients to make their other delicious flavours).
- And last but certainly not least was the infamous original Austrian Neapolitaner wafer chocolates. I LOVE Manner which I believe F discovered to a shocking degree! Manner Original hazelnut neapolitaner, like Ritter Sport is naturally dairy free, egg free and vegetarian but also contains the warning: ‘may contain traces of other nuts and milk solids’. The best value Manner came from the dedicated shop/café on the Residenzplatz where you could get a pack of four for less than €3. And there you could also get the apricot, vanilla and lemon Manner varieties which are all also naturally dairy free, egg free and vegetarian. The Lemon ones taste like Jacob’s Lemon Cream Puffs only with more filling!

In general people seemed pretty understanding. We even did an out-of-character and ridiculously touristy Mozart dinner concert in the oldest restaurant in Europe, St. Peter’s (serving since 803 AD!) with a set menu and the staff had no problems is altering the menu with a few hours notice to meet my dairy free and egg free needs and F got a brilliant Vegetarian risotto and salad. And up on the northern part of the city we went to a small Italian/Pakistani restaurant (strange mix of cuisine, I know) which happily worked around my needs with no advance notice at all... But then again I suppose that Salzburg is used to every sort of person coming their way with 8 million tourists a year!

For non-food related interests, I've posted a couple of my tourist images below – I hope you enjoy...

Restaurant/Café
Heart of Joy Vegetarian Café
Location: Franz-Josef Strasse 3, 5020 – Salzburg, Austria (located on the Northern side of Franz-Josef Strasse on the Mirabellgarten/Western end of the street)
Web: www.heartofjoy.at
Tel: +43-662-890-773
Opening Times: Mon-Sun 08:00-18:00

Health Food Shops
Reformhaus Martin
Linzer Gasse 4
5020 Salzburg
Tel. +43 (0)662/87 07 29
web: www.reformhaus-martin.at
Opening Times: Mon-Fri 08.30-18.30; Sat 09.00-18.00

Mayreder’s Reformhaus – Verwaltung
Universitatsplatz 13,
5020 Salzburg
Tel: +43 662 843 1290
Opening Times: not completely sure but definitely closing at 4:30 on Saturdays)