The city that used to have only two or three vegetarian restaurants

Well do I remember the visit about 20 years ago of two cousins who were on a macrobiotic diet. In those days, you could hardly find a vegetarian restaurant in Vienna and finding one that didn’t rely heavily on the excellent variety of Austrian cheeses was beyond us. We cooked a lot at home and my cousins made some exceptions. Suddenly, the word of the hour is vegan. It’s in all the newspapers and a number of vegan eateries have opened. On my way home just now I saw one of the oldest bakery chains in Vienna advertising that they offer 40 products “auf rein pflanzlicher Basis”–in other words, made from only vegetable-based ingredients (it sounds more appetizing in German, somehow)–and therefore, as they pointed out, suitable for vegans. That is quite a switch!