Great Cheese at Vienna's Naschmarkt

I've been on a cultural mission in Vienna, Austria for the past week and I've had some time to do some exploring.

On Saturday I visited the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market. It's full of permanent stalls selling meat, fish, cheese, fruits, vegetables and prepared foods.

There are also some organic ("bio") farmers and artisanal producers who set up stands one or two days per week. I was lucky to come across Stephan (right, above) and Alex, who sell a variety of great cheeses. Most are made from raw, whole milk from grass-fed cows and the several I tried were superb.

I bought two; one was Vollfettbergkäse (literally, "whole fat mountain cheese") from the Austrian Alps and the other was Cirone, from milk from cows living at high altitudes near Bern, Switzerland. I also bought some raw milk butter, which is extremely difficult to find in the United States.

The three of us had a conversation about food in both Europe and the United States, spurred on by Stephan's asking if I had heard of Michael Pollan and Alice Waters. I doubt Stephan knew what he was in for!

Stephan is a member of Slow Food Vienna and also sells his cheese online at kaes.at. Unfortunately, I don't think there's delivery to the States.