This is the Naschmarkt in Vienna. It's been there since the 16th century and nobody really knows why it's called that. Just look at all the pretty produce!
Lunchtime Photo
4 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo”
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Well, it's where you get your Nascherei?
Google says "nasch" is just "snack," but my (possibly dated) Langenscheidt's says it's more like "eating on the sly," which is how Leo Rosten defines the German term. In Yiddish, afaik, the cognate (which obviously started life as the same word) refers mostly to snacking or nibbling between real meals, and I don't know anybody who hides away to nosh.
However I think there's always a good chance that Nasch has connotations in Vienna or more generally in Austria that it doesn't necessarily have farther north. But I wonder what people with more direct knowledge have to say.
Very colorful pic!
“Naschen” is indeed to eat, but in the sense of informally, hence “snack”. Basically the same word as “nosh” used in the UK (although that is often used to refer to the food itself).
Many, many moons ago, I was there with my first husband and had a hankering for one of the big “Salzgurken” (salt pickles). I was munching on it as we wandered through the market, when a Viennese gentleman grinned and winked at me and said “nasch, nasch!”
That's a lot of Spanish and North African produce 🙂
Apparently, until the 19th century, it was called the Aschenmarkt or Ash Market.
According to the City of Vienna, there are two possible explanations for the term "Aschenmarkt": the market's precursor was a fruit and vegetables market at Freyung in the city centre. Because of constant disputes between the City Administration and the Schottenkloster (the Monastery of the Scottish Friars), it was moved in 1780 to the fürstlich Starhembergische Freyhaus (a house belonging to the counts of Starhemberg, torn down in 1936, today the area of Hauptstraße-Resselgasse-Operngasse). Earlier a small milk market had been established at the location of a former city landfill for ash and waste, where ash was sold for fertilizer. This could be the reason why the Viennese called their new market "Aschenmarkt". At the same time, however, "Asch" was also a common name for milk buckets made of ash trees.