Hammoud Imbiss

Review

Al Nafoura, the fountain

Photo: Heribert corn There's always something going on at stand number 068. People are queuing up and there's a lot going on inside: a man is selling flatbreads over a plexiglass bowl and warming his hands over a round, sooty opening in a metal box; another is forming balls from a huge mountain of pale yellow dough in a blue plastic tub and dusting them with flour; a third man is standing in front of the rotating grill, that's Keschkesch, who always looks a bit like he knows that everyone is watching him.
Theatrically and sweeping far out, he grinds the long knife to immediately rasp off the crispy layer of the spit, which definitely looks different from the thousand other kebab stands in Vienna: layered beef, a layer of fat on top and in the middle to keep it juicy, with carrots, cucumbers and lemons in between, and a jaggedly cut lemon on top, like a little crown.
He comes from Baghdad, he explains, and the stall belongs to an Iraqi supermarket further ahead, as does the meat stall diagonally opposite. Which pretty much sums up the current trend at the Brunnenmarkt: the Brunnenmarkt is no longer just Turkish and Serbian, now the Arabs are there too. Nobody is suspicious here, nobody hides and has to ask the boss first if they have a question - they are proud of what they do and especially of the flatbread, which is placed on a kind of cushion that the oven master uses to heave it into the sooty opening, which is a tandoori oven. It sticks to the inside of the coal-fired amphora for a few seconds until it bubbles, then it is tough and just right for Keshkesh's beef. Things are less turbulent at the stall opposite, although what is on offer here is certainly on a par with the Iraqi dürüms. Five months ago, the Syrian supermarket Ruaa took over the stall directly in front of it and now offers salty and sweet snacks here: Oven-warmed, wafer-thin mini patties, either filled with cheese and folded into boats, filled with spicy spinach and laid into a kind of triangular golatche or spread with minced meat - all three crispy and wonderful and insanely cheap (€1 to €2).
And then there's halawet el jibn, a famous sweet from the city of Hama, small rolls of white wheat semolina sponge cake filled with cream cheese and dipped in rose syrup before eating - until you've tasted it, you won't know how much you've been missing this white roll. Will the Syrians and Iraqis make the Brunnenmarkt more interesting? It definitely will. To sum up: two stalls at Brunnenmarkt that don't look special and simply sell snacks. They are Arabic and very good: Hammoud Imbiss, Al Hilaw Imbiss 16th, Brunneng. 54, stall 068, 081, Mon-Sat 8-19 or 10-18 hrs.

More in Fast Food, Snacks
Food & Drink in Vienna