Where There's Fizz In the Sauerkraut

Three things preoccupy the viennese: music, death and eating. If you've already taken in a performance at one of the city's famed musical venues and can't face a tour of the Central Cemetery, then head for the Naschmarkt, Vienna's foremost open-air food market. Besides confirming the Viennese love affair with all things edible, it reveals a side of the city far removed from the cloying imperial splendor of most tourist haunts: colorful, gritty, cosmopolitan. It could have been a film set for The Third Man.

The Viennese love their markets, and there are still more than 20 permanent...