New Year's Eve

Yet again I had to introduce the world to Austrian habits and traditions. The "world" consisted this time of friends from Switzerland, Belgium and the UK.
They all loved the party and especially the food. Well, there was nothing not to love about. Pan friend scallops with fried ginger served on black pudding for starters. The most tender organic steaks with horseradish mash for our man course and of course, the dessert: curd cheese-chocolate dumplings on raspberry coulis, garnished with basil.
Plus: a fabulous cheese board for post-dessert. Having visited our families for Christmas, we all brought back special cheeses from our home countries and towns. The culinary tavel turned out to be very successful, although I have to admit that after our giant steaks and planet-like dumplings there wasn't much room left in our stomachs.

At midnight I simply had to present another typical Austrian New Year's Eve delicacy to the crowd: steamed pig's head. Yes, I also brought that one over to the UK from Austria. Wonder, what the security people made of it when they scanned my bags ;-) Anyway, everyone looked at it in total amazement but no one was too interested in eating it. Once we closed our eyes while swallowing parts of the pig's head, it turned out that at least the cheeks were fabulously tender. As for the rest... a well, we have to keep our traditions up!