The Goose Dinner

Grafelfing

The traditional German Christmas dinner is served on Christmas eve. I don't know if what we ate was what they would have eaten if I wasn't there, or if they cooked the most traditional of dishes just because I was there. Who cares? It was delicious.

Detlev is one hell of a cook, he used to cook in Michelin-starred kitchens. The goose was gamy and served with a bearnaise like sauce. The green beans snappy and sauteed with a thick cut bacon or so, the spaetzle were buttery and pillowy, and the red cabbage kraut tart and sweet. It was a heavy meal, washed down with some Tuscan red.

It was the finest meal that I have ever tasted prepared by a man with no sense of taste or smell. Detlev had a bicycle accident some months ago, crashed into a tree and damaged some nerves. Needless to say, he is an intuitive cook. He told me that he eats by texture. Wine, because of its tannins, is off-putting, while beer is still drinkable, for its fizz.

He told me that the smell he misses most is his wife.