As I write this, feeling very Austrian watching the European champions league championship game, I think back on my day. Today I went to a Buschenschank. Now, the part of Austria we are in is a wine region. So, wineries have little restaurants were they have food along with wine. Even though we cannot consume wine, we can go and eat at the restaurant. These places are special because, much to my surprise as it is different than in the US, all the food is served cold. Imagine a cheese board appetizer. But all of the food is produced by the winery. It is all handmade. The US doesn’t have anything that can really compare. Even the oil is different. In Austria they use an oil produced from pumpkin seeds; it has a green color but it is tasty. None of the water here has ice. And almost all of the water is carbonated. I guess they also carbonate the water at the winery, but I’m not sure. They have homemade juices. Apple juice and grape juice. So the Austrians mix juices, juice for me, wine for them, with the carbonated water. The result is bubbly juice. In hindsight it is less earth shattering than it was at lunch time. They have different spreads, and cheeses and homemade Wurst. Es schmeckt mir gut! I went to lunch with my host family and some of their family friends. Everyone is very friendly here, and no one is in as much of a hurry as in the US. After lunch my exchange student, her little sister, and I went to a family friend’s house with their son. We all ate together and grilled, the same way we grill in the US on a charcoal grill. It was very good. And for dessert, two different kinds of Austrian chocolate cakes and Eiskaffee. Eiskaffee is so different from US iced coffee. It is coffee, but with two big scoops of vanilla ice cream on top. Sehr lecker! -William
