Chocolate truffles and Underberg, wow!

What a crazy week. We have been moving so the house is upside down and the kids are out of school for the holiday break. We have been enjoying lots of great memories as we load boxes and clean things out. This house has been our genie; everything we have wished for in the last eight years has come true. I am so grateful.

I was also grateful for a brilliant goose dinner prepared for us by our German friends last night. We had a long day of moving and were starving and exhausted. We arrived to their home to a beautifully set table and a house full of great holiday smells including a perfectly roasted golden brown goose. Our friend Chris is a good cook. He had stuffed it with chestnuts and apples, served German style with red cabbage and dumplings. The goose was rich and tender as the leg meat fell off the bone. The dumplings acted as culinary sponges soaking up the juices, the sauce and everything they touched making each bite more flavorful.

The end of the meal was one of those special moments when a food and wine match come together to create a truly awesome experience in your mouth. I had a dark chocolate truffle melting in my mouth. Our friends offered us another German tradition – Underberg. A highly potent herbal digestive similar to a Fernet Branca. Underberg comes in a small (less than 1oz.) bottle wrapped in brown paper. It is 44% alcohol and loaded with bitter herbs and aged in oak to perfection. There is a whole lot going on in that little bottle! I took a sip and it cut through the butter cream of the truffle and brought out the deep cocoa flavor. The bitterness of the herbs latched on to the cocoa and played catch throwing deep herbaceous flavors and rich dark chocolate back and forth in my mouth. The high alcohol content of the Underberg turned into a mini fireworks display on my tongue. There were little bursts of heat from the alcohol but each one was quickly extinguished by the high fat content of the truffle. I love those moments of culinary bliss!

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy