Across the Pond

Christmas here and there: In the US people put up their trees as early as Thanksgiving; in Austria they wait until the day of Christmas Eve. Children are ushered out of the house (go play! go skiing!) while their parents - or one of their parents - decorate the tree and get out the gifts. In the US Santa brings the gifts; in Austria it is the Christ Child. In the US presents are opened on December 25th; in Austria on Christmas Eve. In the US people eat roast turkey, prime rib, or ham; in Austria the traditional meal is goose or carp. The differences are many and yet - here as there Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus by attending masses and services; here as there people gather to share a meal, to be with family or friends; and here as there the joy of Christmas is felt the same. Merry Christmas!

I rarely read mystery novels, but this post is about one:  Kind of Blue  is a new piece of crime fiction by L.A. author Miles Corwin. The reason the book features on Across the Pond? It has an Austrian angle. Kind of Blue revolves around the deeds of a couple of dirty cops and their efforts to cover up their trails. So far, so L.A. but the protagonist of the mystery, Ash Levine, is a Jewish police detective, and this is where Austria comes in. Ash's family (the first name is probably no coincidence) was murdered in the Holocaust. Ash is tormented by his family's past, by images of Jews being stuffed into cattle waggons and rolled off to death camps. What haunts this detective also motivates him: Ash's almost obsessive drive for solving homicide cases and for bringing killers to justice is rooted in his family's history, in the crimes Austrians and Germans committed against his aunts, uncles, grandparents. Miles Corwin started his writing career as a journalist. ...

If you were a head of state and a foreign leader came to visit - what would you serve for dinner? Germany's official international cultural institution, the Goethe Institut, recently posted an article on this topic on its homepage. From it we learn that "it is part of international diplomacy nowadays to strike up personal friendship between leaders, to invite them into your home – and to give them a sense of national cuisine". In the case of Germany, national fare tends to be on the heavy side. Chancellor Helmut Kohl treated his foreign counterparts Francois Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan to Saumagen (pig's stomach) and Blutwurst (blood sausage); Japanese Princess Hisako Takamado got to eat Schweinshaxe (leg of pork) with Chancellor Angela Merkel. I tried to find information on what other countries' leaders put on the table for guests of honor and am happy to report that Austria likes to show off its national cuisine too. In 2006, when it wa...

They say there are no seasons in L.A.... Here are two pictures I took as the sun was setting yesterday. (The forecast for Vienna says snow.)   Images: Early December views of the San Gabriel Mountains and of our neighbor's backyard trees

Last week a friend here in L.A. asked me whether Austrians celebrate Thanksgiving too. At first I was stunned because I thought of the origins of this day  and the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. But then I reconsidered. Doesn't everyone have something to be grateful for? Why shouldn't all countries recognize a  national day of giving thanks? I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in a small café in Prague, Czech republic, which was called Red Hot & Blues. The place unfortunately closed very recently but it used to be a  favorite hangout for American expats. It was there, in 1996, that I ate my first sweet potatoes, my first pumpkin pie, and my first pecan pie. I remember the food as good but most of all I recall engaging in lively conversation with the two strangers at our table and that the café was filled with laughter and happiness. It was like a giant family party. Thanksgivings since then - one at the home of friends in Prague, another in a cabin ...

Use an ATM in the U.S. and it might cost you. If the ATM is out of network for your card the ATM owning bank and your own bank will probably charge you. Between entering your pin code and retrieving your money you'll lose a couple of dollars, maybe even five. The whole thing is called convenience fee. You are paying for not walking into a bank, taking up a teller's time, and costing the bank money. Use any ATM in Austria with any Austrian debit card (i.e. a maestro card) and the transaction is free. Why the difference? Are Austrian banks not business savvy?

Does anything taste more of home than the bread we ate as children? I miss it: I miss the hearty, slightly sour taste of the dark, moist Austrian Roggen - and Vollkornbrot, the whole mealy texture of the lighter colored Grahamspitz, the crisp crunch of a fresh, golden  Semmel. (Sorry, no translations. They would not denote the same thing.) Other countries and regions make good bread too of course. I think of the unsalted white breads in the area around Orvieto (Italy), hard crusted baguette in Normandy, Paris, and Beaune, and slightly bitter tasting pumpernickel slices in Northern Germany. They are delicious in their own way and always pair perfectly with whichever food is produced and eaten locally. It's just that to me these foreign breads are not the real thing. Here in L.A. I often find bread too soft and too sweet, but there is a German bakery not far from where we live, which produces a rather nice kind of Mischbrot  and Whole Fo...