Rod Dreher's Blog, page 503

Yum Yum! The Christmas Wolf Pig

Not really a View From Your Table, but you gotta see this. Our reader Giuseppe Scalas sends this photo of the spit at his family’s home in Sardinia. That’s the suckling wolf they roasted for Christmas. You read that correctly. Says Giuseppe:

The tradition here in Sardinia is to cook them before they are weaned. The meat is tender and the skin, when properly done, crispy and savory.

I will take his word for it. Buon appetito!

UPDATE: I’m such an idiot. I thought that looked like a pig, but I misread his English phrasing, thinking he was describing a suckling wolf. What he was saying is that the suckling pig was not eaten by the big bad wolf (but was eaten by a bunch of Sardinians, including himself). I’m so embarrassed! The fault was not Giuseppe’s English (which is flawless), but my reading. What can I say? The kids got me up before daylight this morning to open presents, and I’m ending the day full of ham. That, plus I’m dumb.

View From Your Table

Wlimington, North Carolina

The reader writes:

While playing Santa Claus in Wilmington, North Carolina. Forget cookies. Santa got boiled peanuts and champagne. Merry Christmas, Y’all!

View From Your Table

Budapest, Hungary

Krisztus megszületett! Dicsőítsük Őt!

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Images Of Christmas

Gubbio, Italy

An American reader passes along that photo of a Christmas display in the Italian city of Gubbio, where his sister lives. He also sent the images below, with the following commentary:

Feeling very nostalgic this year, I made the Hungarian filled cookies my grandmother made when I was a kid. They came out so well that my first taste and I was instantly a small boy in my grandmother’s kitchen, being offered a cookie from her big copper tin. I even made the apricot filling from the old Hungarian cookbook she bought in 1963 from a local church. I’ll make some prune ones next (lekvar) for my father.

Memories are bittersweet things, but cookies make everything better.

View From Your Table

Brisbane, Australia

The reader writes:

Merry Christmas from (meant to be) sunny Brisbane in Australia! I’m a long time reader of your blog, and so I wanted to send you a couple of pics from our table this Christmas.

The first is of coffee and nut cake (a gift given earlier today) – please take special note of where it was baked.

The two other photos were of our Christmas lunch. As Christmas here is in the middle of summer, we primarily dine on seafood, rather than a hot roast. We had prawns, salmon, and what I understand to be unique to the area, the Moreton Bay bug (like crab, but far easier to eat).

Anyway, wishing you a joyful, holy and (hopefully!) restful Christmas break.

Many thanks! Here’s one from closer to home:

The reader writes:

Nothing fancy. Just a cold beer and some filets grilling in the backyard on this 72 degree Christmas Eve. Gonna have to cut the beer short, though. Long night of putting together toys ahead.

Those steaks look like heaven to me. Nativity fast ends with liturgy in a few hours.

View From Your Table

Starhill, Louisiana

That’s the turkey, duck, and sausage gumbo that my cousin Andy Dreher made for our family Christmas Eve celebration. He makes it every year. He and his wife Nancy always have a great party for all of us. It ends with a massive shock-and-awe fireworks show, which is basically what my son Lucas lives for all year. One of my cousins shouted during the barrage, “Santa Claus knows where we live now!” It was so much fun! It always is. Merry Christmas, y’all.

View From Your Table

Bari Vecchia, Puglia, Italy

James C. (who else?) writes:

Well, that was unexpected! I popped into the ancient Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari’s labyrinthine old town to pray before St Nicholas’s tomb in the crypt, as I often do when in the city. As it happens, Monday was the feast of St Nicholas in the Julian calendar, so for the past few days the constant stream of Orthodox pilgrims to the city has risen to a flood.

So when I got to the crypt to pray Vespers, I was not surprised to see an exceptionally hairy Russian priest leading a large group of pilgrims in a liturgy before the tomb. What a grace-filled experience, praying in my Benedictine breviary as achingly beautiful Slavonic chants echoed off those ancient vaults and hung in the air like incense!

When they were finished, the blessed bread went around, and a piece was given to me.

That’s my kind of ecumenism. Breaking bread together before the glorious tomb of one of our great witnesses to Christ in the Undivided Church, a hope and a foretaste of the happy day when (please God) we shall find ourselves visible under one Fold and one Shepherd.

View From Your Table

Manhattan Beach, California

The reader writes:

The incredible oysters at my favorite South Bay restaurant Fishing With Dynamite. Six pairs sourced from Washington, California, British Columbia (x2), Massachusetts, and New York. The Alaskan King Crab legs weren’t bad either…

View From Your Table

Allen, Texas

The reader writes:

This is the celebration meal the hospital gave us following the birth of our son: steak, potatoes, asparagus, and lobster. Not pictured, salad, tiramisu, and nursing baby.

Welcome to the world, baby Texas boy! Don’t let them give you Dr Pepper.

View From Your Table

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina

The reader writes:

I’m traveling for business in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and wanted to pass along a couple of pictures of recent meals. The first picture is of three empanadas (Mediterranean, chicken, and meat) and fresh salsa in front of a frosty mug of the local brew, Quilmes. The second picture is a 400 gram medium rare “lomo” (or tenderloin) that melted in your mouth like butter. That was served at the restaurant Fervor in the Ricoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires.