Martini Gans

November 11 is Goose Day. Goose what? Goose Day, you heard it right. There is Labour Day, Independence Day, All Saints Day, and so on, so why not Goose Day?

In Austria, at least, when St. Martin with the Goose (or better of the Goose?) becomes once more the saint of the day. The day when you get Martini Gans (Martini Goose) for lunch or dinner, served with red cabbage, potato dumplings, and best consumed with the young wine produced the same year.

Legend has it that the Holy Martin hid himself in a goose stall when he was summoned by the church to become a bishop. Ostensibly he didn't apply for the new job and was quite happy and contented with the old one he had been doing so far. Not willing to learn new tricks, eh? I could perfectly understand the feeling. Eventually he was found and proclaimed a saint later and went down in church history as a saint featured with a goose -the same way that other saints are fondly associated with something that distinguish them from the other holy men...and holy women, as well. I am just being politically correct, lest I find myself suddenly confronted with hate mails (and femails, most likely) for being such a sexist pig, so there. Anyway, think of St. Francis of Assisi, what does he remind you of? What do you associate him with? Birds, what else! Talk of a more fitting association!

There's this one legend I like best about St. Martin and the goose. It has been told time and again that he hid himself from the Roman soldiers pursuing him -for some reason beyond me, so don't ask. The place he chose to run for cover was a goose stall - of all places! Very clever! Need I say that the birds gave him away? No goose and gander was spared that day. Not by the soldiers but by the village people who were loyal to the holy man. I can just imagine the violence and blood shed that ensued later, when the poor birds were beheaded and sent straight to the kitchen oven. Too vivid for my imagination -they give me goose bumps...

And goose down -precious fluppy stuff in my winter blankets and pillows that keep me warm and cozy all night long. Hey, this could be the reason why Martini Gans is available only during the cold season, in November when the weather temperature could suddenly drop to minus! Goose meat is heavy in fat so you don't really go for it in the summer. You don't mind it in winter, when you're freezing, when you couldn't care less if it's the goose that lays golden eggs.

I was invited to a Martini Gans dinner that Saturday -the 11th of November. Waiting for us was a 5-kg goose -stuffed with apples and red onions- still roasting in the oven. I had with me three bottles of freshly minted white Jungwein (young or early wine) from Burgenland. A wine aficionado advised me to get those. The new wine -launched in autumn- goes very well, he said, with the rich flavour of Martini Gans. Thanks and kudos to him for this valuable piece of advice. Our dinner host and the other guests were delighted with the young wine I got for dinner. The aroma resembles apples and pears freshly picked from the garden -a perfect match indeed to the crispy goose and side dish of red cabbage and potato dumplings.

Burgenland is one wine country of Austria that is famous also for its migratory storks with nests ensconced on chimney tops of rustic houses. In mid-autumn, locals and visitors alike celebrate harvest with a festival that begins with "baptism" (wein-taufe in German) of the early wine by a Catholic priest -a tradition that is also shared and practised by other wine producing regions in Austria. I dare to say that this is one tradition that goes back perhaps to the day a holy man called Martin was betrayed by his flock. His flock of geese I mean. It is only after the wine has been purified through some kind of baptism (remember Austria's wine scandal of the '80s when wine producers diluted their wines with glycol?) that one is allowed to say Prost (cheers) when proposing a toast to health...or to the Jungwein. Or to the goose? Hick!

photos: Martini Gans; Potato dumplings and red cabbage