Pork knuckle, or “Stelze” as it’s known in Austria, is basically a heart attack waiting to happen. It’s also a very traditional dish, usually accompanied by various types of cabbage, potato and beer. Because obviously when you’re eating several kilograms-worth of meat, what you really need is a side dish…

But hey, I was there. And it was staring me in the face amidst a menu which effectively described 1,001 ways that a pig could be cooked. We dived right in by ordering  two serves of pork knuckle between three people. Funnily enough, at first I thought I might go hungry and should perhaps simply order one to myself. The locals who I was joining for lunch patted me on the back and reassured me that I would most probably be fine.

It was huge. It was the size of my head. There was more meat there than anybody could possibly know what to do with. Apparently we were going to eat it. And we did.

We ate every last delicious morsel of it. It goes without saying that I didn’t eat anything else that day. Or week. Or month.