How do you say 'food' in Polish?
What haven’t they said about Ashkenazi food? That it’s bland, it tastes bad, even that it’s repulsive. There are plenty of horror stories about boiled chicken, drelies or gefilte fish. The lost honor of grandma’s cooking
This recipe was invented by me, as I was trying to recreate the mythological klops my grandmother, once a certified chef, used to make. The description sounds justifiably disgusting, but in some way not entirely clear even to me, the final product is actually quite good.
Who hasn’t heard the jokes about the drelies, that ugly but flavorful dish? Very few people will admit to it, but even my non-Ashkenazi friends ask for a piece of my grandmother’s drelies, as perverted as it may sound.
One mustn’t mention the gefilte fish: A lump of fish, boiled as well, garnished with a gelatinous sauce, carrot slices and blanched almonds. And while we’re at it, who can live without the tongue, which also evokes cries of “yuck” by many, but disappears at a suspicious speed from the pot.
What haven’t they said about Ashkenazi food? That it’s bland, it’s bad-tasting, even gross. They’ve made up countless jokes and horror stories, and even given it decidedly unflattering names. It’s been humiliated and maligned at every opportunity. But now it’s time to let the secret out and announce with a mouth full of klops: Ashkenazi food is lovely.
Good old food
A few days ago I sat with a few friends in our favorite Indian restaurant. The chai was flowing like wine, the thali resting in our guts, and the conversation turned to that old times food. Everyone, without exception, smacked their lips in hunger talking about that good old food.
When I told another friend, an honest Yemenite, about our conversation, He stunned me by confessing that he is addicted to a nice big plate of warm kasha and boiled chicken, or just a meat stuffed piroghi floating in oil and fried onions. We quickly came to an agreement: I will provide him with a short visit to Poland in exchange for that jahnoun and s’houg his grandmother makes, but refuses to tell me how she makes them.
There are quite a few places which offer “Jewish” or “Ashkenazi” food. If you expected to find the elderly Polish ladies among their clientele, you are mistaken. They make this food themselves, and they have the ultimate recipe for chicken soup and kneidels. But, oh, in these food houses who seem to have appeared at the 21st century from some far away frozen town you will find the best of the big metropolis’s boys and girls: Those returning to the flavors of home, and those discovering a whole new world.
In every spoonful of soup, every meaty bite, are hidden a history of flavors which explode in your mouth and sit well in you gut. It is nice to sit in a place in which time seems to stand still, drink ice-cold beer and eat a herring floating in brine that tastes like paradise.
The faltering air conditioning can barely cool the place and the fancy china has seen better days, but there’s nothing quite like this food which, like a bridge between the past and the present, is a meeting place for a calm nostalgia full of tastes and smells and an action filled fast paced present.
And just between you and me, in the insanity of our lives, there is nothing like stopping for a moment, remembering the past fondly with memories of our personal and collective childhood, opening a button in out pants and ordering a serving of cholent with kishke and another beer, which we will raise in a toast to that good old food. And here’s to that drelies (congealed leg) of grandmother’s, may it soon be healed.
Klops: Meatloaf stuffed with hard-boiled eggs
Ingredients:
For the meat:
½ kg (1 lb.) ground beef
½ kg (1 lb.) ground chicken
2 onions
1 tbsp oil
3 slices of challah, soaked in water, squeazed and finely chopped
2 eggs
1 ½ - 2 tsps salt
2 cloves of garlic
¼ tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper
For the stuffing: 4 hard-boiled eggs
Preparation:
Preheat the over to 180 degrees (350 degrees F).
Dice one onion and fry in the oil until golden. Let cool.
Dice the other onion. Mix the meat, fried onion, raw onion, challah, eggs and seasoning into a bowl. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning as needed.
Lightly oil a tall oblong baking dish and place half the meat mixture at the bottom. Arrange the whole hard-boiled eggs on top of the meat, and cover with the remaining meat mixture. Pat well and bake until brown.
Serve cold, sliced into thick slices, with good quality mustard and home-made pickles.
