Heh. It is pretty hard to yuck my yum. I am a gamer and most of my friends have the personality of a fourteen year old. Me too. Naw it is not teething babies it is breastfed babies that cause that “situation” Just to be all technical like. Love your posts, packed with lots of info to reply to. Might take me two replies. I found sauerbraten easy and fun to make back in the day. The anticipation as the meat marinates for a few days. My mom’s secret tech was ginger snap cookies. They really work. I love red cabbage with sauerbraten and a bit of brown sugar in the red cabbage is good. To round out the meal I want gravy and mashed potatoes. Chicken Paprikash was a family favorite too. I like it with tons of mushrooms and of course sour cream. Noodles is best but I find rice acceptable. My mother was more fond of goulash than I but I will gladly slurp it up. Adore natural casing. That slight resistance when you bite into it. Pierogies are popular around here but the freshly made ones have sorta ruined frozen pierogies for me. There is a huge Polish shrine near me and they have a big big festival labor day weekend. Those kielbasa.
I like hot mustard too. Chinese mustard is great when I have a head cold or I just want a little jolt. There was this place in North Miami very close to SB that had an early bird special with schnitzel. So good. Sometimes I miss Miami for the sheer variety. I may or may not be going to the RTM tomorrow er later today. I can get my variety there. Miller’s Pretzels is a huge favorite. Always a line. Lots of Pennsylvannia dutch food to be had. And pretty much anything else. https://readingterminalmarket.org/merchant/millers-twist/
Ginger snap gravy is required with sauerbraten. I’ve made it but hate losing the fridge space for so long. Red cabbage is the perfect sidecar. I just remember teething diapers. Pretty similar.
I love paprikash with homemade noodles. Mushrooms are obligatory and sour cream is part of the sauce. For some reason, sauces with sour cream don’t work for me with rice. I love rice; but I don’t think I could do it with chicken pap. Never tried it, though.
Eaten a whole ton of pierogies in my life. Where I live now, not as much. I found some frozen ones. First and last time for that. I love almost every kielbasa but the crap I find in stores. Hillshire Farms and all those. Every one I find is smoked. Some are pretty good. Most aren’t.
Where I live it’s mostly German/Norwegian, so my love for things Polish revolves around trips back to Milwaukee, and/or friends bringing the goods to me. Where I live people though my last name must be Polish. Not a lot of exposure to eastern, Europe here. So, I went with it. Then, when the war in Ukraine started, I recreated my office name plates to my name in Ukrainian. My elementary principal said “that’s not Polish, is it?” I said, “why would it be? I’m of Ukrainian descent.” I just grew up with so many Polish, I just blended in. I have darker skin, and my Polish pals were all taught that dark skinned eastern Euros are the descendants of Genghis Khan, they labeled me a Khan Pole. It is interesting how similar the darker skin Polish kids and I resembled. Body type, facial features. Almost made me a Polish racist.
I totally rely on Penzey’s Chinese mustard (which is grown in Canada.) I haven’t been to Miami in like 20 years. Guessin’ it may have changed a tad.
Those pretzels are dynomite. I use baking soda when I make mine at home, too. Never dipped them in butter, though. Like the sound of that action. Is it Roger Miller, the singe,r who founded that place. I can’t see him walking around Philly. RTM, eh. We don’t have enough population (Monroe County, WI) with 46,000 in a big county. Gotta settle for the Amish produce auction and farmer’s market. Still, we have a very popular taco truck, and a good one. Lengua, cabeza, all well-made. A custodian at my school asked me to meet him there. He was intimidated. Then, I got a cabeza, and he said it was so gross, just the thought. I said " I know damn well you’ve had and eaten head cheese, ya fool. Grow up!" He loved the asadas I told him to get. When it’s something familiar made with possibly unsettling ingredients, no big deal. Heat it up, throw in a tortilla , and it’s deathly. Jeff Foxworthy was right when he said “you might be from WI, if you think ketchup is just a little spicy. If you’ve ditched you car, without spilling your beer, had a half hour phone conversation with a wrong number.” Yada yada yada. An RTM sounds sweet to me. You’re around Reading, eh. I collected that beer can when I was a runt. I think I still have most of the cans from Penn breweries of the day. Took me awhile to find a good Rolling Rock can “from the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe.” Nice talkin’ to ya! We have a lot of crossover.
I grew up eating offal regularly, mostly veal: liver, kidneys, brains at home. My first sweetbreads at a restaurant were a revelation at the tender age of 12, and they’re still a favorite when I go out. They’re certainly more in fashion than veal brains were after BSE hit Great Britain. I can’t remember the last time I saw fresh, raw brains at a butcher.
Other, more traditional German dishes are having a renaissance by way of hipster filters/twists. The old is new again, etc. etc.
I hate those teething diapers. Ouch. Could not resist as I am a real smartas. Ricky I can explain about the rice. My household was larger with big eaters. My SO loved to take bodacious leftovers to nuke for his lunch and I made a lot of food. The chicken paprikash was made in a large dutch oven. I always made plenty of noodles of course. But the noodles had a way of getting slurped up fast. If I did not feel like running out to the store rice would do in a pinch. But I agree noodles noodles noodles for sure. There is a Polish deli nearby that I have yet to try. Sometime soon. On my other sandbox wfd I sometimes make the southerners (usa) feel a tiny bit jealous because Jewish Delis are few. We have a Pumperniks and my standing order besides matzo ball soup is a roast beef special bloody rare. If I cannot get it rare that day I get a french dip. The rich au jus for dipping is key. Like you don’t already know that. We rarely dine in there, their take out dept is faast and efficient. But when we do dine in I always get a chocolate egg cream. Sucks that you got labeled.
Woolworth lunch counters made the best grilled cheese! I fondly remember going to the one in Jamaica, Queens with my grandma. She’d get a BLT and coffee, I’d have a GC and a coke.
There’s a newly opened Wegmans in Westchester County NY (June 2020) and the cafe/restaurant there is pretty nice. Mostly burgers/fries/ice cream but it’s not a bad place to grab a bite before shopping.
It’s good having you back, lingua.
Aw, shucks. Thank you. It’s nice to be back, I think.
You may not care for the recipe, but at the very least you should be relaxed by the end of the video. Charlie is like the Bob Ross of cooking
German chocolate cake–that brings back memories. I need to make that for my wife’s BD sometime, as I’ve already made her coconut cake and Black Forest cake.
Oh, I’m not critiquing the rice. I know exactly how that looked. Needed more starch to stretch the meal. I think most working-class families did exactly that. Just smart. Made a meal go further for a dime. Just what we did. We’re noodlemakers, so we ate a lot of noodles. I still make noodles. No pasta roller, then nor now.
Check out the fresh sausages at that deli. I hope you’ll find a good fresh kielbasa, or, what in Milwaukee, we call Polish sausage.
My daughter made my chicken and dumplings for father’s day. Was legit good, too. Proud of her.
My favorite Jewish deli closed years ago. Still bumbin’. Love rare roast beef. sauce for the samich. Next day, use the drained fat as sauce for the samich. Au jus!
I got labeled? That was a norm of the time. It wasn’t mal-intentioned, nor taken. I’ll carry on…somehow.
I confess that I cannot yet make a good knish. Another hurdle. lost my love for potatoes for a time years ago and the knish brought me back.
Went and ate at our Wegmans late last night. Hey we needed cat food. I got a prepackaged shrimp cocktail with a lemon slice and a little container of cocktail sauce. And a cheap bottle of sparkling wine. Cdc chose broccoli cheddar soup and a large strawberry cake. Blueberries to toss on it. I also got three mini eclairs but left them for cdc. He shared some of his soup with me. I have learned to very gently nuke their cooked shrimp just to take the chill off. Those suckers were cold. Pretty sweet for a food court meal in the supermarket. What a wonderful memory with your grandmother. I am lucky enough to have some also
Oh no. Lost your love for potatoes? That is awful. Glad the knish set you free. My heritage is Irish Welsh mostly so potatoes are one of my comfort foods. Big time. My Irish grandmother, who owned a bar at one time, told me that if I was sick and didn’t feel like eating try to eat a potato because they come from the earth. This is what her mother told her. Nice father’s day dinner. Woot. Best french dip I ever had was assembled lazily at home about three years ago. The local barbecue place had smoked prime rib for it’s thursday special and I could get it rare. The meal came with a generous cup of au jus. I’m not much for gilding the lily and to my surprise the au jus slightly took away from that thick slice of prime rib. At least for me. No way was I gonna toss that au jus but often the next day the barbecue place offered a sliced prime rib sandwich to move the specials that did not sell. But strangely no au jus offered with that. So I would go back, get that sandwich to go and then eat it with the warmed au jus, dipping the good meat and roll in that au jus. Bam!
I will check them out but for really garlicy kielbasa and beer and pierogies and maybe a cocktail tent and a gambling tent if they still have them and so much Polka and dancing this is on my horizon: https://czestochowa.us/newsevents/festival/
We sure do have a lot of crossover. My area in the suburbs of Philly is a crazy quilt. Lansdale Pa is ignorant and proud of it. The annual Christmas parade got called The Mardi Gras parade a Long time but they are not changing that name for anyone. Working class, tough and rude. Lansdale has a bike night in the fall where they block off much of the town to celebrate motorcycles. Very popular event With pole dancers. When someone from lansdale gives you a compliment they actually mean it. Not far away at all is more open country and corn fields and mennonites. You can get stared at and not in a good way for wearing something with bright colors or in my case a bit too low cut. Or short. Helpful kind caring and great food. My favorite barbecue is owned by a mennonite family. On their fb page someone asked if their restaurant was byob. When I read that I almost spit out my beer. Love rolling rock beer. I get my produce from a mennonite farming family and they still use the honor system: https://www.facebook.com/FrankenfieldFarmMarket/
I can’t do precooked shrimp. might be better by you. brocco/cheddar, though is all good. My grandma was from Aberdare, Wales. Came over at age 14.
Prime rib fat is prime fat. Dippin’ gold. My local go-to uses yesterday’s prime rib for their French dip, fat too, obviously.
Just ate so many potatoes growing up, just took respite. Had some of the best fingerlings a few weeks ago. Boiled them, then threw them into the SS pan to finish with oil, S&P, and a hint of sugar. They were great. I don’t eat many sweets, but I like some sugar when I finish potatoes like that.
Some cool dude from Canada in another sandbox has convinced me of his method for potatoes parboiled then allowed to completely chill in the fridge before pan frying I parboiled some teeny tiny potatoes and then abandoned them accidentally . Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. Thanks Pete! Never been to Wales but I watched Torchwood until I couldn’t any more. Set in Wales. Once my parents and I took a crazy trip to Hong Kong and Japan. My mom wanted a tattoo so we found ourselves on the ferry with a coupla drunk Welshmen on the way to get a tattoo too. They all agreed that I was not allowed to get a tattoo. Bastiges. But the dude who got the three musketeers on his chest very large ended up dating me for our brief time there. We romped all over Hong Kong and made it our playground. He was tough and strong. And not good looking at all. He was so much fun. Reminded me so much of Popeye the Sailor. I love Popeye and fell a little in love with him. You meet the best people on the way to get tattoos. Thanks for provoking the memory.
Some people, in our lives briefly, stay with us forever!
What tattoo did your mother choose?
I get why tats are cool. I just don’t have any. Enough scars to cover my tat space. Scars are free and come with a story. That said, I have friends head-to-toe tats. Very cool ones, many of them.
