About 25
years ago I was in Budapest for a conference. One night I ate at Kispipa, a
restaurant the was supposed to be Jewish haute cuisine. (This looks like a
common restaurant name, with several still in Budapest, but I can’t tell
whether any of them is the one I ate at.) I ordered roast goose, which came
with deliciously “steamed cabbage” and something called “onion potatoes”
(according to the menu). The goose, the first time I’d ever eaten it, had “the
texture of juicy but very well done pot roast,” I wrote in my journal. The
cabbage was less steamed, more braised for a very long time, possibly in some
stock. I wrote then, “It still had an astringent bit, but it was mellow, not
sharp like sauerkraut,” and it was perfect with the rich goose. The potatoes
were roughly mashed, just as I make them at home, with tiny bits of onion. The
whole meal was delicious.
Some months
later, back home, I was looking through Marcella Hazan’s “More Classic Italian Cooking,”
and saw a recipe for Smothered Green Cabbage, Venetian Style. It was fall, and
I wanted some cabbage. It called for very thinly sliced cabbage sauteed with
some chopped onion and garlic in a quantity of oil and a dash of wine vinegar,
and then cooked very slowly for a long time, an hour to an hour and a half,
stirring every 10-15 minutes to mix in the caramelized bits. When I ate it, it
brought back the taste of the “steamed cabbage” at Kispipa. I’m thinking the
only difference might have been the fat, goose or chicken fat in the Hungarian
restaurant, olive oil in the Italian dish. I’ve made this cabbage many times
since, and I always slice by hand, since I find that meditative.
And
a few more notes about that Hungarian dinner. It started with sour cherry soup,
covered with dollops of whipped cream. And for my coffee, I asked for cream,
which puzzled the waiter until he brought me—a bowl of whipped cream.
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It’s
another year for the essay a week challenge, 52EssaysNextWave. If you’d like to
try it, go on over to the Facebook page for 52EssaysNextWave and sign up. Or
just read some of the essays that will be linked to there. I'm way behind this year (it's clearly no longer the sixth week of 2019), but going to try to catch up.
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