Food memories

[Dilbertian]

My grandmother's cholent. She made it with chicken, no other meat, in a brown-glazed pot, and at the bottom of the pot there was always the kishke - one massive dumpling wrapped in chicken skin. The bottom of the kishke would be browned from being the only part in direct contact with the heat.

Grandmother was not an accomplished cook. But she had a small repertoire of delicious dishes that she made from memory. No cookbook.

And because no cookbook, never to be accurately replicated by me. Forever a memory of love spelled F-O-O-D.

Anyone have similar?

My partner's father's cheesecake. He was a professional chef and supplied to a local shop. He was renowned for his cakes and cheesecake and I actually found a reference to this on a random instagram post fairly recently.

The flavour was just the right level of sweetness - not cloying and not too sharp. The texture was firm, with a lemony base.

One day, when he was alive, my partner mentioned how much he yearned for a slice of his cheesecake. He carefully wrapped up a couple of slices and posted them to us. They arrived perfect in tact.

I always found his love of food very poignant, as when he was a young teenager living in Poland at the beginning of WW2, he was taken with other members of his family to the Lodz ghetto. This was followed by a series of camps, including Auschwitz and Belsen. He starved throughout these years but once liberated, trained as a chef and opened a hotel and restaurant.

My grandmother's honey cake. It was legendary. After she died, we found a tin with some left over from Rosh Hashanah and we ate it, with happy and sad tears in our eyes. It was the best cake I'd ever eaten.

I love all of these stories. My dad and his mother were the only Jewish people in my life growing up, and I don't remember them cooking anything that didn't come from a tin or a packet of some kind 😂 However, the food that most reminds me of my dad are Rakusen's matzo crackers which I was excited to discover in Sainsbury's recently. I'm sure the ones he used to buy were sweeter and contained apple juice- the ones I bought just tasted like water biscuits.

The matzo you remember is called egg matzo. Aviv is the best IMO. Rakusens, sadly, is cardboard.

Egg matzo! Omg yes, that's it! Thank you. And yes it is a little cardboardy 😂

My mum was a great baker and did a lovely cheesecake for Shavuot. I’ve never been able to replicate it and I’m also a reasonable baker. She also made lovely borscht.
As for matzo - Rakusens is the worst - I never buy it. I get Aviv or Yehuda both made in Israel whereas Raks is made here.

My grandfather made the best schnitzel and chips in the world, my dad would drop us off to his place for a Hanukkah feast. His solution to any problem was to inevitably offer you a date because dates are always the answer. Tabbouleh, borek and stuffed vine leaves also featured heavily, which I still love.

My grandmother was also not an accomplished cook, I don’t remember her ever cooking for us. There was a lot of egg salad in my childhood, which I don’t still love.