Jewish Food: The flavors of life

Tonight we ate dinner at “Dawno Temu Na Kazimierzu” or “Once upon a time in Kazimierz.” The restaurant tries to recreate the ambiance of a late 19th- or early 20th-century Jewish home. It’s small and intimate. Now admittedly we are in Kazimierz which is to Jewish culture what Colonial Williamsburg is to colonial times—made up, mythologized and surely fake. We all know that. But, the restaurant really was lovely with wonderful food, and whether it is really Jewish food or not doesn’t matter, because the “nut cake” reminded me of my grandmother’s pecan pie, and for a brief moment it carried me back to the 1960s and the wonderful flavors of her marvelous desserts. Additionally, I’ve been reading in Kraków, Ben-Zion Gold’s The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust, a memoir in which the author recounts his childhood. Just last night I read the chapter entitled “My Jewish Upbringing,” which discusses what it was like in pre-World War II Poland for an Orthodox family to prepare for Shabbat. Ben-Zion writes, “At home we were greeted by a bouquet of Shabbat food flavors: the fragrance of freshly backed challah mingled with the pungent aroma of the gefilte fish, the soothing flavor of chicken soup, the lemon flavor of the dried fruit compote, and the vanilla fragrance of the cake. Friday lunch always included a little chopped liver or a piece of gefilte fish, a foretaste of Shabbat.” A smell or taste can transport one to the past and remind one of aromas of bygone days. So the restaurant was really enjoyable, and for a brief second, I had a vision of my grandmother, Alta Leona, who was not Jewish but shared a love of cooking for her family that any Jewish housewife who delighted in preparing food would have easily understood.