1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (75 page)

At the Atlantic, tender pink nuggets of lightly chilled cooked lobster were combined with pieces of gently poached chicken breast that
were torn (rather than diced) for a softer, more tender result that was more receptive to the dressing. Tossed with a chiffon-light, Dijon-accented mayonnaise, the salad was finished with either tiny green peas or the emerald-green tips of asparagus.

Given the northern European penchant for flavors that run to the tropical, the pinch of golden curry powder that was sometimes mixed into the dressing should come as no surprise. Nestled on frilly lettuce leaves and served with hot buttered toast and a glass of sparkling white
sekt
, this salad makes for an elegantly satisfying lunch.

Serves 4 to 6

2 cups cooked lobster tail and claw meat, cut into bite-size chunks and lightly chilled (see
Note
)

2 cups cooked chicken breast meat, cut or torn into bite-size chunks and lightly chilled (see
Note
)

½ teaspoon salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ to ⅔ cup (depending on dryness of meat) real egg mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Pinch of curry powder (optional)

1 cup cooked fresh or lightly blanched frozen tiny green peas, chilled, or 1 cup cooked 1-inch fresh asparagus tips, chilled

Tender lettuce leaves, such as Boston or Bibb, rinsed and dried, for serving

Minced fresh dill or flat-leaf parsley (optional), for garnish

Slices of hot buttered toast, for serving

1.
Place the lobster and chicken breast in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle them with the salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

2.
Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, and curry powder, if using, in a small bowl and mix. Fold the mayonnaise mixture into the lobster and chicken. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt, pepper, lemon juice, mustard, and/or curry powder as necessary. Using a fork, gently toss in the peas or asparagus.

3.
Refrigerate the salad, covered, for about 20 minutes but no longer, lest the vegetables leak into the dressing, before serving.

4.
To serve, arrange lettuce leaves on individual plates and nestle the salad in them. Sprinkle the salad with dill or parsley, if desired. Serve the salad with slices of hot buttered toast, if desired.

Note:
The lobster and chicken should be slightly cooler than room temperature. If warm, they will dilute the dressing; if very cold, they will not absorb enough of it.

Further information and additional recipe:
The German Cookbook
by Mimi Sheraton (2014).
Tip:
The salad is especially impressively presented when individual portions are heaped in avocado halves.

Carp swim in the fresh waters of the Danube River, which meets the Regen River in medieval Regensberg.

Probably because of its golden color, the carp is considered a lucky fish not only in China and Japan but also throughout much of Eastern Europe. On New Year’s Eve, also known in Europe as Sylvester’s Eve, it is customary to obtain one
golden carp scale and hold onto it for the whole year as a token of good luck; the fish makes an appearance at European Christmas dinners as well.

Gourmands consider it even luckier to eat the extravagantly fatty, meaty
Cyprinus carpio
so abundant in freshwater lakes and rivers like the Danube—but the wisest know to avoid carp caught during the summer. In those hotter months, the fish tend to swim down to the lake or river floor where the water is colder, taking in the mud that produces the same moldy flavor that turns so many people off of catfish. (The most particular old-time cooks let the live carp swim in a home bathtub for a day or two before cooking it, letting the fish take in fresh water to eliminate musty overtones.) Winter carp is firmer, fresher-tasting, and much preferred, even now when much of the fish is farmed.

Beloved in many intriguing preparations, in
blau gekochte karpfen
the carp is prepared “blue,” like the trout dish
here
. It, too, must be gutted live just before being lowered into simmering, vinegar-spiked water. The delicacy is served with melted butter and freshly grated horseradish.

As its name indicates,
karpfen in bier
is braised in dark, malty beer that cuts the fatty texture of its flesh and creates a sauce enlivened by crushed gingersnaps (
lebkuchen
), bay leaves, lemon, and cloves for an aromatically hot, pickled effect. In
rotweinkarpfen
, its red-wine-braised brother, the rich fish meat is mollified by allspice, cloves, thyme, and onions, with wine vinegar and crusts of rye bread adding a yeasty sourness.

Böhmischer karpfen
is the Bohemian way of simmering carp with pot vegetables, then finishing it with a sauce of bay leaves, molasses, gingersnaps, almonds, prunes, walnuts, and raisins.

Gebratene karpfen
, the Alsatian favorite, which has been readily adopted in the neighboring Schwarzwalder, or Black Forest, is made with a whole fish neatly gutted, rolled in flour, and deep-fried in vegetable oil.

And the list goes on, stretching out to such Eastern European favorites as pickled carp in aspic, with or without ground walnuts, and the gefilte fish mix that includes the ground flesh of carp. In any form, carp proves lucky to the appreciative diner.

Further information and recipes:
Gourmet’s Old Vienna Cookbook
by Lillian Langseth-Christensen (1959);
The German Cookbook
by Mimi Sheraton (2014);
The Oxford Companion to Food
by Alan Davidson (1999);
germanfoodguide.com
(search carp blue; pan fried carp).
Tip:
Never taste carp raw to judge the seasonings; like all freshwater fish, it can contain dangerous parasites.
See also:
Gefilte Fish
;
Quenelles de Brochet
.

Formulas for a good potato salad can vary considerably. Diced apples, hard-cooked eggs, and even sweet-and-sour pickle relish may be involved, as they are at church suppers throughout the American South. Mayonnaise may be present, or not, and for some, celery is indispensable. Tastes tend to run to childhood favorites, so what you like in your potato salad probably depends largely on what version you grew up with. But no matter your origins, don’t rule out a conversion until you try a German
kartoffelsalat
, hot or cold, especially if it’s sidling up to the meaty wursts of Germany, Austria, or American Pennsylvania Dutch country.

For its soothingly warm preparation, kartoffelsalat depends on a tangy dressing of cooked bacon zapped with white vinegar for its distinctive savoriness. So that the insides remain firm and dry, new potatoes are boiled in salted water with the skins on. While they are cooking, diced bacon and onions are sautéed and then combined with oil, vinegar, and mustard seeds. The potatoes are drained, peeled, and returned to the hot but empty pot to be rolled around for a few seconds until floury on the surface, then they are cut into chunks or slices. Tossed with the hot bacon dressing, they are garnished with scallions or parsley or both. The combination of the salty bacon with the bite of vinegar and the creamy, waxy texture of the potatoes is what makes this warm salad so special. In its cold version, the potatoes are cooked the same way but are doused with onion-flavored beef broth and a dash of vinegar. After marinating for about thirty minutes, they are drained and tossed with a little mustard and light vegetable oil, to be finished with a glossing of mayonnaise, sour cream, or both. After a dash of salt and white pepper, the salad is chilled for two to three hours.

Further information and recipes:
Neue Cuisine: The Elegant Taste of Vienna
by Kurt Gutenbrunner (2011);
allrecipes.com
(search authentic german potato salad).
Tip:
Floury potatoes like russets crumble when boiled, so stick to red potatoes, new white potatoes, or Yukon Golds. To make authentic German potato salad, use German-style double-smoked bacon.
See also:
Southern Potato Salad
.

Pouring apple wine at Zum Gemalten Haus.

A felicitous nighttime custom in the bustling metropolis of Frankfurt is a brief trip across the river to one of the many antique apple wine inns in Sachsenhausen, the city’s medieval quarter. The oldest and most colorful
(if also the most touristic) example of these is Zum Gemalten Haus. In rollicking, gemütlich tavern surroundings, revelers sing ever louder as they develop a pleasant buzz from traditional hard apple cider—
apfelwein
, or in dialect,
ebbelwoi
—poured from handsome blue and gray stoneware pitchers. With that cool, mildly bittersweet drink (or beer for those who prefer it), they lustily consume the menu’s expected array of sausages and braised meats. But the two most popular specialties are beef tartare, ground to order, and the essential cheap, light, and savory snack
handkäse mit musik
(literally “handcheese with music”).

In settings of dark wood, stained-glass windows, and communal tables known as
stammtische
, this small, palm-size cheese is practically a requirement, whether as appetizer or dessert. Before enjoying some, one must first get past the aroma, for this is a creamy, fast-ripening number whose thick, unctuously putrefied scent is much like that of Alsatian Munster, German Limburger, or the American Liederkranz. Like those odoriferous cousins, handcheese has a rich patina of complex flavors, in its case best enjoyed after it has marinated for an hour or two in a combination of olive oil and white vinegar. Spread on a thick slice of buttered, caraway-flecked sour rye bread, it is garnished with minced onion and eaten as an open sandwich—washed down, of course, with apfelwein.

Why the music in the cheese’s name? The polite explanation is that the aroma sings a song all its own; less polite is the assertion that the combination is certain to induce flatulence.

Where:
In Frankfurt
, Apfelwein Wagner, tel 49/69-6125-65,
apfelwein-wagner.com
; Zum Gemalten Haus, tel 49/69-6145-59,
zumgemaltenhaus.de
.
Further information and recipes:
The German Cookbook
by Mimi Sheraton (2014).

A konditorei in Cochem.

“Young people these days do not sit in Konditoreien and order several pieces of cake, as we used to. They go to Starbucks for a quick cup of coffee and a biscuit. When young women do come into Kreutzkamm’s, they ask, ‘Should I have a salad or a piece of cake?’ Such a question!”