1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (76 page)

Such a question, indeed! The answer is that you should rush to have your
konditorei
experience while you still can, for its sumptuous, fattening, pastry-based feast is an endangered custom even in Germany and Austria, its two most dedicated strongholds. The word comes down from devotee and expert Elisabeth Kreutzkamm-Aumüller, a fifth-generation owner of Café Kreutzkamm outposts in Munich and Dresden.

For those who haven’t indulged in konditorei, think of a French patisserie or a bakery shop cum café, and you’re on the right track. Fronted by retail bakeries with a kaleidoscopic array of small and large cakes lined up in gleaming glass cases, the cafés offer a variation on table service for patrons in search of instant gratification. Customers make their selections at the counter and are given a table number. Once seated, they are served by waitresses carrying beverages on little silver trays set with white doilies. Of course, those who really know their
kuchen
can sit down and order from the menu, or from memory.

So much for the form—the thrill is in the content. A konditorei menu is a narrow booklet, anywhere from eight to twenty pages in length, that reads like an index to a German baking and dessert manual. Cakes and pastries are classified by types:
Hefegebäck
are the yeast coffee cakes we call Danish pastry;
obstkuchen
are made with fruit;
kuchen
contain cheese, or are nicely gritty pound cakes;
torten
are true tortes made without flour or with very little;
blätterteig
are puff pastries;
kleingeback
are cookies and small cakes;
sahnedesserts
are filled with whipped cream, custard, or both; “Für Diabetiker” indicates choices for diabetics. There are nonbaked desserts, such as the ice cream dishes
eisspeissen
. And there are dozens of drinks, alcoholic or not, hot or cold, and milk, soda, or fruit juice–based.

One of the most-loved pastries on such menus is the
bienenstich
, a double-layered yeast sponge cake filled with sweet custard cream and topped with a mottled glaze of sugar and slivered blanched almonds that caramelize to resemble a honeycomb—hence the name, which means bee sting. Coiled tubes of the most fragile, irresistibly crisp puff pastry holding thick whipped cream and dusted with confectioners’ sugar are called
Schillerlocken
(see
listing
), because they imitate the long curls sported by that good poet. The Bavarian
Mohr im hemd
, or “Moor in a shirt,” is a chocolate-iced cream puff filled with vanilla whipped cream. However, in Bremen that name might also land you a parfait of liqueured cherries topped with dark pumpernickel crumbs flavored with cinnamon sugar, and a top swirl of whipped cream. Various
waffeln
are small, open-work
gaufrette
wafers sandwiching a maraschino-spiked whipped cream.
Falscher rehrücken
—mock venison—is a long tunnel of a chocolate cake with indented ridges, a thin, dark chocolate icing, and spiky almonds sticking up at intervals to suggest larding—all in imitation of a saddle of venison, as the name implies.

Beguiling as the sweets are, they comprise only part of the story. To dedicated konditorei fans, the savory portion of the menu holds equal appeal. Served all day long are various egg dishes, cereals, and
belegte brotchen
, or open sandwiches, including the Toast “Hawaii,” which combines pineapple, grilled ham, and cheese. Later in the day, two delectable stand-bys are the strong and heady
kraftbrühe
, a double chicken consommé that sometimes has a raw yolk coddled into it, and the
königin-pastetchen
, which Americans might call chicken à la king in a pastry shell. This royal dish arrives as a flaky puff pastry
bouchée
, or cup, holding white wine and lemon-flavored creamed chicken, button mushrooms, peas, and sometimes diced calf’s tongue or sweetbreads.

After such a lunch, do not plan an early dinner.

Where:
In Munich and Dresden
, Kreutzkamm, tel 49/89-993-5570,
kreutzkamm.de
;
in Baden-Baden
, Café König, tel 49/7221-23573,
chocolatier.de/kh_koenig.php
;
in Berlin
, Café Buchwald, tel 49/30-391-5931,
konditorei-buchwald.de
;
in Vienna
, Demel, tel 43/1-535-17-17-0,
demel.at
;
in Chicago
, Lutz Café and Pastry Shop, tel 877-350-7785,
chicago-bakery.com
;
in Santa Monica, Venice, and Culver City/Mar Vista, CA
, Röckenwagner,
rockenwagner.com
.

A dish that packs a punch of many flavors.

An airy lightness accented by the sudden, salty piquancy of anchovies, sprightly capers, and a satiny, lemony sauce accounts for the enduring popularity of the
klopse
(meatballs) of Königsberg. These sizable meatballs, much appreciated by the late
New York Times
food writer Craig Claiborne, offer a surprisingly subtle reward.

Very fine thrice-ground pork is mandatory to the mixture, as is at least one other meat—beef, veal, or, even better, both. Also on deck are milk-soaked white bread, golden sautéed onions, eggs, grated lemon rind, and finely minced anchovies or anchovy paste, all combined with the meat into lemon-size balls. The meatballs’ puffy delicacy is the result of a poaching in richly flavored beef or veal broth, with no browning to speak of. That broth then becomes the basis for a smooth velouté sauce, bulked up with a flour-and-butter roux and finished with a dash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of capers, and a dollop of whipped sour cream. (Cooks with richer tastes beat egg yolks into the sauce as a final thickening before the sour cream.)

Though they’re often served with mashed potatoes, the klopse are more traditionally bedded down on a mound of hot sauerkraut. At the risk of committing heresy, try slicing chilled leftover klopse and eating them on toast as a sort of pâté. (Just don’t tell any purists you read it here.)

Where:
In Berlin
, Restaurant Haus Berlin, tel 49/30-242-5608,
haus-berlin.net
;
in Milwaukee
, Karl Ratzsch’s, tel 414-276-2720,
karlratzsch.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Cooking of Germany
by Nika Standen Hazelton (1969);
The German Cookbook
by Mimi Sheraton (2014);
nytimes.com
(search konigsberger klopse claiborne);
food.com
(search konigsberger klopse in creamy caper sauce).

Get over the name as quickly as you can. This so-called liver cheese—
leberkäse
, an off-putting term for what is essentially a loaf of hot pâté—is worth it. A specialty of Bavaria that is much loved all over Germany, the baked and steamed
loaf is made with a combination of very finely ground lean pork and pork liver mixed with diced bacon and sometimes other meats. Gently fragrant with garlic, onion, and nutmeg, the meat is kneaded with ice water into a satiny-smooth amalgam.

Once baked in a water bath, the loaf takes on the satisfyingly toothsome, slightly porous texture of bologna, although it is much more tender served when hot. A bit complicated and messy to prepare at home, leberkäse is usually purchased from a favorite butcher or delicatessen and sliced and resteamed at home just before it is to be served. Sold at the fast-food stands and cafés known as
schnell imbiss
and in rathskellers and outdoor market stalls, leberkäse is most traditionally eaten as a lunch or snack along with a good crusty roll and dabs of sweet Bavarian mustard. (Though many prefer the brassy hot Dusseldorf mustard
senf.
)

Not nearly so fine—or quite so expensive—is
fleischkäse
, or meat cheese. Composed of a slightly coarser grind of pork, minus the liver, it makes up for what it lacks in silkiness or refinement with a rustic deliciousness of its own.

Where:
In Munich
, Zum Franziskaner, tel 49/89-231-8120,
zum-franziskaner.de
; Viktualienmarkt, tel 49/89-8906-8205,
viktualienmarkt.de
;
in Frankfurt
, Zum Gemalten Haus, tel 49/69-6145-59,
zumgemaltenhaus.de
;
in New York
, Schaller and Weber, tel 212-879-3047,
schallerweber.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The German Cookbook
by Mimi Sheraton (2014);
familycookbookproject.com
(search leberkaese).

Farmhouse bread topped with leberwurst makes a perfect German dinner.

To love smooth, unctuously rich and smoky liverwurst is to be on a delightfully endless search for various types and degrees of refinement. In this pursuit, there is no better place to start than Germany—for within the seemingly unbounded world of German sausages, the liverwurst family deserves special recognition (especially when contrasted to the bitter, stiff, and chemical-tasting examples common in the average supermarket). In fact, the fillings in good liver-wursts, scooped out of their casings and packed into crocks, could easily pass for pâtés and fool even the most astute
feinschmecker.

The plainest and least expensive
leberwurst
will contain a familiar fine grind of smoked pink-tan pork liver with varying amounts of starch filler, depending upon price. Salt, pepper, and flavorings like nutmeg and garlic will be in evidence to varying degrees.

But that’s only the beginning of an illustrious roundup that begins with
gänseleberwurst
, a lusciously fat, short, stubby sausage filled with goose liver and packed with a golden coating of rendered goose fat between filling and casing. Or
Hildesheimer streichleberwurst
, creamy with easily spread calf’s liver, very finely ground and subtly seasoned. Or
Kasseler leberwurst
, an enticingly coarse grind of pork liver with garlic and herbs that is superb when spread on lightly toasted slices of sour rye bread.

Braunschweiger
is an even softer, looser, coarse and chewy grind of pork liver, but otherwise much like the Kasseler. A meaty, coarse version is
Grobe
(coarse) liverwurst.

Closing up the ranks are
zwiebelwurst
, pork liverwurst seasoned with flecks of browned onions;
sardellenwurst
, with anchovies mixed
through to spike its pork filling; and truffle wurst, with diced black truffles nestled in its filling of calf’s liver.

Alas, there’s one liverwurst that is nothing but a bygone dream. A specialty of the also-bygone Michelson
feinkost
(delicatessen) in Hamburg, it was labeled
gänseleberwurst
, but featured one magnificent difference: The three-inch-thick sausage was centered around a whole goose liver surrounded by a luscious goose liver pâté. It’s hard to say why this miracle disappeared. Perhaps one day it will return.

Where:
In Munich
, Viktualienmarkt, tel 49/89-8906-8205,
viktualienmarkt.de
;
in Vienna
, Naschmarkt,
naschmarkt-vienna.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In New York
, Schaller and Weber, tel 212-879-3047,
schallerweber.com
;
in Milwaukee
, Usinger’s, tel 800-558-9998,
usinger.com
;
in Tulsa, OK
, Siegi’s Sausage Factory, Deli, Meat Market & Restaurant, tel 877-492-8988,
siegis.com
(search grobe liverwurst).
Tip:
Liver is very perishable (the reason all liverwursts are preserved by smoking), so purchase the sausages fresh, store them in the refrigerator, and consume them within two weeks.