My mother's family hails from Germany. Her parents came through Ellis Island in the 1920's and settled in Ridgewood, Queens. Ridgewood was a predominantly German neighborhood in a borough of New York City. Even though my mother was born in this country, she did not speak English until she went to school. My grandfather was a copper smith and my grandmother learned to cook in a German hotel. We referred to them as Oma and Opa. The great aunts were called Tante. I even had a great uncle who owned a German Delicatessen. My grandparents would converse in German when they didn't want the grandchildren to know what they were talking about. The rest of the time they spoke English with some German words thrown in here and there. My cousin Wendy and I were usually able to pick out the four letter German words.
Wendy and I used to stay at my grandparents' house quite often in the summer. Opa would take us to the park to play while he met the other retirees for a game of chess. He also loved to take us to Gouz Dairy to buy milk, eggs, and ice cream. Their tag line was "Gouz rhymes with Cows". Not brilliant, but 50 years later I still remember it, so it wasn't terrible advertising. Gouz had some livestock inside a fenced in area. We were allowed to pet them through the fence. A chicken pecked me once. I haven't been a big fan of pet chickens ever since. Oma and Opa had a vegetable garden in their back yard. They also had a pear tree, gooseberries and current bushes. Wendy and I would have to help pick the pears and then peal and core them so Oma could preserve them for the winter. She placed a cinnamon stick in each container. Those were some great pears. We watched while she made gooseberry preserves and current jelly. Does anyone eat gooseberries or currants anymore?
As I said, my Oma learned to cook from pros. She was an AWESOME cook! Traditional German food doesn't even try to pretend to be healthy. Fat, noodles, pastry and beer are not low calorie foods. They are, however, delicious. My Oma produced delicious meals and desserts from scratch. When the electric mixer couldn't handle the toughest dough, she used a wooden spoon and "elbow grease". I can still picture some of the desserts that she whipped up in her tiny green kitchen. Linzer Torte is still one of my favorite treats. Lunch was usually served on wooden sandwich boards and consisted of several types of wurst (pronounced vusht), bread, mustard, possibly some schmaltz or tartare with a raw egg and onion on top. Okay, lunch wasn't my favorite meal. I wouldn't eat some of the meats because I didn't like the looks of them or the names of them. Take for instance a lunch meat called "head cheese". Now, what American child would dare to eat THAT? Not this one. How about Blutwurst? That translates into blood sausage. No thanks. Liverwurst? No way! Dinner time was a different story. Oma often cooked American meals, but occasionally we would be lucky enough to be treated to potato pancakes, crepes, Sauerbraten, bratwurst, knockwurst, pork and sauerkraut, etc. I even remember eating goose once. Nothing beats a home made potato pancake dipped in applesauce. Rather than filling her crepes as the French do, Oma mixed fruit right into the batter and stacked the pancakes on top of each other. "Apple pancakes", as she called them, with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top were scrumptious. On days where we repeatedly asked what we were having for dinner that night, Oma would eventually use a phrase that translated to "little mice dipped in syrup".( She also had another fun saying that she used when we asked "how" or "why" too often. It translated into "how does the cow s%$t get on the roof?".)
I was raised on Long Island in a suburb of New York City. For those of you who have never been to Long Island, its hard to explain what it looks like. There are many small towns that seem to the uninformed to be one endless town. You really can't tell where one town ends and another one begins unless you see a sign. You can travel across three or four towns and not have gone very many miles. Therefor going to another town to shop or eat is very common but there isn't much reason to travel more than a few miles for a specific type of food. There are numerous ethnic restaurants in the every town. When I was growing up we went to a German restaurant called Koenig's for many special occasions. It was two towns away. My favorite thing to order was a tomato juice appetizer and then a roasted half of a duckling. Koenig's is still there, but I haven't been there in a while. While on a recent trip to New York to visit family, my husband and I met my sister and some of her children at another German restaurant. My sister has been telling my about this place for a long time. We never seemed to have to opportunity to go there. This time around we had a free night and decided to check it out. The Oak Chalet, in Bellmore, New York was fabulous! It was everything my sister said it would be.
For starters, when we walked in the door we were greeted by a lady with a German accent. I looked around and noticed that most of the customers had gray hair. That was a good sign. Most of the German immigrants in the area are from that generation. If it wasn't authentic, they wouldn't be spending their time or money there. We sat down to look at the drink menu. There was no way I was going to a German restaurant and not having a beer. There were two choices of draft beer-dark or light. The name brand was not even listed. Germans are very efficient people. Why waste time discussing brand names and having 30 choices. Two is enough. Choose one and drink up. Prost! When it came time to study the menu I saw some of my old favorites. I ordered Sauerbraten and red cabbage. It was just like Oma used to make. Delicious!! The beef was tender and had just the right amount of vinegar flavor. The red cabbage was tangy. There were some dishes that I had never heard of. All of the names were in German. There was wiener schnitzel, platters that offered a variety of wursts, smoked shrimp appetizer, spaetzle. Some traditional items, such as Rouladen, weren't on the menu, but they would prepare it if requested. Every dish that was ordered was enjoyed. The food was outstanding. Everyone in our party was too full to consider dessert. What a shame. I'm sure the strudel was excellent.
The food was terrific but the atmosphere added to the overall experience. Handmade chairs with heart cut outs in the seat backs added a nice touch. There was an abundance of knick knacks, cuckoo clocks, and beer steins. My sister and I had a ball pointing out various objects that we remembered from Oma and Opa's house. We actually own some of the same things that they had there. This was my first visit to Oak Chalet. It won't be my last. I felt like I had come home.
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