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Eating Los Angeles (and Brooklyn and Vienna)

May 2, 2022 By Edie Jarolim 8 Comments

I am recently back from a quick restaurant-packed trip to Los Angeles, where I went to apply for my Austrian passport. I gravitated towards food I craved because I can’t get it in Tucson — before my Tucson readers complain, I am challenging you to dispute my statement that there is not a single Jewish-style deli in town, good or bad — and food that celebrated my new Austrian citizenship. There was definitely a lot of overlap between these categories.

These meals would have been excellent on their own, but they were particularly delicious because I was dining with my host and long-lost childhood friend Margo.

My Brooklyn childhood chum
Margo (left) and me, Brooklyn childhood chums. This is Lefferts Avenue, off Flatbush Avenue. For the first time, I noticed the man standing facing the brick wall in the back left. Is he doing what I think he is doing??

Deli delights

Almost as soon as I dropped off my bag at her place, Margo and I headed for Canter’s, which would not have been open if it were a kosher deli, because it was still Passover and you’re not supposed to eat bread on that holiday. In fact, religious Jews are not supposed to eat half the things on Canter’s menu year round, such as honey ham steak and eggs.

Never mind. The chopped liver came highly recommended, so I ordered the Bronx Special: pastrami and chopped liver served open face on rye with choice of cole slaw or potato salad. I got the cole slaw (wouldn’t want to overdo it, right), but Margo said the potato salad was excellent and ordered a side of it.

She was right. I was so enthralled by everything that I forgot to take the picture until there were leftovers.

Chopped liver and pastrami and a pickle
Chopped liver and pastrami and a pickle and potato salad, oh my!

I posted this picture on Facebook and was not shocked to learn that not everyone thinks chopped liver is delicious — or even palatable. I was not asking them to eat it.

Canter's deli delights
Deli is an inclusive term at Canter’s

I didn’t sample anything in the above deli case except the pickles but couldn’t resist taking a picture of a display that included both schmaltz (though spelled here with an “s”) and charoses, a dish usually restricted to Passover seders. Now I wish I had gotten some of the pickled tomatoes to go.

Note: The pastry case pictured next to the title of this post is also in Canter’s. I did not sample any of the hamentaschen (triangular pastry in the top row) but want it on the record that I disapprove of the ones in the center drizzled with chocolate.

Not-Actually-Austrian Food

Los Angeles may have an abundance of Jewish delis but the city is missing one type of cuisine, the kind I hoped to enjoy as a new citizen: Austrian. Never mind. I got recommendations for a German restaurant from a number of people in LA, one that had several crossover dishes in the schnitzel and spaetzle and cabbage family: Rasselbock.

Here is what I enjoyed:

Rasselbock dinner
Jagerschnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage
The name of the beer is on the glass (which was way too small)

This dinner, which was delicious, came courtesy of my friend Lydia, who bought me a Rasselbock gift certificate to help me celebrate my Austrian citizenship.

Sweets That Are Bittersweet

I have said that there were no Austrian restaurants in Los Angeles. There is, however, Vienna Pastry, a bakery that  Margo and I hightailed it to directly after I got fingerprinted at the Austrian consulate.

A bit of background. In addition to butchers, there were several Viennese sweets purveyors on my family tree. My cousin Stephen Klein brought what became Barton’s chocolate over to the U.S. from Vienna; my cousin Curt Allina put the heads on PEZ candy dispensers in this country; and my great uncle Siegmund Kornmehl (yes, he has the same name as the butcher) owned the Cafe Viktoria in Vienna.

All this to say, I come by my sweet tooth honestly–or genetically. And while I’m wouldn’t turn down a sachertorte or apfelstrudel, the confection I really craved on this occasion was marzipan, which my mother loved.

At Vienna Pastry in LA
The pastry case at Vienna Pastry. The space on the bottom row of the case was left by the removal of my marzipan pastry.
My mother's favorite, marzipan
The green block in the pastry is pretty much solid marzipan. I’m not complaining, but I did have to pace myself lest I go into sugar shock.

Margo served me my marzipan on a Brooklyn plate, a reproduction of the kind that used to be given away at the movies on “dish night.” There’s a strong symbolism to the image, embodying my mother’s flight from Vienna to Brooklyn and my enjoyment of her favorite dessert after getting her stolen citizenship back.

It represents a bittersweet journey, marzipan notwithstanding.

 

Ich Bin Austrian: Some News and Some Musings

April 13, 2022 By Edie Jarolim 8 Comments

It was a long and circuitous route studded with emotional landmines, but today I can announce my arrival at the destination: My application for

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A Typo & A Tragedy: Tracing My Aunt Edith

October 13, 2021 By Edie Jarolim 23 Comments

As my CV will tell you, I am an editor as well as a writer. Correcting spelling and grammatical errors is second nature; I'm one of those people who

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A Tale of Three Siblings: Helena Neugasser, Siegmund Kornmehl, and Mina Allina

September 1, 2021 By Edie Jarolim Leave a Comment

Though I am not as good as I'd like to be at keeping up with this blog—and not as good as Google would like me to be, according to my rankings--many

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Dual Citizenship: Pandemic Hair, DeJoy’s P.O. & Other Extremely Valid Reasons for Delay

July 27, 2021 By Edie Jarolim 20 Comments

It's been a while since I started working on my application for dual citizenship with Austria. So long that I forgot I had already filled out the

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Tablet mustard photo detail

Mustard’s Last Stand: Seeding a New Memoir

February 3, 2021 By Edie Jarolim 4 Comments

Like many writers, I enjoy crafting articles. It's fun to explore different topics and, after all this time, I still get a kick out of seeing my

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Freud’s Parrot: My Love-Hate Relationship with Austria

September 22, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 10 Comments

I'm thinking about applying for dual citizenship with Austria. As of September 1, it is available to direct descendants of those killed or forced

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My Father’s Great Escape: A Few Answers, Far More Questions

June 18, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 6 Comments

When I talk about my parents' forced departure from Vienna, I generally focus on the tragic outcome: the death of almost all their immediate family

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Paul & Fritz Jarolim: Post-War Rift & Reconciliation

June 9, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 6 Comments

Death and destruction take their toll on families in every war.  Less common to major conflicts, World War II also scattered Jewish families to

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The Jarolim Family: My Uncle Fritz & Military Resistance

May 25, 2020 By Edie Jarolim Leave a Comment

When it comes to my mother's family, the topic of military service is fraught. I've written before about the fact that my grandfather Herman Rosenbaum

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This American Life (in Vienna): Parallel Playlists & Professions

April 30, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 7 Comments

Since I started  exploring my family stories on the pages of this blog, I've often wondered what my life would have been like had my parents not

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Survival in Vienna: My Badass Cousin Bruno

April 23, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 6 Comments

Here's another long-time-coming post from my blog archive, this one dating back to July when my cousin Andreas Oberndorfer first discovered this blog

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Rolled Beef, Wolf Blitzer & More Buffalo Kornmehls

April 8, 2020 By Edie Jarolim 10 Comments

In my backlog of unfinished posts, this one -- started in November 2019 -- seemed the most timely for this pandemic Passover. It's partly elegiac,

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Valerie Oberndorfer

Redheads, Resistors & Red Light Districts, 1: Valerie Oberndorfer-Kornmehl

August 2, 2019 By Edie Jarolim 9 Comments

Freud's Butcher is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when I think I'm about finished with the story of my maternal grandparents' family, another

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Dayenu: A Kornmehl Reunion in Vienna

April 19, 2019 By Edie Jarolim 2 Comments

Dayenu: It would have been enough. That phrase, repeated as a refrain in a Passover song that offers a litany of thanks for blessings piled upon

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