Picture No.4: Uncle Willy's wedding photo. My parents on top, my
grandparents seated and my mother's two sisters.
Probably in the year 1928.
Picture No.5 My own wedding photo. Mr. Friedmann (of Friedmann's
vegetarian restaurant fame) on the left side,
then my parents. Seated: my new husband, myself and my maternal grandfather.
Picture No.6: Here finally is Mr. Friedmann, owner and manager of
Friedmann's (right). On the left
is my uncle, Willy Weisinger, who was then on a visit to Czernowitz from
Curacao.
The editor is including at this point some commentary from the discussion group regarding Friedmann's Restaurant:
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Subject: this is not a cake for dieters!!!!
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 12:05:39 +0200
From: Lucca Ginsburg
To: czernowitz czernowitz <Czernowitz-L@cornell.edu>
With special attention to Madelon who asked for Czernowitz / Friedmann
recipes: As an experiment, tell a Czernowitzer the word "Schmettentorte"
and...watch his face! Ok, here goes: You knead a dough consisting of:300
gr., flour200 gr. butter150 gr. sugar 1 egg, a bit of vanilla sugar or
vanilla extract, a few drops of lemon juice. Let it harden somewhat, then
cut it into three (my mother used to cut it into 5 and made 5 layers, but I
am lazy and like to simplify things) Thin each portion out with a rolling
pin, and fit it into a round baking pan. Bake them separately. Watch the
color, when it becomes light brown, so kind of golden, wait a while and then
remove it from the pan carefully . Now if it breaks, don't panic, just fit
the pieces together the filling will cover all sins. For the filling you
need:About 300 gr. walnuts, "gemalen" how in heaven's name do you say
"gemalen in English? You see, I DO have a problem with translation) and
slightly roasted. Watch it when you roast them, I burned the whole batch
once or twice. Add the roasted walnuts to half a liter of sour cream (or
more if you like. No low fat!) sweeten the whole thing according to
taste,add again vanilla extract. Now spread a third of this mixture on the
first layer, cover it with the second layer, spread again, and finally cover
the whole cake with the sour cream mixture. I usually leave a bit of the
roasted walnuts to decorate the upper layer. Now: NOT right away into the
fridge, the cake's got to sit for a while, so that the sour cream seeps into
the layers. Let's saya couple of hours or so. So this is the classic of all
classic cakes from the Bucovina. More to follow. In the meantime have a nice
holiday season,Lucca
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From: Lucca Ginsburg
To: czernowitz czernowitz
Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 8:35 AM
Subject: a calorie matter
Madelon tells me that she has finally made a "Schmettentorte" as
per recipe which I inherited from Mr. Friedmann, may he rest in
peace, owner and manager of the famous Friedmann Restaurant in
Czernowitz. and it was a great successs.
I will now give you an additional recipe of a delicious
coconut-chocolate cake (men who don't bake, just disregard!)
You need:
5 spoons of cocoa
2 1/4 glasses of sugar (one glass is abt 200 gr.)
6 eggs
1oo gr. ground coconut
3 spoons flour
1 baking powder
70 gr.butter or margerine
You bring to the boil 3 spoons of cocoa with 1 glass of sugar,
and 1/3 glass of water. Lower the flame and keep on stirring for 3-4
minutes. Remove from the flame and while still hot, add one egg yolk
after the other while still stirring (if you don't stir, the yolks
will harden). Then you add the baking powder, the 100 gr. ground
coconut, the flour . If you use self-rising flour, you won't need the
baking powder.
Then you beat the egg-whites quite stiff, slowly add the cocoa
mixture, and bake the whole thing on low heat for about half an hour
(depends on your oven).
Now there are two methods to finish this:
If you are in a hurry, you just make a glazing of:
2 spoons cocoa, one coffee spoon of soluble coffee, 3/4 of a
glass of water bring to the boil while still stirring., While still
hot, add the butter or margerine. Give it a chance to cool, and then
cover the cakewith this frostimg. It's absolutely good,
but
if you want it more fancy, you:
melt 100 gr. of semi-sweet chocolate, together with 2 spoons of
sugar two spoons of water, when melted add one cup of whipping cream,
the rich one. After bringing this to a boil, cool and put it into the
fridge for one night, and whip it next day, so that its volume
doubles (more or less.)
You cut the cake into two tiers, cover the first one with the
cream, put on top the second tier, and finally cover the whole thing
with the remaining cream (there should be more than enough). A friend
of mine calls this cake "a gourmet's high adventure"..
I am still trying to locate a scanner which will enable me to
send you some additional photos, especially of Mr. Friedmann, but
with the holidays our routines were a bit disrupted.
Affectionately, Lucca
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Was nice to be reminded of the expression " Bin ich mit a fus im Prut " for
=> " well , worst things could happen". Thank you Gaby.
We have one personal and authentic in our family . Dining at
Friedmann's
with some friends, my mother ordered fish, and when she received the meal
was not so impressed by its quality. She had a very sensible stomach, the
story went, my father being a "good eater" i.e. liking nearly everything
commestible.
She apparently made a gesture with her plate in his direction
and said "
Adolf, der Fisch ist nicht gut, iss Du ihn ". (The fish is not good, please
eat it).
Whatever the conclusion about the relationship between my
parents at that
time might be, I know father refused to eat it, the fish went back to the
kitchen, and/or may be to another table. I was told the story by
different members of the family and also friends of my parents, who
themselves never denied it, so there is no question about its authenticity.
Friedmann realy was an institution. Last year when I walked
with my son
along the russische Gasse I showed it to him, also relating the incident
about his grand parents. The building itself apparently did not leave any
impression on him because it is not among the 150 or so pictures he took on
our tour.
Berti Glaubach , Haifa.
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I was almost, but not quite, born at Friedman's on a busy Sunday evening.
Because of this I have always had a special interest in this Czernowitz
landmark which in my family was famous for the borsht and for the
impudence of its waiters, whenever someone wanted to express an
offhand attitude, they would repeat the words of a Friedman's waiter:
"natzech a borsht" meaning: there is your borsht.
Miriam Taylor
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