What impelled me to go to Yorkville was an article that Mark Blackman sent me about this lone German bakery surviving in Yorkville, I had thought they were all gone. I went in but none of the baked goods looked familiar. I asked where was the Bienenstich, the Schillerlocken, etc? I was told that they don't sell them any more except around Xmastime. The population in the neighborhood changed and the newcomers don't like traditional German baked goods. There was nothing anywhere involving whipped cream. I suppose I will have to make my own. This is so sad. There has been no place to get Black Forest Cherry Cake made with Kirschwasser since the Kleine Konditorei closed down. There used to be many Konditoreien such as the Cafe Geiger, the Cafe Hindenburg, L&H bakery. I remember when this neighborhood was a mecca of superb central european foods. Not just German but Hungarian, Austrian, Czech, Slovak. I miss Paprikas Weiss, H Roth & Sons, that cavernous beerhall,Barney Googles, the Jaegerhaus. Many others. The Pope is going to have slim pickings when he comes here to eat.
I took the opportunity to pick up a few items of German soul food at Schaller & Weber and showed them to my son, Adam. As I predicted, he made retching sounds. The Landjaeger though dissappeared in his mouth in the blink of an eye. This is a traveling sausage made of raw meat and dried for months. This sausage goes back to ancient days. The consumption of raw meats and fish never made it to mainstream consumption in the American diet.. I am lucky that I can get steak tartare at my local butcher in Innwood without having to travel to Yorkville. Maybe I will offer it at the next FISTFA. I suspect though that I will be the only one to eat it when I explain that it is raw chopped beef.
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