GRUNBAUM Amalia
Agi's
Story: "My
Grandmother Mali was a Spiritual Woman"
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Agi's
Story
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The kitchen was magical . It
always smelled wonderful with great works of culinary art
constantly under construction.
I can almost taste my grandmother’s spicy cholent, goose liver,
sweet and sour stuffed cabbage, roasted duck and
tart gooseberry sauce. She
baked apple strudels and cheese cakes, beiglis with poppy seeds, apple
torts and cookies made with honey with a half walnut
sitting on top in a thumbprint. All the pastries were generously
swathed in deliciously smelling vanilla powder
Friday
afternoons I used to take the cholent (a spicy bean dish) to the baker who
would keep it overnight in the hot oven.
Then at noon on Saturday I was sent, along with the other Jewish
children to get the cholent with the lid of the ceramic pot secured with
brown wrapping paper tied on with twine and our name “Breuer” written
on it. There was always an “opening ceremony”.
Did the cholent come out “right”?
It was delicious every time, sometimes crispy and sometimes soupy.
Today, making cholent is one of my better culinary efforts.
I can visualize my grandmother’s garden.
Her lovely pastel
roses, the kitchen garden with a fragrant olive tree in one corner,
raspberry bushes in the other. A
plum tree sat in the back and a dozen sunflowers.
Everybody loved to crack roasted sunflower seeds. There was also a
vegetable garden, green beans threaded carefully on narrow sticks, lush
tomatoes hung heavily on the
vines, and I was often digging for carrots, radishes and tender green
onions. In the corner of the
poultry yard was a tin drum which was put out to capture the rain that
fell from the roof. We used
the soft rain water to wash our hair in. We
carried the water in buckets over from the neighbor’s well to
keep the garden fresh and the drinking water had to be fetched from a well
one block away. I
can still see
my grandmother Mali puttering about in her outdoor domain. |
My
grandmother Mali was a spiritual woman.
On Friday evenings, in preparation for the Sabbath, she put a
scarf over her head, lit the candles,
covered her face, said her prayer,
“Boruch
ato Adonaj...”
and
had a good, long talk with her God.
I could see that she felt a lot better after this ritual.
Mali was wonderful and all her seven children and their spouses
adored and cherished her. During
the thirteen years which I was privileged to be her granddaughter, I
received only love and gentle good humor from her.
We went
to the Mikvah (religious cleaning bath) together.
We visited her sisters.
We took a horse drawn carriage ride to the orchard to pick ripe
grapes and other fruits to make jam. Sometimes we strolled to the ice
cream parlor or to the movies. Once
she took my brother, George,
to the Wonder Rabbi to receive a special blessing to ask God to cure his
asthma.
I loved
to help my grandmother in the kitchen and she always found plenty for me
to do, shelling peas, smashing cubes of sugar into powder in the
brilliantly polished brass mortar.
I picked raspberries from their thorny nests, carved the pits out
of purple plums, smashed walnuts and picked them clean from their
shells—this always left my fingers stained black, I liked to grind the
poppy seeds, and scrape the carrots.
My
favorite pastime was playing with my grandmother’s dough, cutting
cookies in shapes of animals,
houses, imaginary figures and making pretzels.
I loved to make “baratfule” (friar’s ear).
The pasta is rolled thin then folded in half with a small dab of
plum or apricot jam in between in the middle of squares.
It is then cut into cubes and cooked in simmering, salted water.
The cubes are drained after cooking and rolled in bread crumbs browned
in fat. |
Kato-neni on mother: She was a Lady
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Kato BREUER
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My mother was a kind, kind
lady. She never yelled or screamed. She never went out
shopping. My father did everything. When Gjuri [George] was born,
maybe she came out to Budapest, the grandfather. But when she
wanted to see Agi or Gjuri she couldn't. It cost money. You
know they take a train. But my mother came to Budapest only
for very special occasions. My wedding was in Budapest. She
came for my wedding and when Agi was born and when Gjuri was born.
She was a fine lady, lovely lady. She was happy, but she wasn't a
laughing person. She was smiling. If you felt bad, she
touched you. She never hit the kids. You know in those days,
the parents hit the kids. Not that my father was a bad man.
But she was a princess.[3] |
| We kept a kosher home because
of my mother. My father who came back from the United states
didn't care too much about religious things... He was a strong, strict
man. We didn't see him laughing very often. But I think he
was nice to my mother because she deserved it. She was a wonderful
mother.[4] ... He was a very strong man. Different than my
mother. I was surprised. She was a fine lady. She was a lady
and he was a strong man.[3] |
Source:
[1] BANYAI Ferencz chart
[2] BREUER Kato (oral) 1/98
[3] Taped telephone interview of Kato done by Paul on April 12, 1998
[4] Video tape interview of Kato done by Agi & Peter on October 10, 1992
[5] Niregyhaza Archives, Post 1895 Civil Registration
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