Ok, I have to clear up some things here. As I’ve said here before, I’m the Germanest German at this board, was born and raised in a typical rural region sticking to traditional food, and indeed Icarus is spot-on with the meat, potato and vegetable thing. My mother got her cooking clues from her mother and maybe a bit from her mother-in-law, and when I was a kid in the seventies, that was the usual course: cutlet with salt potatos and kohlrabi, meatballs (Frikadellen or as we said, Gehacktesbällchen) with baked potatoes and savoy cabbage, Rouladen with salt potatoes and beans, Sauerbraten with dumplings (Kloeße) and red cabbage, I could go on and on. That WAS standard food, and it was kinda awful. But something like a casserole was already exotic, though of course a stew was allowed (that inevitably contained meat, potatoes and vegetables). I don’t want to diss my mother’s cooking skille, bless her heart, she cooked those things quite well, but it was sometimes bland and quite unimaginative. Fortunately, the Italian influence was present early, and the exceptions were often Italian pasta. It was a BIG thing when my mother cooked her first lasagna for us (and frankly, it was the best lasagna I’ve ever had :)). My sister and I pushed our mother to be more experimental in her cooking when we became older, and the food became more variable (to my father’s chagrin, who was programmed in his youth to that meat/potato/vegetable thing). After we kids left the house long, long ago, my mother returned to the traditional style, and my Dad is content again.
I am very glad to hear that. Next time I’m uptown I’ll stop by and stock up. And they always had the best butter.
Had she, she wouldn’t’ve lasted past 81, and my namesake not past 97. We die early as a service to the world, given the 20th century.
I know of one in Tampa that went OOB not too long ago but this one recently opened in St. Pete
My wife only gets the jager schnitzel at Jorg’s. I rotate through the kasseler rippchen, various wurst and the schnitzel.
Beer wise, you probably ought to check out whatever Franconia offering they have on draft at Jorg’s when you’re there next; it’s from a local (McKinney) brewery that a German immigrant founded and runs. Great, super-fresh German style beer.
For the Peanut Gallery (look it up) we are discussing a cuisine that will kill you DEAD. In am suicidal and I throw out half of what my wife and daughter try to feed me. The dogs can digest it. I can’t, though I’m game to try because, a) I grew up on it, and b) I had my gall bladder yanked in '92.
When I was young and spent time with my grandmother, she lived in the middle of a mostly German American population, and there were at least three very popular German restaurants. Grandma had a recipe for the best sauerbraten! And we had limburger cheese on crackers for snacks. Eventually, all the Germans died, or moved, and the restaurants all closed. Today, I see quite a few German frozen or boxed foods in Aldi (no surprise there) - spaetzle, wiener schnitzel, various cakes and desserts. There’s still a meat market in the area Grandma lived, with countless kinds of sausages made there.
Red cabbage is a vegetable!
Going by my own experience (For those of you who know Queens,NY, I grew up in Ridgewood/Glendale), I think part of the reason (in addition to the ones already given) is assimilation and aging. When I grew up, there were at least six or seven German restaurants that I knew of in the area, a few German bakeries and I don’t know how many delis and butchers. One of the bakeries is still open, but it’s not particularly German anymore. The delis are gone, the two biggest butchers closed their retail stores but still sell their products in other stores and I think there are only three restaurants left. Part of the reason is that the owners decided to retire and their kids didn’t take over- but I think another reason is that although the neighborhood is still full of German names, most of us are the second or third generation born in the US. And while my grandparents would have gone to a German restaurant nearly every time they went to a restaurant, people my age (53) don’t really do that.
When you think about it, the years of the greatest German immigration were in the mid nineteenth century, before restaurant culture was what it would become later. Combined with the tendency of Germans to settle in rural areas and immigrate in intact family units, they were eating their meals at home for the most part.
I tried going there to meet women, but it was a total sausage-fest.
Several of Houston’s European Ethnic neighborhoods (never very large) were broken up by freeway construction in the 50’s & 60’s. The Germans, Poles, Italians, etc., headed for the 'burbs.
I can think of one slightly stodgy traditional German place, and a newer, more adventurous place (actually owned by a Romanian). German & other Central European settlers contributed sausage to the Texas Barbecue Experience; most of that immigration happened in the 19th century & most of their food has assimilated.
But this place is doing well in Far Off (Outside the Loop!) Pearland. (Warning–sound!) Early next year a branch will open in my neighborhood. If it catches on, they have plans for expansion. Maybe German food will be the Next Big Thing.
Could discrimination played a role? Many Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans and Italians were
were discriminated against when applying for a job, forcing some to open small businesses in
order to survive. A restaurant might have been a fairly easy business to start - Mom and her
sister cooking the food, with the Father keeping the books and waiting on tables. The kids
would be cleaning the tables, dishes and generally helping out.
The Germans, Swedes, English, etc. did not face this sort of discrimination and would not
have as much incentive to start a restaurant.
Do good ethnic/national restaurants exist without a dependable inflow of same-country immigrants to own, run, and staff them? Of course, I’m not saying everyone who works in a sushi bar needs to be a recent immigrant from Japan, but I think there must need to be a recognizable Japanese community in the city–not necessarily a neighborhood; it could also be a population dispersed over the region which still maintains cohesion through some other means, like religious congregations or other organizations.
As recently as the 1970s you could still meet first-generation German immigrants, and there were several German restaurants in L.A. in Santa Monica. But I don’t think that’s true anymore. I don’t think there are any significant push or pull factors that would make Germans want to pull up stakes and move here; by contrast the recurrent economic convulsions of some other countries often seem to result in a number of young adults deciding to head our way.
In short, the main target client base for German restaurants has evaporated away due to assimilation, and perhaps also suburbanization. Suburbanization spelled the end of L.A.'s Italian district.
Having said that, I agree with the OP that it’s too bad. But this seems to be a classic example Roger Price’s First Law: If everybody doesn’t want it, nobody gets it. Oh well, we can still buy German food and beer in the supermarket, right?
yeah, except for maybe the beer that basically describes Polish food.
Tel Aviv has more sushi restaurants per capita than any city in the world, after Tokyo and New York. If there’s any Japanese community here, I have yet to find it.
We just love sushi.
Of all the major cuisines, I think most Americans consider German to be the wurst.
mmm
I think it’s more a case of these cultures favoring large families. When they emigrate somewhere without a dime to their name, they open a restaurant because every member of the family can help out, and they have something (their cuisine) to offer a receptive general public.
They can also live on the food the restaurant produces, and reside in the same building. This cuts their living expenses substantially.
What kind of sushi is common and popular in Israel? Is it mostly Med fish (and which ones), or others?
Oh, don’t be a brat.
Run properly, restaurants also generate immediate profits and are a good return on investment. Plow all of your limited means into one, and you’ll be prosperous in no time.