Chopped liver, also known as pâté de foie in French when finely purréed or — generally, when more coarsely chopped, as gehakte leber in Yiddish — is a beloved traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish often served as a spread or side dish. The meaty version of the dish is made from liver, typically chicken livers, which are cooked and then pureed with onions, hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes other ingredients such as schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) or matzo meal and nuts. This rich and flavorful dish is considered a classic comfort food in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine and is often enjoyed on special occasions such as Shabbat and Jewish holidays, especially Pesach (Passover).

Tante Jolesch (aunt Jolesch, pronounced “Yollesh”) was admired for her Krautfleckerln, which is Viennese German for fried cabbage and noodles. In Yiddish, we’re talking about kraut lokshen, kraut pletzlach, or pletzel. It is that delicious pasta dish consisting of small dough squares and diced cabbage, spiced to be either sweet or savory. In the Hungarian half of the [Habsburg, Ed.] empire they were dusted with powdered sugar, while in the Austrian half they were seasoned with salt and pepper. Of all the masterworks, Krautfleckerln were Tante Jolesch’s most famous creation. I emphasize that we should take the word “creation” literally in this context. This is the creation of a world, at the very least of a culinary world. What the author of these lines, Friedrich Torberg, is telling us, is that Krautfleckerln sautéed cabbage with noodles was invented by Tante Jolesch. I barely exaggerate.

Spoiler: I will disclose here, to the English-reading world, the holy recipe of the famed Hasidic vegan challah (the Jewish Sabbath and holiday bread) from the illustrious Viznitz bakery in the religious town of Bnei Brak, Israel. You may remember Bnei Brak from the Pesach (Passover), Haggudah (Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover ceremonial dinner), in which the town features prominently. Continue reading for more. People call this type of challah “water challah” because this Shabbos (Sabbath) and Yom Tov (holiday) bread contains no eggs, and is completely pareve (without milk, meat, or their derivatives.) This means that it is fully vegan as long as you brush it with oil instead of an egg wash, though both are traditional. The egg is more for the home baker, and water is quick, easy, and cheap to use at the bakery. Indeed, long before veganism was a widespread phenomenon, Jewish tradition had its own veganism.

This is an authentic, Old-Vienna recipe for the triangular cookies of the Jewish holiday Purim. Purim is something like a Jewish Mardi Gras. I’m presenting Viennese aspects of the hamantasch that you probably didn’t know — a whole Megillah! Let’s immediately dive into the subject from the Viennese side of things. First I’ll tell you about “hamantascherln.” Vienna’s word for this traditional Jewish delicacy. When the word hamantaschen is written with “sch,” it most likely hints at a German/Austrian language origin of the recipe that you’re looking at. When spelled with “sh,” it is most likely transliterated from Yiddish.

I confess to a long-standing affection for the matzoball, perhaps for its ease in swallowing whole. The small round form, always fashioned by hand, passed over with the Israelites when they fled Egypt. There, the round sun-disc with hands provided the model for the original, or Ur, matzoball of Pharaoh Akhenaten. It thus recalls some of the earliest culinary culture of humankind. My controversial book, Moses and Monotheism, brought evidence to show that the matzoball is not a Jewish invention, but Egyptian, as was Moses himself. To those speculations, I would now add one more: Moses was slow of speech, as the Bible says, not because Hebrew was not his tongue, but because he had burned it schlurping matzoball soup.

This nutty and crumbly cake, which is a tart, sweet, and world-famous showstopper, is one of the oldest around. It remains one of the best-known Viennese pastries. It’s a sort of buttery shortcake. Usually, it is loaded with hazelnuts, brown or white dough spiced with cinnamon and cloves, filled with, in Vienna, red currant fruit preserves—but in a pinch, you can use San Francisco pastry chef Michelle Polzine’s faux red currant jam below (aka cranberry-pomegranate jam) or even raspberry jam which is much easier to source. But one thing is for sure, the more the preserve, the better. And, since the jam or preserve is one of the cake’s main ingredients, the higher the quality, the better the taste of the final result!

1934 in Vienna 73,6% of the wine trade was in Jewish hands. Today, Austrian wines are the best-kept secret of the wine world [...] The innovative and quality-driven approach to winemaking has transformed Austria into one of the world's most exciting places for individual styles.

My favorite cake tin is, doubtless, the celebrated so-called “bundt,” or “Gugelhupf” in Vienna (pronounced “google hoopf”). The Gugelhupf bundt cake is, among other places, very popular in Central Europe, France, the US, Israel, and the whole of the Jewish Diaspora. The Gugelhupf bundt cake has its own, particularly distinct tin shape. The intricate shape of the pan makes the resulting Gugelhupf bundt cakes immediately beautiful and interesting to look at. Also, the making of the Gugelhupf bundt cake is effortless because it requires no frills or frostings but is still elegante.

Famed New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton once wrote that gefilte fish, Yiddish for "stuffed fish"—nowadays served as poached or fried oblong fish patties—is “part of the holy trinity of Jewish holiday eating: chicken soup, chopped liver, gefilte fish.” Gefilte fish dumplings are a close cousin to French haute-cuisine's quenelles de brochet (pike dumplings). All these are made of fish forcemeat. But there's one essential difference: The Jewish

Kaiserschmarrn is the epitome of Vienneseness—and there's nothing like this thick fluffy scrambled crêpe whispering golden imperial Vienna in your ears! From Vienna's pre-Holocaust Jewish restaurant Tonello to its kosher competitor restaurant Neugröschel, and from present day Neue Galerie's Café Sabarsky in New York to Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Beverly Hills, all have featured Kaiserschmarrn on their menus.

If I use the term "garlic people," does this sound anti-Semitic? In Gil Marks' Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, the author notes that “historically, the addition of garlic was among the typical Jewish touches that enhanced local dishes.” This suggests that garlic may be the most Jewish ingredient ever, and possibly even the most Jewish of symbols next to the Star of David and the Menorah! How can garlic be the most Jewish ingredient ever?

In his youth, Sigmund Freud enjoyed many traditional Jewish foods, including challah, gefilte fish, and above all, cholent (tshoolnt in Southeastern Yiddish), the bean stew traditionally served on the Sabbath. Cholent is the Jews’ version of baked beans, a Jewish kind of French cassoulet. The dish is such a staple of classic Jewish cuisine that a person who doesn’t eat cholent on Shabbos may have been suspected of religious heresy per Rabbi Yehuda ben Barzilai Habarceloni's claim from the 12th century "Book of the Times": "וכל מי שאינו אכל המין בשבת בר נידוי הו ודרך מינות יש בו" "And everyone that doesn't eat cholent...

“FÄCHERTORTE,” says the white-aproned waitress at Vienna's Demel Konditorei (German for pastry shop) from behind the magnificent display case of one of the world's best Viennese cake and torte selections. “Fächertorte, which translates as ‘fan-cake,’ is a house specialty,” she explains, while pointing at the little sign in front of one of the famous creations. She repeats the word fächertorte several times, in a purposefully exaggerated voice, for the benefit of giggling American tourists who are busy taking pictures. “What is she saying? F*cker-tarte? Are you serious?”

First off, you may be wondering why I am talking about steak tartare on a Jewish-Viennese cultural food blog: Is it some rite of passage, an infamous entry gate to cannibalism? Will I speak about two raw-meat-eating Jews, Freud and Lanzmann, to address some anti-Semitic medieval stereotypes of Jews feeding on brave Christians, preferably innocent children, and little babies? Or could tartare have to do with the Freudian spin I tend to incorporate in my food stories? Let’s see.

Challah assuredly is one of the most iconic of all Jewish foods. Challah is as much a ritual and tradition than it is a recipe. It has a whole array of things and equipment associated with it: challah covers, boards, trays, knives — though some traditions never use a knife on challah —, tins, cookbooks, prayers, initiation rituals, recipes and secrets... Challah is omnipresent in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora, especially in the United States where it became a staple in every deli, be it as the ultimate French toast or even in a kugel, a Jewish baked pudding, and present in every decent supermarket.

THE recent rise in popularity of artichokes in Vienna is neither a recent fad nor a modern-day infatuation with Italy’s decadent cuisine and easy Mediterranean lifestyle. You can even find mention of them in local cookbooks dating as far back as the 17th century.

What does a blog about Jewish Viennese food have to do with vampires and an imaginary Transylvanian shtetl? First of all, there are obvious parallels in vampire imagery and anti-Semitic stereotypes: blood- and money-sucking, disease-spreading, ugly. And it is, unfortunately, common knowledge that Vienna is a notoriously anti-Semitic place — not just its infamous pre-World War II mob or earlier as the birthplace of modern-day virulent political...

A love-hate relationship with Vienna is not only characteristic for Wittgenstein's nephew but also for the way Sigmund Freud connected with the city's food and culture as a whole. He loved every bit of Viennese cuisine — except, for example, its popular baked chicken. He loved sausages, and he shared the city’s love for gravies and fatty food. But above all, he regularly indulged in his favorite sweet treat, Sachertorte, at the Hotel Sacher itself...

Even though the name of Vienna's world-famous beef stew is a corruption of the Hungarian word for cowboy, gulyás, the recipe itself does not stem from neighboring Hungary. Of course, its signature ingredient does: paprika, dried and ground sweet pepper, which is the iconic Hungarian flavor, so much so that it is hard to find any Hungarian food without its vibrant red color. Although "Indian" pepper", the hot pimento and the sweet bell pepper are both natives of America, Hungary is to be recognized for developing the peppers into a dried, ground seasoning.

Eating high-calorie delicacies like tiramisu calls for some exercise. My daily walk through Vienna follows one of Sigmund Freud's favorite routes, around the Ringstrasse and past Café Landtman. Now and then I pass through the Kunsthistorisches Museum, just as he would have. It was there that I had a major realization about the theme of breastfeeding in the Oedipus Complex and how it relates to the origins of tiramisu. As a careful reader of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Freud explained the title character's behavior through what was to become his psychoanalytic concept...

This potentially dreary Viennese dish of boiled beef, called tafelspitz, is made here with high-grade cuts of meat, which are simmered for hours to an almost unnatural tenderness, plated in a rich beef consommé, and served topped with sea salt crystals, chives, apple-horseradish and the contrasting texture of a crispy potato rösti cake. Kurt Gutenbrunner, the New York-based Austrian celebrity chef, describes tafelspitz...

Jews the world over (but famously in New York and Chicago) love cheesecake and all its local variations. Those delicacies include the ricotta-based archetype, pastiera from Naples; farmer cheese Käsekuchen from Germany; as well as Vienna's most elegant Topfenoberstorte of coffee house and pastry shop fame.[note]About this illustrious whipped-cream and cheese cake often also called Schlag-Topfentorte in Vienna, Marcia Colman-Morton simply noted in here endearing "Viennese Pastry", published in 1969 in New York: "And here is the most ineffable...

There's hardly any food you would more expect to find on a website dedicated to Freudian recipes – after wiener and sausages, of course – than asparagus. I call this vegetable the vegan ersatz wiener, to convey a somewhat more contemporary chic if you will. Asparagus was traditionally the nobleman's food of idleness. A gourmet's delight for kings and emperors, Roman, French and Habsburg's alike, in need of something...

Matzo brei, in essence, is nothing but Yiddish for matzo, the unleavened bread, aka the Jewish cracker eaten during Passover, fried with eggs. Those not familiar with the dish might find it a little off-putting based on looks alone. But it's actually very good, not an acquired taste at all. And there's a lot more to this minimalist dish than there seems. If you grew up eating matzo brei, no recipe will ever be as good as your father's, bubbeleh's or uncle Morty's. So here's the second best recipe for classic matzo brei ever. I propose to reclaim matzo brei with the ultimate gourmet hand matzo version. Well, maybe just ultimate to my children...

As readers asked me about good books, not only cookbooks, to read about Vienna, I finally came up with a list of major references about the city, Jewish cooking, and Sigmund Freud. I even added a list of my favorite movies connected to Vienna and to Freud. To make this bibliography, even more useful, I rely on your help. I, therefore, encourage you to contact me or to leave a comment about any striking omissions or any suggestions for inclusion that you might have. Meanwhile, I do hope you enjoy the read!

A golden Wiener schnitzel, pronounced sh-nitt-sell, the Vienna cutlet, can be a crisp, light, and tender, heavenly treat served in one of the world's best restaurants — like the Steirereck in Vienna's Stadtpark or in one of Kurt Gutenbrunner's NYC coffeehouses or restaurants. The beloved schnitzel used to be a treat for Central-European households, including Jewish ones. Few countries have adopted this dish as enthusiastically as Israel. "On Sundays, when gentiles had roast pork, Jews had Wiener schnitzel,"...

A grapefruit's two halves are meant to be shared with your beloved(s). They are like Yoko Ono's Grapefruit dream, which becomes reality once two dream together. On a more practical note, each grapefruit half contains all the vitamin C one needs to make it through a winter day. And that's exactly when citrus fruits are in season. With all those rich winter stews, fatty cheese fondues and other greasy carbohydrate- and cholesterol-laden holiday excesses, some light and refreshing well-chilled Ruby Red grapefruit is a welcome relief. Today's grapefruits are so sweet, you might not even need to add sugar. Grapefruits are...

Eight days of intensive testing have yielded this authoritative latke story and recipe. Potato pancakes and hash browns are eaten all over the world. Going by the name Erdäpfelpuffer, they are also a popular winter dish in Vienna, of all places. As Yiddish latkes, one of the most famous of Jewish foods, they're charged with religious meaning for the holiday of Hanukkah. That's when, in just eight days, Jews eat the same quantity of oily potato pancakes that the world eats during one whole year. Fried in oil, latkes commemorate the Hanukkah miracle in which one day’s worth of oil illuminated the temple for eight days. In the rabbinic literature, there are...  

In recent years champagne-creme-filled and gold-leaf-topped donuts and sufganiyot have been en vogue. Try these wonderfully homey jelly doughnuts for a change. Though you don't have to use jelly, apricot jam is the most classic filling in Vienna, as strawberry jam is in Israel. Use any filling you prefer, like vanilla cream, Nutella, or even marzipan. Today I'm making some classic Viennese jelly doughnuts with Uri Scheft of New York's Breads Bakery and of Tel Aviv's Lehamim Bakery.  Krapfen are Viennese doughnuts, delicious little pastries filled with apricot jam. They're available all year round in Vienna, but traditionally they are carnival fair. Their reach...

Join me for this ridiculously easy Viennese version of the wildly famous no-knead bread. Indeed, Vienna is not immune to the bread hype of the last decade. The revival and reinvention of the bread scene has done a lot of good in Vienna, and it has its local stars, big investors, and even millionaires. Most famous of all is Josef Weghaupt, who trucks bread every day to his Viennese shops from his remote Austrian production facility. While it can be hard to get good bread in Vienna, it's not impossible. Sure, there's still no Parisian Eric Kayser branch, but I'll share the short list of outstanding bakeries that produce right in the heart of the city, like Felzl, Kornradl or...

This is THE breakfast classic of Viennese coffeehouses. And yes, most Viennese I've asked admitted to childishly associating this pair of eggs with the male anatomy. They dismiss it immediately as immature nonsense and never articulated such seemingly puerile thoughts. But, as you will see, the unspoken link with the pair of peeled soft-boiled eggs in a champagne saucer is nonetheless striking. All subconscious sexual imagery aside the wonderful part about this dish is it's the egg lover's way to eat eggs. I'll share professional tips and tricks adapted for the home cook on how to peel a...

Nothing bland about this poached fruit! Cherished and cultivated for its intense floral fragrance since the time of the Akkadians, the quince has a smell so wonderful that the Jews even have a special blessing for it. Why would you overpower these aromas with heavy, spiced poaching liquids, tasting like gingerbread, applesauce, or pear compote? I'd rather indulge in its rare and uniquely luscious perfume unadulterated, somewhere between rose and honey, with a hint of citrus. Food god Paul Bocuse himself only used sugar to accommodate this strongly perfumed fruit for jellies or paste. Quince does require some taming, as most varieties are not pleasant to eat raw...

The repressed always makes its return – even in Vienna. In March 2015, Ruth Beckermann could albeit only temporarily, correct Austria's "memorial to the eternally crouching Jew" on Albertina Platz (more on that later). In 2016 it was Sebestyén Fiumei's installation Mazzesinsel that disturbed some Viennese. It proved, once again, contemporary Viennese hostility towards reminders of the local Jewish past and present:  The summer of 2016 saw a brief and almost unnoticed food-related urban intervention. Everything happened next to Vienna's Schwedenbrücke bridge. That's right where Taborstraße, the second district's main street, begins. Artist Sebestyén Fiumei...

In German, Vienna is Wien, and wine is Wein. Coincidence? Perhaps not. More important, Wein/wine sounds like whine, which surely is the Viennese's favorite pastime hence the large amounts of alcohol consumed in the whole region. There's even a wine unique to Vienna, the Wiener Gemischter Satz. Indeed, the city has a vibrant tradition of making and drinking wine. (Though there's a lot to be said about Viennese beer too.) Parisians may boast their small, secret, last remaining active vineyard, Clos Montmartre, located literally in the middle of the city. Brooklyn may have its rooftop vineyards and boutique urban wineries. But... Vienna tops them all. 

It's funny to make a post about wine, as a rather moderate drinker. But when I do have a glass, I try to get the best. Interestingly, there is wine unique to the region around Austria's capital. It's called Grüner Veltliner and could easily be Vienna's official drink (if it wasn't for Wiener Gemischter Satz, Viennese Field Blend). But, Grüner Veltliner is the most popular Austrian wine, and internationally successful at that. It's a typical east-Austrian wine, very similar in its aromas to Chardonnay. It resembles some white Burgundies (Bourgogne), maybe a Chablis. Wines made from this grape have scored very high in international blind tastings. Grüner Veltliner has become omnipresent not only at Heurigen (Vienna's wine taverns), but also at restaurants in Vienna...

The average Central European backyard chicken was eaten only once either a family member or the chicken got sick. They're best left to lay eggs, according to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, who would never eat chicken. Indeed, on Friday evenings, Herr Professor did not have garlic Brathendl (Austro-Bavarian for roast chicken)! Yet, roast chicken is the customary Friday night vehicle for garlic, the traditional aphrodisiac, to assist the husband in his marital duties. Regardless of Freud's objections, roast chicken certainly is an iconic comfort food. And when it's seriously good, it never fails to make me lick my fingers and munch...

What an incredibly beautiful place, especially in autumn: The vineyards of the legendary Vienna Woods, the Wienerwald! Just look at these pictures I took on this weekend's walk through the Viennese vineyards. We were having a glass of new wine in a sublime fall setting at the Heuriger Wailand on the Kahlenberg Hill. Overlooking Nussberg hill, the panoramic view of the city and the Danube river are simply gorgeous. And it's only a few bus stops away from the city center!  Sigmund Freud also loved to hike and wander around in the Vienna Woods on weekends. The whole family dressed up in traditional Austrian garb and set out foraging for mushrooms.

Have you ever tried to follow a recipe that specifically calls for kosher salt? And then you realized you can't find it in any store? Unfortunately, kosher salt isn't readily available in many places. And ordering online is not a solution, as it's way overpriced. Where to find kosher salt outside of the US: First, let's pretend you're like me, located in a place almost free of Jews, in my case Vienna, Austria where such a thing as kosher salt is hence evidently almost unheard of. We're not talking about some over-the-top, hand-picked fleur de sel finishing salt, which, on the contrary, is easily available here, ever since salt became the new olive oil. For kosher salt, this exotic ingredient, first you should try to have a look at a Jewish supermarket.

Are all strudels wieners? The strudel is a classic Viennese delicacy. In Germany, it's called Wiener Strudel, or "Viennese strudel". But "wiener" and "strudel" are also both slang for, um, a male's privates. Is "Wiener strudel" an expression out of a Viennese dream, revealed by a Freudian urban dictionary? It gets better:  Serve it with a "blow" (really) Now, it is a local habit to serve this "Wiener" strudel with – and I'm not making this up here – "Schlag", Viennese whipped cream, which translates to "blow"! Get your heads out of the gutter. It's "blow" as in a whack...

A political dessert - "Blue fruit on a brown base": In autumn, when plums are in season, it is traditional to have plum tart for the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur. But as Austria's political situation turns sour by the day, eating a plum tart in Vienna is highly symbolic to me for another reason. Why? It's the colors: densely packed blue fruit on a brown crust. Blue is the color of Austria's right wing. Brown stands for the Nazis.  Therefore, eating this delicious pastry has a liberating dimension for me, due to its admittedly cannibalistic symbolism. It helps me overcome some of my political apprehensions these days. The traditional, comforting plum tart has age-old powers. Joan Nathan, in her book "Jewish Cooking in America," ...