Sólet Supper - Friday 24th February

Many years ago in another time and space, I used to frequent a restaurant called Rosenstein Vendéglő close to the Eastern Railway Station in Budapest.

Rosenstein's is a family owned and run business, Tibor is the chef and his son Robi runs front of house and marketing. It's quite a formal place without being stuffy and because they know me I always get looked after. The service is excellent without being intrusive and the food is always good. Although the Rosenstein's are Jewish the kitchen isn't kosher and you'll even find pork chops and shell fish on the menu. I've often wondered what kind of weirdo would choose to eat mussels in a land locked country at a restaurant called Rosensteins?

In short it is one of my favourite places on earth and whenever I get a chance to visit Budapest one of the first things I do is plan a visit.

The Rosenstein family

Lunch is the thing. A nice long, leisurely lunch. Start with their kosher style plum pálinka before moving onto three or four courses with plenty of wine. Coffee, more pálinka and then after a chorus of "viszontlátásra!" from Robi and his colleagues you stumble out onto the street preferably accompanied by good friends in the direction of a Turkish bath. Civilisation doesn't get much more civilised.

There's an extensive á la carte menu which I rarely if ever choose from. A short daily menu on the blackboard which rather than read, I prefer to have described in detail by the waiter. And then there's my favourite part of the menu. This is the "week after week" menu, a different dish for each and every day of the week. So for example on Wednesday they always serve Stuffed Cabbage and every Thursday it's Tripe Goulash with boiled potatoes.

Of course on Friday and Saturday they serve sólet, the traditional Hungarian sabbath dish that we'll also be serving at our next supper club on the 24th February. Tickets for which should be purchased in advance and are available from our web shop.

I already blogged about sólet but here are a few additional thoughts on the subject.

According to some sources Hungarian sólet is not related in anyway to cholent, a similar Ashkenazi dish. Certainly sólet is just as likely to be eaten by Hungarian gentiles as it is by Jews. You can find canned sólet in practically any corner grocery in Hungary and more often than not it contains pork.

I think the main difference between the two dishes (other than the addition of paprika), is that sólet contains a much wider and richer variety of meat, normally including a goose leg. Goose I think is the food most closely associated with Hungarian Jews. The two things are so closely linked that when MTK, an old and well respected Budapest football club and the Hungarian equivalent of Tottenham or Ajax are playing, amongst many other less acceptable things, opposition supporters will sing "Gá Gá Gá!" because that's the noise geese make. Or at least it is in Hungarian.

Sólet from Rosenstein's cook book

Cholent is a distinctly plain peasant dish from the shtetls of Galicia and beyond, in which the beans are the key ingredient, by comparison sólet is rather ostentatious. I get the feeling that whilst sólet may have had more humble origins, it was probably "pimped up" as Hungarian Jews established themselves as successful, urban professionals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this sense it shares a similar cultural evolution to the six inch high salt beef sandwich and the extravagant flódni (an impossibly rich layer cake containing four different fillings).

Our sólet is made with tarka beans from the Hungarian deli in Old Market or alternatively the International grocers in Fishponds Road. We smoke our own short ribs and ox tongue and I'm also going to try and make a kishke to go in with the sólet. 

Kishke, an item more commonly found in cholent than in sólet, is a sausage skin stuffed with onions, matzo meal, grain (possibly buckwheat), herbs and seasoning. I've never made it before, so if after appropriate investigation I decide not to bother, I might just pretend that someone stole it..

Tickets for the Sólet Supper can be purchased here.

..and follow the link for more information about Rosenstein..

1st Anniversary Dinner - Sat 23rd July

ARON'S JEWISH DELICATESSEN 

SAT 23rd JULY 2016

DINNER MENU 

Cold Hungarian hors d'oeuvre 

Jewish Eggs (Zsidó tojás) 

Chopped Liver

Gribenes & pickled red onions

Main Course (a choice of)

Roast duck leg with braised red cabbage

Hake fried in almonds & matzo with a green salad

Medium rare skirt steak, goose fat sautéed potatoes 

Dessert

Curd cheese & red fruit birthday cake

Cost per person £19.50.

Please call or email to make a reservation. 

(The event will go ahead subject to us receiving a suitable number of reservations on or before Tuesday 19th July)

Maritime Mutton Goulash

Friday 8th July at 7pm 

Menu

Cold Hungarian hors d'oeuvre / Magyar hideg izelitő 

Jewish eggs / Zsidó tojás 

Ewe cheese spread / Juhtúrós körözött  

Chicken crackling with red onions / Csirketepertő lilahagymával

Main course / Főétel 

Maritime mutton kettle goulash / Bográcsos tengerparti birkapörkölt 

Juhtúrós sztrapacska (Slovakian pasta with ewe cheese)

Dessert

A selection of Aron's home made Hungarian pastries

Tickets £24 per person

Weather permitting the goulash will be served from a traditional bogrács (kettle) in the garden. 

A varied selection of liquid "refreshments" will also be available.

Please call or email to make a reservation

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Despite growing up in London and arriving to Bristol from Budapest, I actually have very strong ties to the West Country. As well as having been born in Bridgwater, my surname is of Cornish origin and I always felt a strong sense of Cornish identity (even if the locals consider me to be just another emmet).

As a child we spent many summer holidays in Cornwall, putting the car on the train at Earls Court and as we clanked our way towards Dawlish, I remember the smell of British Rail kippers wafting up from the dining car 

We'd stay for one week in a B&B and for another with my Grandfather's little sister, Great Aunt Babs, who lived on the outskirts of St. Austell. It is fair to say that Aunty Babs left a very big impression upon me and I used to cry when it was time to set off on the long drive back to Croydon.

I should also admit to having been in awe of Aunty Babs, not least of all because her house was full of souvenirs that she had collected at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics at which she won a bronze medal for swimming.  It lay in a glass display cabinet in her living room and looked as big as a saucer (although I suspect it was somewhat smaller).

Amongst all of the Budapest flee market "family" photographs in the corridor at Aron's, are two photographs of my Great Aunty Babs.

All of this was by way of introduction to the maritime mutton that we are cooking on the 8th July which was reared by Becca Hosking, my Aunty Bab's granddaughter and therefore some kind of cousin. 

Sadly I don't really know my cousin Becca. Not only is she quite a lot younger than me but she grew up on a farm in Devon and I grew up in bloody Croydon. Rebecca worked at one time for the BBC's Natural History Unit here in Bristol as a filmmaker (don't mention supermarket plastic bags it makes her cross). But it's what she's doing now which is so remarkable. 

In recognising that modern agriculture is entirely unsustainable due to a reliance on fossil fuels, she and her partner took on a farm in South Devon with the intention of farming with nature.                                                                          The farm had been completely stripped of all it's natural assets. After decades of conventional modern farming, the soil no longer contained any life, the pasture contained no diversity of flora or fauna and being located on the coast, the entire place was being regularly lashed by Atlantic gales. 

Amongst other things they have planted masses of trees to create shelter from storms, fodder for their livestock and to improve the soil. They've also tracked down a breed of sheep that resembles one that formerly grazed in Devon and Cornwall but became extinct. And every single day they move their flock from one enclosure to another a technique known as mob grazing.

Mob grazing means that the flock only eat the top of the pasture (the tasty part that's full of flowers and seeds and stuff) and it then tramples the remainder into the ground which adds much needed organic matter back into the soil. 

All of which means tasty mutton and a farm bursting with wildlife. Which is cool.

Please join us on 8th July to sample my cousin's maritime mutton.

www.thevillagefarm.co.uk

Oh and please check out her website to see all of the fab stuff she's doing!

Three dog night - Thu 5th May 2016

Bristol Food Connections Festival presents Three Dog Night at Aron's Jewish Delicatessen.

The not-so humble hot dog is another Jewish immigrant link between the cuisine of the old world and the new.

We've partnered with Gloucestershire charcuterie Native Breeds to bring you frankfurters made from 100% Gloucestershire beef, smoked over apple wood, seasoned with garlic and paprika all in natural casings. These are top quality dogs!

We're doing 3 hot dogs, 3 different ways for 3 dog night and we hope you'll join us to enjoy them washed down with some suds (or a glass or three of Hallet's cider).

In Hungary, Austria, the USA and among British Jews these sausages are named after another German speaking city - Vienna! 

Courtesy of Vienna Beef Ltd Chicago IL.

This delivery van belonged to the Vienna Beef Company of Chicago, formed by Austrian and Hungarian Jewish immigrants in the 19th century.

The company is still going strong and Chicago is known for its hot dog Viennas, in the same way that NYC is known for pastrami.

In Hungary they're known as Bécsi virsli because as everyone knows the word for Vienna in Hungarian is Bécs!

In Britain the name Viennas is used by the Jewish community to describe a smoked frankfurter sausage, like the kosher variety still produced under the Bloom's brand name.

Tickets at £16 are available from Bristol Food Connections. Follow this link for more information and or to purchase tickets.

Jewish holidays, staffing, seasonal menu changes and hot dogs..

Aron's is hard work.

Our biggest problem with managing consistency is the problem of finding a reliable, sympathetic chef. We're only three people with a chef and without one we can't manage for too long. It's a constant struggle to retain staff which makes utter nonsense of the argument that Britain should leave the UK to help protect jobs. Without the Spanish, Poles, Brazilians and Hungarians (to date) we'd not have any kind of business at all.

So I haven't written a blog entry for a while 'cos we've been trying to find a chef - hopefully we're going to be ok now for a bit. We'll have to wait and see.

We always planned to celebrate Jewish holidays at Aron's, at least those that have some association with feasting. But in truth organising events on the holiday itself hasn't worked. No wonder perhaps as Jewish holidays often fall rather inconveniently in the middle of the Gregorian week. Purim on Wednesday 23rd March is a case in point. We're considering moving the dinner to the Thursday or Friday and doing a kettle goulash BBQ in the rear garden instead.

Spring is on the way and we'll be freshening up our menu in April. Chicken soup and Sólet will take a break until the autumn. If the sun shines and the temperature gets above about 18 degrees C then we'll do some cold sour cherry soup in April and May.

Also in April we're improving our Aron's Deli Plate and the Fish plate and introducing a new vegetarian option - they'll be available from about 12-12.30 every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Each plate comes with 4 freshly baked bialys (to be shared by 4 people).

Bialys - nothing like a beigel!

Aron's Deli Plate - 4oz each of hand sliced Pastrami, Salt Beef, Smoked Turkey, Smoked Tongue. A portion of Chopped Liver is garnished with chicken crackling and pickled red onions. Served with horseradish, deli and English mustard.

Aron's Fish Plate - 2oz each of Valley Smokehouse smoked salmon, house beetroot cured Lox salmon with dill and black pepper, English style Gefilte fish (chopped fried hake balls), pickled herring salad with apples, potatoes, sour cream and chives, Pickled fried fish - hake fried in matzo and pickled in Burrow Hill cider vinegar, Pickled belly lox and Chopped Herring. Served with horseradish and dill sour cream, Chrein (horseradish and beetroot condiment), capers, pickled red onions and lemon wedges.

Aron's Vegetarian Plate - Zsidó tojás / Hungarian Jewish egg and onion salad made traditionally with schmaltz (poultry fat) and duck liver, or without. Körözött / Liptauer - a ewe cheese spread flavoured with caraway, mustard, chives, butter, paprika and beer. Tojásos Lecsó / Eggs "shakshuka" style poached in onions, peppers, paprika and tomatoes. Kasha Varnishkes (Bow tie pasta, buckwheat, and onions) with mushrooms, olive oil and garlic. Latkes with applesauce. Honey braised carrots (Tzimmes) with ginger, coriander leaves and orange. Served with house sauerkraut and mixed pickles.

We're going to be producing a small number of smoked beef hotdog sausages for the Bristol Food Connections festival in April. Now we have 3-4 weeks to organise the logistics. There'll only be 25 places available, each ticket gets you 3 dogs (the classic - mustard, onion, relish and ketchup, a kimchi dog and a chilli dog with optional cheese). We've done all the worrying about what's in them so all you have to do is eat them!

Purim party at Aron's on Wed 23rd March 2016

Jackie Mason joked that "gentiles never finish drinking, Jews never finish eating" but on one day a year, it becomes acceptable for Jews to drink just a little too much. 
That day is Purim and at our next evening opening we'll be celebrating Purim by pairing some Hungarian wines with a four course dinner.

Purim Menu - Wednesday 23rd March 2016

Hamantaschen tapenade                                    

Somlói Furmint 2013 (Tornai Pincészet)

Kolozsvár style stuffed cabbage 

Soproni Kékfrankos 2012 (Weninger)

Cheese blintzes & blueberry compote

Tokaji Aszú 5 puttonyos 2009 (Royal Tokaj)

Deblah & Poppy seed palmier

Bridge Farm 5 year old cider brandy

The cost per person is £35 to include all drinks and coffee

Please call or email to make a reservation. 

Tables of 6 or more will require a deposit of £10 per person.

The "Reuben Lángos Burger" Night at Aron's Deli

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Menu - Thursday 4th February 2016  

• "Reuben Lángos Burger" with goose fat fried potatoes, apple slaw & house ketchup
• Somlói Galuska

Price £15 / person
Please contact us to make a reservation.
phone 0117 973 7165.  email info@aronsdeli.co.uk

For parties of 6 or more we require a deposit of £5 / person.

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One of the things we always wanted to do at Aron's was to take the best bits from Hungary's rich culinary heritage and add them to the best bits of NYC's fast food culture using quality local ingredients to produce something new and possibly better than the individual sum of the parts.

Whilst searching the web for inspiration, we came across a dish in New York that ticked all these boxes and a few more besides. A dish so awesome, so jam packed full of red meat, salt, carbs and saturated fat that we just had to bring it to Bristol immediately.

And so we are proud to present "The Reuben Lángos Burger", our homage to two great street foods, with a perceptible nod in the direction of the New York Deli!

Lángos is a flatbread made from a dough of flour, mashed potatoes and yeast, left to rise above a deep fat fryer before finally being stretched to the size of a small pizza, deep fried and served with a variety of lascivious toppings.

Part savoury donut, part waffle, part pizza: my preference is for lángos topped with lashings of sour cream and grated cheese like in the picture (above).

Commonly consumed at street markets, lidos and during the summer months beside Lake Balaton, lángos is one of the foods that the Hungarian diaspora hanker after most.

Picture courtesy the Korzo Haus 

At a place called the Korzo Haus in Brooklyn some insane Slovaks decided to wrap a medium rare grilled burger patty in lángos dough and then deep fry the whole thing to create what Village Voice described as "the best burger in NYC".

To be perfectly honest even if Oscar Wilde hadn't said that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" we'd have had no hesitation in plagiarising this beauty. So on the evening of Thursday 4th February we'll be holding a "Reuben Lángos Burger" party.

The "RLB" is a med/rare griddled hamburger patty made from 100% prime beef sourced from Bakers of Nailsea, topped with slices of Aron's smoked pastrami, Wyfe of Bath cheese, home made Russian dressing and house fermented sauerkraut, then finally wrapped in lángos dough and deep fried.

Potatoes fried in goose fat with a side of apple slaw and home made tomato ketchup complete the main course picture.

For dessert we'll be serving Somlói Galuska which can best be described as Hungarian trifle - but oh what a trifle!

Three kinds of sponge cake are soaked in rum along with sultanas, raisins, sour cherries and walnuts then covered with both vanilla AND chocolate sauce and served with whipped cream. A mere trifle it is not!

You are cordially invited to join us on the 4th for what promises to be a calorific carnival of debauched deli nosh!

Aron's Jewish Delicatessen, 19 Chandos Road, Bristol BS6 6PG.

More info re Korzo Haus here..