The Kitchen: My Mom

Yes I did interview my mom for an episode. My dishwasher was running in the background but for some reason you can’t hear it. We go back in time to my great-grandma’s kitchen. My great-grandma immigrated from Hungary to the U.S. as a child and never quite learned to read in English. But oh, could she cook! The events described in this episode take place in the 1970s in New Jersey, USA. 

Suggested pairings:

Chicken paprikash with dumplings

Milk or soda pop, your choice 

Egészségedre!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

It is March 19th, the last day of winter. Today on the show, I will be speaking with my mom. Mom, welcome to home. How are you tonight? Thank you. I'm good tonight. Wonderful. Tonight we're going to be discussing your grandma, your dad's mom, and my great grandma. Little background on her. She was born 1897 in Hungary. She came to the U.S. in 1905 at age eight with her mom and older sister. Her mom was 26 at the time. On the ship records, it listed their people or race as Magyar. And your grandma was about 60 when you were born, and I was four when she died. Would you add anything to that info? Did I get it mostly right?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Um, yeah, that's all right. That's correct.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Okay. So we're gonna focus on this. This season is called um the kitchen. So we're gonna focus on your grandma's kitchen in New Jersey. How often did you go there? And was it the same boarding house your great grandma created for recent immigrants?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

No. Um my grandparents lived in a house that they had built, um, and it was around um 1920. So more than a hundred years ago, um, and their house was in um Maplewood, New Jersey. And we went there um at least once a year for a couple weeks, and sometimes we might have gone twice in a year.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

What's the favorite memory you have of your grandma's kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Oh, that's a good question. Probably um the favorite memory is um drying dishes.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Why why was that why is that a special memory? Well, because um everybody chipped in, and so there was a lot of good conversation around doing the dishes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

And um, when did dishes happen? What like what was the order? Was it cooking, eating, and then dishes, or when did dishes okay, afterwards? Yeah, and I was gonna ask you who was part of kitchen activities, what roles did people play in that kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Okay. Well, my grandmother was a great cook, so she would do the cooking and um also serve. We ate in the dining room, which was next door. There, the um kitchen table was only big enough for two people, and we were always more than that. So um ate in the dining room. Um, grandma would bring out the food and set it on the table, serving it family style. And um then cleaning up was just kind of everybody pitched in to help. That would be my mom, it was your grandmother, um, Aunt Irene, you knew Aunt Irene. Um, and um, I think my grandma washed the dishes.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Okay. Did the so were your brothers along? Did they help with the dishes? Or did Oh no, no. Okay. Why didn't they help with the dishes? Because they were boys or uh probably it wasn't their role.

unknown 3:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Um, did they have any role in your grandma's kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Um, they might go in there looking for pop.

unknown 3:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

And then what did was your grandma um married at the time? Or oh well, yes. And um my grandfather lived only until I was about six. So beyond that, which ended up being 25 years, that my grandmother was a widow. So she lived by herself then in the house. So you mostly knew her when she was a widow.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Um, what was your grandma like? What was she like? Um, that's a good question. She was, um, if you met her, you would think she was quiet. Um and she didn't talk a lot. Um she was um, she really loved her family. Um, her brothers and sisters were very important to her. Um she loved to have people over to her place. Um, I think she was kind of social like that. And um, yeah, um she, you know, if something struck her funny, she had a nice laugh. Um, yeah, that's you know, she never um her native language was Hungarian and she never was fantastic at English. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, and never she never really learned to read English. Did her mom learn English? I doubt it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

And what kind of foods would she serve? Like what foods remind you of her?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, um, her most famous thing that she made was um chicken papergash, and then she made really good dumplings to go with it. So that's you know, the first um food that we'd think of when we thought of grandma. Her other thing that she made was meatloaf, and the um interesting thing about her meatloaf is she always put a cooked egg in the middle of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Oh, okay. What while it was baking? Did she bake her meatloaf?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Oh yeah. And so she would have put in the egg, you know, when she was forming the meatloaf, and then it just was in there while it was cooking.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

But peeled, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Oh yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

What else was in her meatloaf? I don't know. Okay. Was there anything she made that you didn't like?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

No, liked everything.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

She was a good cook. She was a good cook, yeah. How did she become such a good cook?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Well, I think just from a lot of experience and probably um watching her mother cook and maybe helping her too, because she had a boarding house, which meant um they served meals to the people who were boarding at the house. Okay. How many people would board at once? Uh uh, it wasn't a huge number, maybe two or three.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Okay, but they fed them like like what meals did they feed them?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Um, I think they fed them breakfast and supper.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Okay, and then they were working during the day.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Okay. All right. Um, how long did your great grandma how long did your great grandma have that boarding house? Like when did she shut the doors?

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Um, that is a good question, also. Um, oh boy. Um, you know, I really can't say.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Okay, that's fine. Uh, let's see. What habits or traditions, if any, did you adapt adopt from your grandma for your own kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Habits or traditions. Um, well, one habit of hers is that when she used a dish, she immediately washed it, dried it, and put it away. So I try to do that, and I often think of her when I'm doing that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So is that like say she was cooking, say she used a cutting board or something? Would she immediately wash it while she was cooking? And put it away, yes. And put it away. Mm-hmm. Okay. But then the dishes you would wash after a meal would just be like whatever you ate with. Right. And everything else would already be done? Um, pretty much, yeah. Okay. Wow. Mm-hmm. Um, so that's something you think about sometimes. Mm-hmm. Um what drinks remind you of her? Any drinks?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, um she she would always buy soda pop when she knew we were coming. So um, but I've never really been a pop drinker, so that wasn't a big deal to me. Um boy, we just drank milk with our meals, and there really wasn't a beverage besides that. What kind of soda pop would she get for you all? Oh, I don't know, ginger ale.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Okay. And what do you most miss about her?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Um I just miss her being that um, you know, she was a loving person, and um I just appreciated that she was my grandmother.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

That's beautiful. Yeah, that is the end of our interview. Would you like to add anything else? Um, I think that's good. Okay, thank you for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it. Of course. All right. So do I just sign up?