That’s the Yiddish word for noodles and that’s what HG’a late Mom called them during HG’s Bronx youth. She made lots of them from her own mix of flour and eggs. Sheets of noodle dough were omnipresent in her kitchen, drying on a laundry rack. They were cut into lengths to be added to chicken soup. Cut into rectangles, stuffed with cottage cheese or kasha (buckwheat groats) for blintzes. Cut into squares for “kreplach”. a Jewish version of wontons. Mom’s kreplach were stuffed with ground beef, chopped garlic and onion, a beaten egg and chicken fat. They were boiled and added to chicken soup. HG liked them fried in chicken fat and eaten with a dollop of sour cream plus salt and pepper. (Today’s home cooks use store bought won ton wrappers for kreplach. Oy vey!!) A lusty dinner for little HG was a big bowl of steaming chicken soup filled with noodles, kasha, boiled kreplach and bits of boiled onions and carrots. A sure cure for winter blues or other ailments. An HG luncheon favorite was buttered noodles with pot cheese or farmer cheese. Best of all was Mom’s “lukshen kugel.” This was a savory pudding. of noodles, eggs, and chopped onion. Baked in the oven until the top was brown and crunchy. Jews from Galicia and Eastern Poland (“galitzyaners”) like things sweet. They mix their lukshen kugels with honey (or brown sugar), raisins and cinnamon. Feh!!
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