![]() ![]() ![]() Zum Hugenotten’s version of the popular dessert Rote Grutze is a slightly thickened berry-bright compote of fresh red currants, raspberries, wild strawberries and Preiselbeeren (German cranberries). Especially pleasing accompaniments to main dishes include Brussels sprouts with butter and nutmeg and Williamskartoffeln (potato croquettes in the shape of miniature pears). In Kaninchenfilet in Himbeeressig tender filets of rabbit are surrounded by an understated raspberry vinegar sauce. ![]() In this refreshing variation on German sour cream sauce the native horseradish has been replaced with the fragrant essence of fresh rosemary from Provence. Rosa sautiere Lammfilets, an attractively presented cold appetizer of small rosy medallions of excellent lamb, was accompanied by a dense and grainy-looking white sauce which said “horseradish” to the eye but “rosemary” to the tongue. Unlike Hecker’s Deele, which depends upon local ingredients, the most successful dishes here use imported ingredients to revitalize traditional German recipes. Zum Hugenotten, where the high ratio of staff to diners ensures impeccable service, offers French-inspired cooking served in a plush setting. The French-influenced restaurants of Germany offer the same warm welcome, but the cooking is more delicate and so are the portions. Dinner, including service, costs about $20 per person. I like ending one of these substantial meals with a hazlenut parfait, ice cream laced with crushed hazelnuts and bits of dark chocolate handsomely presented beneath a corona of deep red sour cherries and their syrup.Īlthough there is a modest list of German wines at Hecker’s Deele (including a token red) I prefer emulating most of the diners around me by drinking beer which is well-suited to their hearty meals. The year-round menu, of course, offers various pork, beef and herring dishes as well as wursts and sauerbraten. Schinkenrollchen mit frischen Stangelspargel (rolls of sliced cooked ham with boiled white asparagus) followed by Frischen grunen Spargel mit Haselnuss sauce (steamed green asparagus with hazelnut sauce). Perhaps an all-asparagus dinner: Spargelessenz mit Klosschen und Eierstich (white asparagus soup with small dumplings and egg custard cubes). I choose from among the 19 entries on Hecker’s Deele’s asparagus menu insert. From now until mid-June Germans will find as many ways as possible to enjoy fresh asparagus-especially white asparagus. The trees in the Grunewald and on the Kurfurstendam are green again and asparagus season has started. These richly flavored meats are usually served with potatoes and a hearty winter vegetable such as Schwarzwurze l (salsify) and Wirsing (savory cabbage) or Sauerkraut or Apfelrotkraut (red cabbage cooked with apples and vinegar). The streets are depressingly dark and cold but inside Hecker’s Deele it is warm and comforting and-most important of all-the seasonal game menu has been inserted into the regular menu.Īfter easing into my restorative meal with a full-flavored Wachtel- or Fasanenconsomme (quail or pheasant consomme)-I go on to an enticing and well-prepared main dish: Wildente mit Maronen (roast wild duck with chestnuts), Springbockkotelette mit Sauerkirschen (grilled Cape antelope chop with sour cherries) or Barensteak in eineger Sauce mit Pfifferlingen (sauteed bear steak in its own gravy with chanterelles)-each made from game taken under government supervision. This limitation results in an unusual emphasis on game, nuts, berries, wild mushrooms, a few fish and the ubiquitous potato-and a cuisine that is strongly responsive to the seasons. ![]() The satisfying dinners at Hecker’s Deele, over which German families spend two or more hours, reveal that German cooking is based on the limited number of food products produced in Germany. This Sunday buffet shows that the richness of German cooking does not lie in the extravagant variety of ingredients and subtlety of preparation that characterize French and Italian cooking, but rather in numerous homey variations on a few main ingredients. A white-aproned hausfrau-waitress shows you to a table in one of the spacious dining rooms modeled after the special-occasion dining area (the deele) of a traditional Lower Saxony farmhouse-barn complex. Its numerous meats, fish, cheeses, salads, pancakes and fruits are artfully displayed against an impressive array of whole country breads of various shapes, sizes, textures and hues. ![]()
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