Acquired tastes

Daddy liked his liquids - coffee and soup - hot.

REALLY hot. Mouth scalding hot.
He salted almost everything.
Wanted rye bread and butter on the table with every meal. Real butter.

His favorite desserts were from Ebinger’s bakery in Brooklyn: Victory cake (whipped cream with chocolate cake), chocolate pudding cake (between layers of yellow cake), crumb cake, jelly rolls. These made it to our table in Plainfield, NJ via my Grandparents, who – even after they moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan – would go back to the old nabe, get the cakes, and then drive out to Jersey. They loved their son.

He disliked Chinese food and lobster, and wasn’t nuts for Italian food– my mother’s three favorites.

I like my father’s favorites. And my mother’s.

Gefilte fish is another story for another time, though I am certain that its only excuse for being is as a delivery mechanism for horse radish.