Liefde gaat door de maag - een sjtetl die niet meer bestaat - Food For Love: A Shtetl That's No Longer There

“And who did you marry?” asks Heddy Honigmann, taunting her mother Sonia who in her youth was Lima’s greatest beauty and could get any rich man she wanted. “My father, the schlemiel!” In reply, Sonia explains why of all people she fell for the awkward one: they shared a refined taste in art. Food for Love – A Shtetl That’s No Longer There is an episode in a series about dishes that have great significance for those who prepare and consume them.
Off-screen, Heddy Honigmann interrogates her 75-year-old mother in her canal-side home in Amsterdam as she prepares Heddy’s favorite Yiddish recipe for vrennekes, balls of mashed potato and chopped onion wrapped in dough, cooked in a large pan of water and served with crème fraîche. Sonia tells the story of how in 1939, two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, she emigrated with her mother and sister from Grabowiec, Poland to Peru. Nearly all the family members who stayed behind, including young and beautiful Aunt Ruchel, were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. The recollections are illustrated by old family photos and nourished by the lovingly prepared vrennekes. Once a measured portion is ready for the pan, Sonia puts on lipstick before reciting a poem.