Maultaschen and Spätzle: a story of food and friendship
It was the Maultaschen and the Spätzle that brought us together.
I spent the Winter semester at McGill University in Montreal, and booked a BnB for my first week, until I could move into the student housing for the semester. I was visiting my parents in Dar es Salam, Tanzania and arrived into Montreal after two long flights, 49 hours later, fatigued and famished and ready to begin my Montreal adventure.
A white-haired, blue-eyed 80-something-year-old lady opened the door.
“You’re late!” She snapped. She had a raspy German accent that had faded with the experience of living in a foreign country.
“Keys are here. Your room is there. Only breakfast. Be home by 8 p.m!”
She didn’t look into my eyes. But I looked into hers and saw a bitter sadness.
I dreaded my week ahead and vowed to spend as much time outside of her BnB as possible. I even tried desperately to move into my student housing earlier. But the housing director told me that this was not an option. I would have to deal with this lady for the entire seven days.
I returned from my first day into the city with my stomach stuffed with buttery croissants, chewy Montreal bagels, gooey cinnamon buns, and flaky milles-feuilles. It was all that I needed to fall in love with the city despite the biting, icy, cold. I tiptoed my way back in and stopped for a brief moment to take in the aroma of baked apples with cinnamon and cloves from her kitchen. Her bitter yell tore me out of my delight.
“No loud music, like the other guests I just kicked out!”
A massive blizzard made its way into Montreal and by the next morning, the city was closed. I was stuck in this BnB with the lady.
The smell of freshly baked bread woke me up ever morning, and as much as I dreaded running into the lady, I looked forward to tasting the bread. We ate our breakfasts in the kitchen. I ate my breakfast on the guest table, while she ate hers on the other end of the room. The silence between was us so thick that a saw would not have cut through it.
Three days had gone by, and we still didn’t dare look at each other. I focused my entire concentration on my breakfast plate with the assortment with rye and poppyseed rolls, whipped butter and marmalades. As I took each bite, I conjured up stories in my head about the lady. Did she have children. What had made her so bitter and sad? One morning, my curiosity exploded and I dared to glance in her direction. My heart flipped.
“Is that Spätzle..and Maultaschen?” My question flew out of my mouth much louder and more high-pitched than I had intended.
The lady spun around. She looked into my eyes for the first time.
“You know Spätzle and Maultaschen?” She asked with a soft smile.
I nodded.
“Will you dine with me tonight?” She asked. I was unsure that I had heard correctly. But her smile confirmed it.
That question changed the trajectory of our relationship, and ignited a beautiful friendship between us.
We ate Maultaschen, a German dumpling stuffed with meat and spinach, cut up in small pieces and served in a beef consommé. She followed it with cheese Spätzle, which translates from German into little sparrow. Spätzle are a short, thin egg-based noodles, that are very popular in Swabia.
Vera shared stories of her childhood in Germany, of her departure after the war and her arrival in Canada, where she met her husband. Her husband owned and ran the BnB. But, he had recently passed away. Vera was overwhelmed. She complained about her rude and disrespectful guests and was clearly very lonely.
We ate.
She reminisced. I listened.
I shared my story of being a concert pianist, my love of Spätzle and chocolate.
We ate and we laughed.
That evening, Vera grabbed my hand and asked if I would live with her during my three-month student sojourn.
I thought about the flat that I had already committed to. But I saw the longing in her eyes, which tugged at my heart.
Her home became my home in Montreal.
We spent the winter months sharing stories, eating chocolate in various forms in cookies, cakes and pies. We even made chocolate bars studded with different types of nuts; pistachios, almonds and walnuts. We cooked foods from her birthplace in Swabia such as Swabian roast beef with fried onions: a delicate sirloin roast served with fried onions and the sauce from the beef. We made her special Swabian potato salad, made with a beef stock and white vinegar and served
with raw onions. We baked apple cakes, and apple strüdel and she taught me how to make large pretzels and beautifully crusted rye breads. We dined in and we ate out.
By the first month, we had already established which restaurants were our favorites. By the second month, we decided that we would eat dinner out every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. It became our thing and something to which we both looked forward to.
The day I left, Vera embraced me tightly and gave me her recipes for Maultaschen and Spätzle.
“This is where our stories met,” she said.
Our stories connected over Maultaschen and Spätzle, and these recipes have now become my family’s favorite. Whenever my parents or brothers comes to visit me, they expect to be served Maultaschen or Spätzle, as we create new memories and share more stories.
Spātzle Recipe
To make the spätzle, you will need a spätzle press.
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
4 eggs
1 tsp. of salt
A pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cups of whole milk mixed with 1/8 cups of water
1 tps. salt for boiling water
Butter for serving
Instructions
Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the middle with a wooden spoon.
Whisk the eggs, salt and nutmeg together in a medium bowl and pour into the flour.
Mix with the wooden spoon (10 stirs).
Pour in the milk and water mixture.
Mix for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and you see bubbles when you mix it. The dough will be very sticky and should slowly drip off your wooden spoon when you pick it up.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the salt.
Let the water has boil and then turn down the heat to medium.
Place a wooden spoonful of the dough into your Spätzle press and press into the water.
Cook the spätzle until they float to the top. This will take about 2 minutes.
Take the spätzle out of the water with a slotted spoon or a colander.
Place the slotted spoon or colander with the spätzle under cold running water for a few seconds to stop them from cooking further.
Place the spätzle into a serving bowl, add a bit of butter and garnish with parsley. Repeat the cooking process until you have used up all the spātzle batter.
You can eat the spätzle as you would any other noodle with a sauce in soups or with a bit of cheese.