Essen, trinken und frohlich sein (Eat, drink and be merry)
THE very first ‘restaurant style’ German meal might very well have been served by Helga and Christa Stoeckert in 1960 at 43 Half-Way-Tree Road.
“We called our restaurant Tip Top and the meals were served on wooden platters,” shares Christa Lundh.
“In those days we made almost everything ourselves,” adds her sister Helga, “breads, sausages and sauerkraut mostly. We had a mere nine tables but used to do over 100 covers.”
“Fact is,” she continues “there were about three of us (restaurateurs)”.
The sisters who came to Jamaica from East Germany – then part of the communist bloc – to join brother Hans (now deceased) were doll makers.
“We started out making dolls, some 50,000 in total, from our Paddington Terrace address, but then with the help of our mother and a German sausage maker transferred our skills to the food industry,” they share.
Forty-eight years later the sisters, now situated at Hotel Four Seasons, (they moved to Ruthven Road in 1967) are still sought after for hams, sausages, Schnitzel a la Holstein – (a weiner schnitzel topped with a sunny-side egg, anchovies and capers and German cakes.
“We no longer do everything ourselves,” explains Helga, “our sausages for example are from Arroso but we do try to be as authentic as possible even though we’ve adjusted our tastes somewhat to suit the Jamaican palate”. A peek into the Tuesday afternoon dining room filled with many diners tucking into smoked pork chops served with white cabbage and roast potatoes lends credence to her statement. There’s the Oktoberfest buzz too that’s generating around the city and is set to take place tomorrow (Friday October 27) at Hotel Four Seasons. Helga and Christa are all set and are excited to be an integral part of the celebrations, so too is current president of the Jamaican German Society Major Owen Miller.
“We celebrate tomorrow right here at Hotel Four Seasons 34 years of Oktoberfest in Jamaica,” Miller shares with Thursday Food. The promise is for lots of beer, sausages and camaraderie.
Oktoberfest Tidbits:
Oktoberfest has its origins in Germany, where it is a two-week festival held each year in Munich during late September and early October.
It’s one of two famous events in the city and the world’s largest fair, with some six million people attending each year.
The event held in an area called the Theresienweise (d’Wiesn’ for short) usually takes place during the 16 days up to and including the first Sunday in October with beer as the main feature. A special Oktoberfest beer is brewed for the occasion, which is slightly darker and stronger, in both taste and alcohol content.
Every festival begins with a keg of beer tapped by the Mayor of Munich who declares: “O’zapft is!” Bavarian for “it’s tapped!”
The first Oktoberfest took place on October 12, 1810.
Approximately 30 per cent of the year’s production of beer by Munich breweries is consumed during the two weeks of Oktoberfest.
The six Oktoberfest breweries – Spaten, Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrau and Lowenbrau sold six million mugs of beer in 2006 (5.5 million in 2005).