Trip Back to the Old Neighborhood

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I wonder if this is just a Chicago area thing.

Melting pot of the world as Chicago is, one of the pots is the area west of the city that provided homes for Bohemian and Slovakian immigrants throughout the 20th century,  a heritage that Dear One claims as his own.  Cicero and Berwyn were enclaves of Czech and Slovak speaking people--and for some it is still called "The Old Neighborhood".

Each December for most of our marriage, we venture back to the old neighborhood for the express purpose of purchasing foods that Czech families like to eat at Christmas time.  Those special foods usually mean meat and bakery.

In the early years of our marriage--there were a couple of bakeries to which we made rounds.  Now there is just one.  Vsecky's on Cermak Road.  I remember when we would arrive and the shop had people spilling out on the street and pushing to take numbers from one of those red machines that always seems to be jammed.  Now you can usually walk right to the counter--but all the bohemian treats are still there-- kolache large and small (fruit filled dough thingies), hoska bread (kind of like panettone) rye bread in rounds the size of hub caps (with caraway seeds of course) and long rolls called rohlik, stuffed with sausage that look odd but are mighty tasty.

Sadly, the meat markets are gone these days.  I will not even try to spell the different types of sausages and sliced meats they used to sell.  They also sold homemade kraut and dumplings and gravy and of course pork roasts the size of a park bench.

But all is not lost.  The trip to the Old Neighborhood would not be complete with a lunch at The Bohemian Crystal of Westmont Illinois.   We arrived early--the place is huge and always jammed.  The menu would make any Czech grandma proud.  Pork, duck, dumplings of all kinds, VATS of gravy. stews. goulash--comfort food on steroids.  Eat lunch and maybe have a nap kind of food.  The owners are from Prague and all the servers are Czech is  Their First Language women. When we left an hour later, they were lined up out the door waiting for seats.  Without exaggeration--100 people waiting--for a Thursday lunch.

The old neighborhood still has its draw--thank heavens.