Apple strudel. It’s a simple concept. You roll out some pastry as finely as you possibly can (it may be flaky pastry or non-flaky strudel pastry, we don’t want to be too fussy here), you spoon on the apple filling, and then you roll it up into a foot-long tube shape. In the oven it goes, and plated up, a decent slice should look something like this:
“Strudel” is a German word that can mean any of following things: whirl, swirl, whorl, whirlpool, vortex, eddy. If you look at the pattern of a strudel slice in cross-section, it’s quite obvious why this delectable dessert item bears this name.
There is a point to all of this pastry preamble, as you’ll see in just a tick. The actual story goes like this:
On Sunday, Maria and I were out and about in Madrid, desperately hunting down some exciting cake after a fabulous luncheon (more on this in a subsequent post). Now, Maria isn’t normally all that much into sweet stuff, but *somebody* has been a very bad influence on her…
Eventually, we located a promising café. It happened to have apple strudel on the menu. As you can probably imagine, I was as surprised as I was delighted, and promptly ordered it. But then, this arrived:
You don’t need to have an advanced patisserie degree to know that this ain’t no strudel, this is streusel. Apple streusel cake (Apfelstreuselkuchen), to be exact. “Streusel” comes from the German verb “streuen”, which means, of course, to “strew” or “sprinkle”.
The evidence speaks for itself: This thing the waitress shoved under my disbelieving eyes and flaring nostrils was all streuselly and not even a bit strudelly.
Granted, streusel and strudel have a fair few letters in common, but so do duck and dick. Not at all the same thing.
I was getting myself ready to stomp into the kitchen and give the chef’s streusels a bloody good strudelling, but gluttony got the better of me. Before the forensics team had any chance of bagging the evidence, my fork had invaded the crime scene, and a great big chunk of the offending article was making its way down my gullet.
And… it turned out to be a really fine piece of streusel, dammit!!!
Got any pastry impostor stories you care to share…? Or other menu items that were sold as one thing, but turned out to be something else entirely?
We’re ‘gating’ strudel now? Le Sigh. #FirstWorldProblems. #PassABeer (#IAmTired)
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Hey, in my world, where there’s no lost planes nor peninsulas to annex, this is as big as it gets!
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Touche, my friend. I might ask asylum in that land.
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I’ve got a cold beer ready for you 🙂
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I love the duck analogy! I did have a bit of a stomping session myself in Tunisia when my cappuccino arrived topped with sweet whipped cream and a chocolate flake!
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Surely, that’s an improvement?!? Only a shot of rum could have made this any better…
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At least it was apple!
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I had a quiet giggle at the ‘duck and dick’ analogy! A strudel it definitely wasn’t, but it sure looks like it was a nice bit of cake. And that is one BIG brownie! How do you keep so slim?
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It was nice 🙂
The boring answer to your question is that I’ve got a crosstrainer (aka crotchstrainer) at home, which I use every day.
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I can see that they may cause a lot of damage, but better than giving up cake 🙂
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Definitely the lesser of the two evils 😉
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Strudel, streusel. Different? Yes. But both good? Definitely. Quit yer complainin’ 🙂
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Expectations were set…!
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This is true. And false advertising is a giant pet peeve of mine…
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Those hunks of cake are enormous – I’d need the cross trainer for the rest of the day! At least you enjoyed it, despite the false expectations!
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It’s the zoom that beefs them up in this deceptive way… portion sizes in Spain are actually quite small, in general. Just as well 😉
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I think droolled on my keyboard. Hmmmm – brownie. Must … eat….soon.
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Yes, coz you’ve got to eat BEFORE you have dessert. It’s the rules 😉
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Surely there is some complicated German word for pastry falsification, no? Or perhaps you can sic the EU on these people. Seems like the EU is getting very very picky about who’s allowed to use certain words for certain foods these days.
Saludos,
Kim G
Shippensburg, PA
Where we’d bet serious amounts of money that some Germans had a say in the name of this place.
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Good point! I’m sure the EU has a strudel supervision department…
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You know, as long as it’s yummy, I don’t care what they call it. I know words matter. I understand–but it was yummy. Is that really a word?
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I’m convinced that it is 🙂
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“all streuselly and not even a bit strudelly” was my favourite thing I’d read all morning til I got to the uck/dick part.
I would be very disappointed if my Strudel turned out to be Streusel as well. And the Austrians would probably start a riot.
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Ha ha, an Austrian guy was the first to comment on this when I put the link on facebook! 😉
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A streusel by any other name would taste as sweet…
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Trust you to come up with something poetic 😉
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Is it basically apple crumble? Looks like it – yum 😉
Right, I’m off to find some duck. (Or am I…?) 😉
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Yup, that’s what it is.
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I don’t know what’s worse: picturing Donald Dick tucking into a nice Spotted Duck or Duck Van Dyke chowing down on Crispy Dick??
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I’m sure that would be lovely with soy sauce…
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Even I know the difference between streusel and strudel. Get it together, people.
Aside # 1: Soon, the famous Steve’s Key Lime Pie will open for the spring season. I plant to be first in line to send you a full report.
Aside # 2: “The Swirly Whorl” would be an excellent name for a rock band.
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Ooooooh, key lime pie… I’m so lusting after a piece right now. Gone into withdrawal…!
I’m not sure I’d go to one of their concerts… but I’ll have a cut of the royalties. *dashes off to trademark the name*
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Hmm… I wouldn’t refuse either, but that is appalling. Even I know the difference between the two!
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My side of the camp is growing 🙂
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Grumpy! It looks like apple crumble to me but as long as it tastes good, I can handle a misnomer 🙂 What if it had looked perfect but tasted foul!
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It is apple crumble. And I agree… as long as it tastes good, I can live with it. Just about 😉
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Well, that small piece of cake certainly generated some comment…..
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They usually do, Sue, they usually do 😉
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I looooooove your blog!!!!
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Thank you! I love having my cake and posting it 😉
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Physically guffawed at this post! Especially at the line about ‘duck’ and ‘dick’ 🙂
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Aw, it’s the simple things that get the most resounding feedback, lol.
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lol sorry it just appealed 😉
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And I almost cut that sentence out before hitting ‘publish’, on account of it being too stupid for my sophisticated readership… I think I’ve got to revise my preconceptions just a tad…
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well yeah…now I’m one of your ‘loyal fans’ you’re gonna have to drop the IQ level or risk leaving me behind O.o
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No way… I’m dragging you down with me, kicking and screaming if need be 😉
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lol – now there’s an image!
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You can find some strudel in this post:
Strudel is really popular here in Hungary. Lots of flavors. What is your favorite flavor?
The impostor cake does look good 🙂 And the brownie! Yummy!
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The traditional apple one wins, hands down. I do like berry strudel and cherry strudel, it’s all good, but nothing beats my granny’s apple strudel 🙂
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Very funny and beautifully written…
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Looks good, but definitely no strudel! 🙂
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Nope… 🙂
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