My wife keeps complaining that we have too much food in our oversized refrigerator (26 cubic feet) and in the freezer in the basement. As in most cases, she is right. After coming home from food shopping it’s like solving a 3D puzzle when we try to store the new grocery items.
I haven’t always had such a huge refrigerator. The first one I remember from the late ’40s in Budapest, Hungary, was an icebox no more than three cubic feet. The ice man came twice a week with a horse-drawn cart; we waited in a long line until it was our turn. Using his pickax he cut a chunk from a long ice block that would fit in our ice box. We happily returned to our apartment knowing that the precious few perishable items that were available at that time would be safe for another few days. Truth be told, we did not need a big fridge, due to the food shortages and rationing and also because our friendly neighborhood grocery store was only one city block away. So when my mom tried to make my favorite crêpe (filled with apricot jam or farmer’s cheese), it took me only a few minutes to get fresh eggs if my mom realized that we were out of them.
I remember when we got our first electric refrigerator in the early ’60s. The Saratov model, made in the Soviet Union, was a significant improvement in convenience and size too. By this time we could fill up all 120 liters (4.23 cubic feet) with stuff. This was the dawn of the Hungarian “Goulash Communism,” when more and more food became available and there was no longer any rationing.
I don't know why, but even a half-empty fridge gives me anxiety. I am not making this one up; once I broke up with a girlfriend when I first visited her apartment and saw that all she had in her refrigerator was a carton of milk, butter, and some fruit.
My problem is not only that I buy too much food, but also, as the designated cook in the family, I cook too much at a time. We always have plenty of leftovers competing for precious shelf space. The situation is even worse since we became empty-nesters, and I still have difficulty scaling down the recipes.
Some time ago I heard there are studies showing that current-day food attitudes of Holocaust survivors were influenced by their Holocaust experiences. As a citizen of the information age, I immediately searched the internet for any evidence proving that my overstocked refrigerator is the consequence of my being a child survivor of the Holocaust.
Good old Google did not disappoint me. A survey was conducted in 2004 of a sample of 25 Holocaust survivors (see source 1). As a result of this survey five major themes emerged:
Difficulty throwing away food even when spoiled. In our home, a surprise guest/visitor would always find three or more leftovers from our dinners at home or “doggie bags” from our nights out. Yes, sometimes one can also find what we call “science experiments,” a.k.a leftovers, with some white coatings. We do not eat those.
Storing excess food.
Craving certain foods. This is not specific to Holocaust survivors, but in my case I could apply it to anything sweet. During the war and many years after in Hungary, sugar was rationed and hardly available, so I did not grow up having cookies for snacks. Now I have an insatiable craving for pastries, pies, and Sacher torte. If you never had the latter one, you don’t know what you are missing. Don’t Google it: go to Budapest or Vienna, Austria.
Difficulty standing in line for food. This might explain why I am impatient when the service is slow at the food court at Montgomery Mall in Maryland.
Experiencing anxiety when food is not readily available. Empathy for those currently suffering from hunger was also reported. My volunteering and support for a food pantry that serves an underprivileged population might fall in this category.
As one can see, although I was not part of this study, I can relate to all of these behaviors.
In an article in the internet magazine Times of Israel, Eva Deutsch Costabel, a 91-year-old who survived two concentration camps is quoted, “My friends always tease me because my refrigerator is always full. They say, ‘You could feed ten people.’ I think this is definitely from starving for many years . . .” (See source 2)
My family and friends do not tease me about my refrigerator, they actually take advantage of it. When they come to visit us they dart to the fridge to see if there are some leftovers from their favorite meal, or something new I just discovered at Trader Joe’s or Aldi. These two stores are my favorite sources for food staples—many of them from Europe. To my detriment, another European discount food chain (Lidl) recently opened its first store in the Washington, DC, area. Fortunately for my wife, it’s in Virginia, more than an hour’s drive from our house using a toll road. I visited only once, when my wife was in Israel.
Dear reader of my ramblings, please come visit us. When you enter the kitchen, the fridge is on your immediate left. I am confident you will find something you will like, so I can go out and buy more food.
Sources
Sindler, Amy J., Wellman, Nancy S., and Stier, Oren Baruch. 2004. ” Holocaust Survivors Report Long-Term Effects on Attitudes toward Food.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, vol. 36, issue 4 (April): 189–200. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.484.6440&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Tress, Luke. 2016. “Holocaust Survivors, Effects of Wartime Starvation Still a Plague.” The Times of Israel, May 3, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2020. https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-many-holocaust-survivors-wartime-starvation-still-a-daily-torment
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