Thursday, October 24, 2013

An excerpt from FOR THE LOVE OF LICORICE

An excerpt from 
For the Love of Licorice: Licorice Lovers Share Sweet Memories

As a five-year old boy in 1935 I would visit my grandpa’s German meat market in Chicago. He and Grandma would cheerfully tend their customers from behind the immaculate display case showing a wide variety of fresh meats and poultry. Grandpa wore his white butcher’s coat with straw cuffs to protect his sleeves from the splatter when he chopped his cuts. He wore a straw hat, white shirt, black bow tie, gold-rimmed spectacles. He had sandy hair and a wonderful cookie-duster mustache. His round face always seemed to be anticipating the next joke. Once in a while he would take out a long slender orange, white, and black carton from his coat pocket and carefully slide out a narrow black stick of hard Y&S licorice, which he placed on the chopping block. Using his cleaver, he would chop off a half an inch and offer it to me before he chopped another piece for himself. The strong rich flavor was scrumptious as the hard licorice melted slowly in my mouth. It was much more satisfying than any ordinary candy sucker, and I savored it all the more because my grandpa shared his licorice stick with me. From then on I was hooked on genuine licorice flavor. I never fail to think of my Grandpa when I partake of real licorice. Now all of my grandkids are licorice freaks.  --  Richard Wolk

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