MovieChat Forums > The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Discussion > The menu

The menu

posted 18 years ago by mike1911
14 replies | jump to latest

Just before the end Frank Morgan describes his planned Christmas Eve dinner in great detail:
Chicken Noodle Soup
Roast Goose Stuffed With Baked Apples
Fresh Boiled Potatoes in Butter
Red Cabbage
Cucumber Salad With Sour Cream
Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce

My daughters and I plan to make this exact feast this Christmas Eve, using Hungarian recipes found in cookbooks and on the internet. I have made the cucumber salad twice already and tried the Apple Strudel with vanilla sauce on a business trip to Austria.

Has anyone else ever recreated the menu from a movie - this one or others?

[–] blue489 18 years ago

i would never think to do that...you must truly be a die hard fan of the movie. i hope it works out great.

[–] MissMellieY 18 years ago

I absolutely cannot wait until you have your Christmas Eve feast! It sounds wonderful and that is a great idea! I wish I was going to be there to join you!

[–] mike1911 18 years ago

We will know soon, I intend to try it this holiday season.

[–] bgh48 18 years ago

I never fail to salivate when Morgan recites the menu to "Rudy" at the end.

[–] bgh48 18 years ago

I'll also add that my mouth starts watering when Sidney Poitier, after enduring the impoverished breakfast of the nuns in Lillies of the Field, lovingly recites his order to Stanley Adams at the diner. (and it's maddening that Adams just continues to talk to Sidney and is very slow in making the food!)

[–] motown_mike 17 years ago

Same here.

Of course, sentimental sap that I am, I never fail to sob like an infant during that scene, either.

[–] alless626 18 years ago

Oh my Mike1911,
What a marvellously innovative and creative idea! I too, wish that I were to be in attendance for such a grande Holiday repast, as is described in this delightful film. Certainly, your holiday meal will be among the most wonderful of feasts to be had this holiday time. I eagerly await your news of the festivities. And, I shall enjoy a good spirited envy of all those fortunate enough to share your holiday table with you and yours, this season.

Do let us all know how wonderful your meal and merriment were. We all are with you, if only in the spirit of "The Shop Around The Corner."

What a lovely way to create a meaningful tribute to the warmth and sweetness of the film. Do you plan to view the film with your family before the meal? That would be fitting. Or, perhaps you have done so priour to Christmas time, and need only now, to prepare the recipes you have obtained. Mr. Matuschek and Rudy would be proud to know, so impressed are we with their Christmas meal, that it is being recreated from the film. May your meal be a wonderful, blessed and joyful time for all.

It is, but a short step, from the sublime to the ridiculous!

[–] aroth15 18 years ago

My parents were immigrants from Hungary, and my Mom was a cook the likes of which one rarely ever sees at all, outside of a world-renowned chef. It was only after I grew up, and started to frequent really fine restaurants in France and New York City that I had any idea of how extraordinary a chef she really was. I wish you luck with your meal. And here's a Hungarian joke:
What's the first step in the recipe for Hungarian chicken paprikas?
Answer: Steal a Chicken.

Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."

[–] irvberg2002 10 years ago

The way I heard it is: How do you make a Hungarian omelet? Answer: First you steal some eggs. But it's not a Hungarian joke; it's an anti-Hungarian joke.

[–] jpastor1 18 years ago

Will be watching the movie on TCM this weekend and will think about your Christmas Feast!!! Hope all goes well and best of Holidays to you!

[–] imdbaddict 18 years ago

Your poor kids! Having to eat all that.
Please don't watch alive or you'll end up eating each other.

[–] mike1911 18 years ago

OK, we had the feast. It was complicated by the fact that I recently accepted a job in a new city and moved, leaving my long-suffering wife to get our house ready for sale, plus move our two adult daughters out. I am home for a week painting and doing minor repairs. So our house is a maze of boxes and ladders and other junk.

I collected authentic Hungarian recipes for all of the ingredients of the feast except the red cabbage, but my perusing of the internet and Hungarian cookbooks led me to believe it would be braised.

I practiced the cucumber salad beforehand, stupid plan, it was the easiest part of the dinner.

This AM I made Apple Strudel (it was my first attempt and was ugly). I also roasted a goose, boiled potatoes and braised cabbage. One daughter made the vanilla sauce for the strudel, the other peeled apples and helped roll the strudel.

I had prepared the chicken soup yesterday.

We ate the entire menu - Chicken Soup, Boiled Potatoes, Cucumber Salad, Braised Cabbage and Roast Goose. The meal was very good and the flavors complemented each other very well.

The strudel, though ugly, tasted fantastic, but I recommend practicing beforehand on strudel, it could have been a disaster.

All in all the meal went very well, now it is time to watch the movie. Email me at mike1911@fuse.net if you want the recipes.

[–] aroth15 18 years ago

I was salivating helplessly just reading your menu. Btw--apple strudel isn't really a Magyar etel (Hungarian dish); it's more Austrian. Hungarians will rather bake something like Dobos torte or chocolate creme cake with rum, or Rigo jancsi (sort of chocolate profiteroles with rum).

Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."

[–] Molly-31 10 years ago

What a fantastic idea. There ought to be a book of menus and recipes from films. Like cucumber sandwiches in The Importance of Being Earnest and the crab dinner in The Joy Luck Club and so forth. A lot of people make stuffed roast goose, mashed potatoes, apple sauce and plum pudding from A Christmas Carol, but that's in the book so doesn't count.

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