Gone

I have a very clear memory of the taste of the white cheese that was served at the little restaurant down the road. As a child, I would sit on the restaurant terrace on summer evenings, tasting the fresh Quark while a mild breeze brushed over the nearby fields. The little restaurant is long closed. And so is the restaurant of the old farm that was on the other side of the forest. Not profitable. The next generation moved away and took better jobs in the city. We used to go there in the slaughter season to eat the tastiest fresh sausages and traditional dishes that I have ever had. All gone. Longing to relive those tastes, I asked my relatives which restaurants in the area would serve such dishes nowadays. Their answer was devastating: none. All replaced with pizza, pasta, burger. Or in the best case, with industrial versions of those traditional dishes. The peaceful feeling that came along with those extinct tastes from my childhood is gone.

A frame from an old family video showing the extinct white cheese in August 1995