Everyone has or has had a mentor who will not be forgotten.
A man who believed in him, who saw what was hidden.
I have Ephraim Engel, whom I call "Yunchivets" - Yonchi, as his name was before he immigrated to Israel from Hungary, and Bech which means "man" in Hungarian.
If the word mentor brings to mind someone older, calm and settled - with Ephraim you are really not in the right direction.
This is a young man in spirit and soul, Shotnik, with whom the connection proves that friendships have no age.
Always in colorful Allstar shoes, loves music, food and entertainment, and is surrounded by a young environment.
Life taught him to enjoy the here and now, and we young people connected with him and saw in him one of our own.
Ephraim, born in January 1945, is a veteran of Kfar Vradim.
Almost everyone knows him in the village, but few know that the tall and hospitable man was born in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, and is one of the few babies born in the camp and survived.
He was born Johann, Yonchi in Hungarian.
His mother, Eva nee Singer, was of Hungarian descent, and his father, Reuven, was a Yugoslav.
The two married during World War II, before the conquest of Hungary and Yugoslavia, and after the wedding lived in Hungary.
When Eva was pregnant she was taken to the Mauthausen camp, and the day after the baby was born she returned to work as if nothing had happened.
She had no choice, of course, for if the baby had been discovered, he would have been killed on the spot.
Little Yunchi remained in the hospital hut, who had to make sure he did not cry.
There was no food, and the occupants of the hut watered the infant with coffee dipped in cotton wool or beet soup.
How did he not cry?
He has an explanation: "I think I was such a weak baby that I didn't even have the strength to cry. I survived because of the weakness."
In May 1945, the Allies liberated the camp, and Eva, who had reunited with her father and sisters, began walking towards Hungary.
On the way, the family met a Russian soldier on horseback, who said he would take care of Ephraim and simply took him and disappeared.
The mother did not stop looking for her son, until she finally found him in one of the houses nearby, when a group of Russians watered him with vodka.
After half a year in Hungary, where the mother and son reunited with father Reuven, the family moved to Yugoslavia.
The authorities wanted to recruit Reuven into the Russian army, but he looked for a way to avoid it and heard about the possibility of arriving in Palestine with a group of Jews.
The family did not hesitate, and in 1948, when little Ephraim was three years old, he boarded the ship "Kaplus".
• • •
In Israel, Ephraim rolled between many places.
He studied at Mevoot Yam boarding school in Mikhmoret, served in the navy, married his first wife Esti and became a father to a son and a daughter.
After a decade of living in Eilat, he and Esti divorced. 90 The family moved to Kfar Vradim.
In all those years, the memory of the beet soup from the camp and the vodka he drank alongside the Russian soldiers probably did their thing, and Ephraim always loved delicious food and staying in the kitchen.
Entered the restaurant business due to the need of the factories in the Tefen area for accommodation for guests from abroad.
Ephraim heard about the idea from a friend, "Neldek", and in 1996 he opened the restaurant "Hamatzrat" in the Crusader fortress in Yehiam.
The restaurant, which was located on the roof of the ancient fortress, enjoyed a stunning view of the sea and the Western Galilee in all its glory.
When the fort restaurant opened, I was 17 and looking for a job.
I was already working in several kitchens in the area by then, and was hired by Ephraim along with some of my friends.
On the first day of work, there was a performance by the band "Natural Selection".
The restaurant was staffed by two Hungarian chefs, who very much connected with me and called me "Mishimokosh", a squirrel in Hungarian.
I did not understand the essence of the nickname, but I felt and knew that it came out of affection.
At one of the staff meals, which takes place before the start of the service, one of my friends extinguished a cigarette on the plate he had eaten from.
Imra, the hot-brained Hungarian cook, laid him down and rubbed his lips and teeth with hot pepper.
"It's because you do not respect the dish you eat from," he said, and roared with laughter.
He's about the kitchen, she's about the style.
Yossi with Ziva and Ephraim Engel, Photo: Assaf Carla
Working with the Hungarians was hard, but very funny.
Hungarians like to drink a lot, and at the end of the shifts we would stay to drink and laugh with them.
This was the end of high school and before the army, we would do a lot of nonsense, and with Ephraim we felt safe and not ashamed to tell him about all kinds of deeds we had done.
He, in his way, gave us a head start and showed us that there is another way.
He knew how to speak to us in our language, without judging or showing that he was disappointed in us.
That restaurant has already closed, but the relationship with Ephraim has become a brave and long-standing friendship.
Even today he controls the kitchen of his house and everyone relishes his food, while Ziva, his full of style wife, is responsible for the special design and the beautiful dishes - part of the respect that must be given to the food.
In their honor, in honor of the food and the way I learned from them and in honor of friends without age, they received a fine Hungarian meal from the house of Yonchi, who became Ephraim.
Goulash soup
Hungarian classic.
Goulash soup, Photo: Assaf Carla
Materials:
√ 1 kg of beef cut into small cubes
√ 10 cups of hot water
√ 4 medium onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
√ 4 tablespoons oil
√ 2 chopped garlic cloves
√ 1/2 teaspoon whole caraway (if not, you can use security)
√ 2 tablespoons paprika
√ 2 light green peppers
√ 2 peeled tomatoes
√ 1 hot pepper
√ 1/2 peeled potato, cut into small cubes
√ 1 bay leaf
√ Salt
Fry the onion over low heat until browned.
Add the meat and continue to fry for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from the heat, add the garlic, caraway, paprika, bay leaf and salt, and mix.
Fill the pot with the hot water, bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for an hour.
After an hour, add the tomatoes and peppers, cook for another 30 minutes.
Add the potatoes, cook for another 30 minutes and serve.
Dough drippings
A great addition to the goulash soup, which adds depth and flavor to it.
Materials:
√ 2 eggs
√ 1/2 cup flour
√ 1/4 teaspoon salt
Thoroughly whisk all the ingredients together and drizzle the batter into the soup pot.
Goose shank in the oven
Melts in the mouth.
Goose market in the oven, Photo: Assaf Carla
Materials:
√ 6 goose shanks
√ A little goose fat or butter
√ 2 tomatoes sliced into circles
√ 2 large onions sliced into circles
√ Salt
√ Pepper
Spread a pan with goose fat or butter, arrange the onion and tomato slices on the bottom, place the shanks on top and season with salt and pepper (no need to add liquids).
Seal the mold with foil and place in the oven for four hours, at a temperature of 180 degrees.
When the meat is tender, remove the foil and brown for another 15 minutes.
"Silbash Gombutz" (potato and plum dumplings)
Surprising dumplings.
"Silbash Gombutz", Photo: Assaf Carla
Materials:
√ 1/2 kg of potatoes (of the dark brown type)
√ 150 grams of butter
√ 2 eggs
√ 1/2 teaspoon salt
√ 2 cups flour
√ 1 cup bread crumbs
√ 1/2 cup sugar
√ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
√ 250 grams of dried and pitted black plums
Cook the potatoes in water with salt until soft, strain the water, peel and mash to a puree.
Add the butter, eggs, salt and flour, put into a smooth dough and divide into small balls (the size of a ping pong ball).
Mix the plums with the cinnamon, flour the hands and form from the potato dough dumplings, and with the finger make a hole in which to place a plum.
Close the dumplings and form a perfect ball.
Boil water in a pot and cook the dumplings until they float.
In a pan, fry butter, bread crumbs and sugar, and when they are browned, add the dumplings and wrap them in the mixture.
Serve hot.
Along with the sylvash gombutz (sylvash = plum, gombutz = dumplings), it is recommended to serve plum jam and sour cream, or whipped cream.
Potatoes with goose breast
Layers of pleasure.
Potatoes with goose breast,
Materials:
√ 2 kg of potatoes
√ 10 hard-boiled eggs
√ 200 g smoked goose breast, thinly sliced
√ 2 cups sour cream
√ 150 grams of grated yellow cheese
√ Slightly bread crumbs
√ Fried onions (optional)
Cook the potatoes in water with salt until softened.
Slice the boiled potatoes and place in a greased pan, and place the hard-boiled egg slices on top and season with salt and pepper.
Place the smoked goose breast slices on top (you can also add fried onions), and on top place another layer of potato slices and season with salt and pepper. Spread the sour cream on top, sprinkle with yellow cheese and bread crumbs, and place in the oven to brown for 15 minutes.
Hungarian eggplant salad
Fried treat.
Hungarian eggplant salad, Photo: Assaf Carla
Materials:
√ 7 eggs, separated into protein and yolk
√ 2 tablespoons flour
√ 5 eggplants
√ Juice from one lemon
√ 2 chopped garlic cloves
√ Chopped dill bouquet
√ 1/2 cup olive oil
√ Salt
Beat the egg whites in a mixer until an airy foam is obtained and add the flour.
Heat oil in a pan, slice the eggplant, dip them in the whipped cream and flour and fry.
Beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt, olive oil, garlic and dill, until you get a sauce that is poured over the fried eggplant.