My taste palate, while perhaps not sophisticated, is fairly adventurous. Life in the multicultural city of Chicago has provided me with ample opportunities to sample cuisines from around the world which I was not previously familiar. I was not always so open-minded. It has been a little while since this has happened, but members of my nuclear family used to remind me quite often of the picky eater I had been as a young kid.
Those habits changed during my fourth grade year spent living in my paternal grandfather’s ancestral village in the equatorial, west African nation of Liberia. Over the course of those months, I had eaten (among other things) a monkey I had been playing with on our living room floor maybe just the day before that sad, unfortunate meal. (If any of the Curbside readership in the Chicagoland area would like a recommendation for a good therapist, I’d be glad to privately pass along contact information for an effective one.)
Not to diminish the many positives of my yearlong stay in Liberia, which was amazing, life-changing, and eye-opening, I was faced with a very important decision at that young age: to eat what was put on a plate or in a bowl and placed in front of me, or (quite literally) experience hunger, the kind of which I had never felt before, and without so much as even a cold can of Spam as a readily available alternative.
There was no pantry cupboard full of potato chips or cookies from which to secretly sneak a snack when Mom and Dad weren’t looking. And as a fourth grader, I was a growing boy. Let’s just say that from that point on, even after having returned to the United States, I was a lot more open to trying new things. I did grow to love Liberian food, and chicken, white rice, and cassava root and greens were regular dinner staples that make my mouth water when I think about them today as they were prepared then.
At the Hessen Haus. Downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Thursday, October 11, 2012.
The other side of my family identifies as being primarily of German descent, and much sauerkraut was consumed in our household. In fact, besides western African fare, about as “exotic” as food ever got in our extended family (and Taco Bell does not count) were a few traditional German meals either prepared by my grandmother (passed-down family recipes, maybe?) or out at restaurants. (I can also say for a fact that I hadn’t eaten even Chinese food until as late as middle school.) It’s because of this that I often feel a bit nostalgic about German food. On business travel to Des Moines, Iowa, some years back, I had discovered the Hessen Haus and have made it a point to eat there once in a while when traveling.
Surprisingly (and I’m writing this on Easter Sunday), I have never eaten hasenpfeffer, which is a type of traditional German rabbit stew, if I’m not mistaken. When I was a kid, I had thought hasenpfeffer was a word made up by the writers and animators at Warner Brothers as part of a sound gag and means to place Yosemite Sam (yet again) in pursuit of Bugs Bunny. As illustrated in the above animated clip taken from “Shiskabugs” from 1962, Sam was employed as a chef for a king who was in the mood for some extra variety in his royal meal plan. How shocked I was to later discover that hasenpfeffer was a real dish, and made with rabbit or hare meat as the main ingredient. Quelle surprise!
I was back at the Hessen Haus this past November, and though there was no hasenpfeffer consumed during that particular meal, my knockwurst and bratwurst plate was delicious. Downtown Des Moines, like my neighborhood of Edgewater in the northeastern corner of Chicago, also seems to have a bizarrely high concentration of rabbits. There are a lot of rabbits in Edgewater. (Rabbits and rats.) Before the COVID-quarantine kicked in last month, I’d walk to my local health club early in the morning and could often spot up to four or five rabbits in that short, ten minute walk (and often as many rats).
A “Rabbit X-ing” in a parking garage in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Thursday, October 11, 2012.
In Des Moines and while making my usual walkabout with my camera after business hours, I have spotted a handful of both rabbits and Rabbits (the latter known as Mk I Golfs in much of the rest of the world). I confess that I had to let my “fingers do the walking” on my smartphone to try to find out exactly in what kinds of places, nooks and crannies these urban rabbits make their dwellings, but that has usually been my first question to myself when I have spotted one. It turns out that most rabbits live in interconnected burrows called warrens, with those of city-dwelling rabbits being smaller in size than those of rabbits in less densely populated areas. I also did not know, until now, that “warren” was anything other than a proper noun.
1981 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible print ad featuring German actress and entertainer Elke Sommer was sourced from Pinterest.
As for the featured Volkswagen Rabbits (the burgundy one technically being called a “Cabriolet” starting with model year 1985), I was just as shocked to see them downtown Des Moines as I was to spot a couple of the furry critters near a parking garage. I’d wager that Rabbit convertibles and Cabriolets had a longer shelf-life than other Rabbit / Golf variants (including the GTI), given that they were substantially more expensive than closed-roof models. They also were marketed primarily toward a buying demographic that was perhaps less likely to thrash their cars (see above). With that in mind, prior to my sighting of the burgundy vehicle, it had been a really long time since I had seen a drop-top Rabbit or Cabriolet of this generation with the metal bumpers.
The white hatchback was a curiosity to me for several reasons. First, it sported the face- and tail-lift introduced for ’81, which I had almost forgotten about. (When’s the last time that you saw one?) Rabbits were built in the U.S., in the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania plant, starting in 1979. The second notable thing about this Rabbit was that it had a little ball-hitch affixed to its rear. “What could this thing possibly be towing?”, I had asked myself before I remembered that Lake Okoboji, which is about 200 miles and about three and a half hours northwest of Des Moines, is a popular destination for boaters and jet-skiers, alike. I could see the white Rabbit towing a small trailer with a Sea-Doo on it, but not much else. This car also looked like it was roadworthy enough at the time to venture that kind of distance, though I’ll bet there’s a more logical explanation for the presence of the ball-hitch.
I was being kept company by some rabbits while doing some writing. Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois. Wednesday, June 5, 2019.
I suppose there’s no deep, profound subtext to this essay related to urban wildlife, old Volkswagens, or otherwise. Perhaps the ultimate connection here is that with the day of my writing this piece being Easter, and with my social media news feeds having been inundated with an assortment of Easter Bunny-related things, it was probably inevitable that I would choose a topic to write about that was related to rabbits. It’s highly unlikely that any of this simply bubbled up from the inky depths of my inner psyche (except for reliving the horror of having eaten that adorable monkey). Regardless, once access to some of my favorite local restaurants has been restored, I’d love to venture to nearby Laschet’s Inn or Resi’s Bierstube and finally try hasenpfeffer. That sounds like a reasonable goal for me to set for myself for the end of 2020.
Downtown, Des Moines, Iowa.
The white c. 1981 Rabbit and the Hessen Haus were photographed on Thursday, October 11, 2012.
The burgundy c. 1985 Cabriolet was photographed on Monday, October 26, 2015.
Excellent post Joseph. I like this rabbit/Rabbit connection. I´m not a big fan of Volkswagen and the Golf(maybe because I live in Volkswagenland), but the US spec Rabbit like this 1981 one is one exception, due to its exotic touch I think.
Also kind of exotic to me is Hasenpfeffer. Belive it or not, i´ve never heard of this before. But as you pointed out it is a german meal made with bunny meat. Maybe it´s more common in the south of the country. I find it really funny to learn something about my own country´s cuisine through this site.
Thank you so much. The thing I had forgotten about the ’81 restyle for the U.S. models was that they didn’t share the same taillamps as on the refreshed Gen-1 Golfs overseas.
Also a distinct 1981-84 dash and (in some models) steering wheel, while the Euro Golf dash revision showed up in the Cablioret and Jetta. The 81-84 also had lots of US-spec parts, like a Detroit-style dome lamp and chrome ball cable-actuated mirror adjustment rather than the soft mushroom like controller the German cars used.
My father enjoys rabbit and we had it on occasion growing up, usually roasted. My grandfather, however, had a strong aversion for it. This was because it was all he could catch during the Depression, and once circumstances improved for him he would never eat it again.
I love the VW variety in Mk1 form, even with rectangular headlights. The bumpers are not too oversized either, and work well in the context of the rest of the car’s rectilinearity. Two door, four door or vert – I’m not fussed.
I agree with you on the bumpers – I think the ones on the first U.S. Rabbits were well-executed (aesthetically, anyway). I thought the “floating” bumpers on the Fiesta and Horizon / Omni were also nicely done.
Hasenpfeffer, if made correctly, is quite good. The first time I remember having rabbit prepared that way was in a restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, of all places. You owe it to yourself to try it.
Joe, I congratulate you – this essay has perhaps triggered the greatest number of various and unrelated thoughts of any of your essays. Saying “white Rabbit” makes me think Jefferson Airplane. Hasenpfeffer has me thinking about eating wild rabbit, squirrel, and a few other things. The mention of Elke Sommer reminds me that is the primer for my impersonation of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. It’s sort of like saying “antipasto” triggers a Boris Karloff impersonation.
Plus, we all now know what a “warren” is other than some guy we work with.
Jason, the pictures I was able to find on the internet of hasenpfeffer did look really good as I imagined how it might taste! As far as food goes, there’s not much I won’t try at least once.
I think every American baby boomer knows what hasenpfeffer is because of that cartoon. And that cartoon is absolutely everything we know about it. So thanks for the reminder, and this hasenpfeffer, fahrvergnugen style.
I had forgotten about those wide taillights, but should not have as my sister and bil had a 1981 Westmoreland Rabbit diesel that had more Chevrolet flavor to it than it should have.
Haha! JP, the kids of baby boomers also know that cartoon, as I grew up watching reruns of these same Warner Brothers / Looney Tunes cartoons far into the ’80s. Poor Yosemite Sam couldn’t get a break, even when he was a semi-sympathetic character.
There were times when I totally wanted Wile E. Coyote to get the Roadrunner because I found the Roadrunner annoying. But even though Bugs Bunny sometimes had one toe over to “bratty”, he always managed to make me root for him. Maybe because I also had prominent front teeth and identified with him.
The Iowa rabbit population seems to ebb and flow. The past few years seem to have been a little light but this year’s off to a strong start it seems.
The MK1, or really any gen VW Rabbit population seems endangered here, though my friend bought a very cherry ’93 Cabrio last year that he loves.
Des Moines is about 30 miles from me, next time you’re in town we should meet up! I always enjoy reading your posts, Dennis.
Sam, thank you and that would be cool! Now that you mention it, I don’t always remember there being that many rabbits in my neighborhood the whole time (almost 15 years) I’ve lived in this neighborhood. I suppose as with anything else, rabbit populations can fluctuate, as well.
A burgundy 1985 Cabriolet lives in my garage as well! All original, though without the big metal bumpers…I replaced them with the smaller black plastic European ones a few years ago. Best summer car ever!
One of my neighbours in the fishing village where I spent my summers had an old Rabbit. We used to bomb up and down the road in it, mostly to work at the local fish plant, where he drove the truck and worked on the line, and I shoveled ice and salt. As I recall, this was about as far as the car went. It was roughly 90% fiberglass mat and “tiger hair”, rolled in the brightest red that was available in the shed. On the positive side, it had the most incredible set of Recaro seats, covered in leatherette. When the car finally bit the dust, literally, we pulled the seats for sitting around the shed. I don’t remember sitting in a better car seat, until I worked at the VW dealer years later, and a customer had a dead mint ’89 E30 318ti, with a full sport package. Plus, my neighbour also raised rabbits.
One of my brothers had a c.1981 Rabbit convertible, and I do also remember the seats in that car being *very* comfortable. I don’t think they were Recaros, but they were probably more ergonomic than those in my ’88 Mustang LX (though I preferred the relative “plushness” of the Mustang seats).
We never had Hasenpfeffer either that I can recall, and I’m from the southern part of Germany (RotHals?).
But old Rabbits are always worth a second glance, even the Westmoreland ones. Your stuff is always interesting with a very generous peppering of your own life in it, I appreciate that very much, thanks!
Thanks, Jim. As far as adding some personal flavoring, there’s usually really nothing someone like me is going to add to people’s technical knowledge of certain cars, so sometimes my usual approach is the most natural and easiest to build from. 🙂
Hessen Haus sounds similar to Das Dutch Haus in Columbiana, Ohio — I had eaten there several years ago with family friends on the way to a polka nearby. Very memorable day and meal, though no hasenpfeffer unfortunately. Actually, I’ve never eaten rabbit… someday, hopefully.
Although I live in a heavily-developed suburb, my yard has plentiful rabbits and foxes, which I often think is funny because they’re both VW names.
I’m very impressed by that white Rabbit still hanging around. It’s been eons since I’ve seen a non-cabriolet Rabbit.
Halfway through the article, I was thinking to myself “I should ask him if he’s been to Laschet’s, he’d really enjoy it.” Good thing I read to the end of the article before commenting!
I had my pierogi and kielbasa all ready for a traditional Easter meal, albeit without the family, but then my wife wanted to grill. Beer brats and corn on the cob turn out to be a pretty decent Easter dinner.
Man. Let me tell you, Chris. Before any of this coronavirus stuff started being mainstream news, I had a “jones” for a good meal at Laschet’s, but always had somewhere else to be / something else to eat. Now I wish I had gone… I’m not sure if they’re doing deliveries (i.e. via GrubHub), but I suppose it’s worth a look.
And your Easter dinner sounds like it was fantastic.
Joseph, if you are still in Des Moines and still travel east you must stop in at one of the restaurants in the Amanas. When we were young and got to go along to take Grandma for her medical check-ups in Iowa City, we would stop for a family meal there. We were always shocked to hear Grandma conversing in German with the waiters-it was the only time we would hear her speak it.
She also liked roast rabbit, the main ingredient of which was furnished by my Grandpa up the street, who had a little carrot-on-a-stick box trap that he used to keep them out of his garden. Not bad at all.
I had a trailer hitch for my Rabbit. U-Haul would rent you a tiny little enclosed trailer for it, just large enough for a graduate student’s furnishings. You did have to load it carefully (most of the weight on the tongue) so that everything remained in line when you turned on one of the old cloverleaf interchanges on the Interstate.
Discovering the Amanas after we moved to Iowa from Austria was a bit of unexpected pleasure, not that we got taken there often. But we did go to Bill Zuber’s a few times, and I used to go back there when I lived there again in the early 70s, and later when I took my family back for a visit.
As to speaking German in Iowa, since there’s a very large Amish and Mennonite community centered in Kalona, a bit south of Iowa City, that opened up some unexpected German speaking possibilities. My mother needed some domestic help, and someone referred her to a Mennonite woman, who was single and drove a ’49 Olds because it had an automatic which she needed as she was a polio survivor and one of her legs was shorter. She and my mom spoke German, as my mom didn’t know a word of English on our arrival.
And it was this woman who referred us to the Mennonite family that I used to spend several weeks with every summer.
An old friend’s dad was German (from a small town in the Black Forest). Once we went to the farmer’s market in Kitchener, Ontario, and he was chatting away with the local Mennonites – they spoke a similar dialect. Interesting to see and hear…and they had some tasty cold cuts.
Iowahawk, thank you for the recommendation. You bring up something that has crossed my mind since the pandemic started: I wonder just how much off-site / in-office visiting I’m going to be doing this year, if at all. I do genuinely enjoy visiting other states for business travel.
And I had never heard of the Amana Colonies before yesterday. My first association was “Amana Radarange” – but now I know better!
If you have Liberian roots, you might like The House At Sugar Beach by WSJ reporter Helene Cooper, who’s from Liberia. In fact, her mother’s maiden name was Dennis. The father of one of her high school classmates was among the people tied to poles and shot on the beach in Monrovia after the 1980 coup.
At some point Ms. Cooper became a naturalized American citizen. One benefit was that she could show an American, not Liberian, passport and not have to have the “Oh, Liberia, your poor country!” conversation.
My sister-in-law had recommended this book some years back, and I think it may still be on some wish lists I still have. I know she has read it, and possibly both of my brothers. I may still – I’m in the middle of a fascinating book about Detroit.
Yes, my late father knew some of the assassinated victims in that coup of April 1980, some of whom were relatives. That’s where we were supposed to move, right before that happened (which I touched on briefly in that earlier post I linked in the second paragraph). A gentleman my dad had referred to as his uncle was referenced in a book written by none other than Nina Simone, who had lived in Liberia for a while.
We did actually know and visit some Coopers that last time I was there (1983 – ’84), so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out some connection with Helene Cooper.
In any case, thank you for this recommendation.
May I have the author and title for that book about Detroit? It sounds interesting.
Helene Cooper’s paternal grandfather built the Liberian landline phone system. This is ironic for a couple of reasons: The house at Sugar Beach was 11 miles outside Monrovia, beyond the reach of telephone lines, so Ms. Cooper’s family never had a phone at the house. Also, the landline system has been trashed over the years, and Liberia has only cellular phone service today.
I went to her reading in Seattle when she was on the promotion tour for The House At Sugar Beach, which I’d read in advance. The book mentions her high school crush on a guy surnamed Sirleaf. I brought this up, and she immediately guessed where I was going. She said she always got that question, and no, he wasn’t related to then Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Staxman, thanks again for that book recommendation. Seriously, there’s enough in your comments to have piqued my curiosity.
The book I’m currently reading is called “Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story”, by one David Maraniss, who is a Detroit expatriate. I’m currently up to chapter 11.
Fun fact: actress and comedienne Retta, who played Donna Meagle on “Parks & Recreation”, is also Liberian-American – and also the niece of former president Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson!
Great post, Mr. Joseph.
I’m always partial to any Iowa-connected post, as there are a bunch of us Iowans that regularly peruse CC, as well as Mr. Neidermeyer’s always interesting memories of his time here.
As to the trailer hitch, I would posit that there are actually several recreational lakes nearer to DSM than Okoboji that might explain it, though the young-person-moving theory is probably more plausible.
Neat to see the urban Rabbits, both animal & mechanical! Cabriolets are still frequent sights in my neck of the woods, oddly enough. People really stashed those away for safe keeping.
Growing up in a poor Midwestern family with a hunting dad, rabbits and squirrels in their season were regularly on our table, usually oven-braised in milk (and deeply delicious). My Grandpa Kuntz, the best cook in the family, had contributed his recipe for hasenpfeffer, and that joined the rotation to general acclaim … for several years anyway, until the day Dad accidentally brought home tarragon vinegar instead of plain. Mom decided to use it anyway, and the result was so vile (from Dad’s point of view anyway) that we never had the dish again.
I had to laugh, many years later, when I read a foodie-magazine recipe for hasenpfeffer that called for tarragon vinegar!
I love the first generation Golf/Rabbit, even in square-headlamp Westmoreland form. Guigiaro’s influence was diluted in subsequent generations, many of which on occasion themselves, quite handsome, however, none match the original for purity of form. My father had a 1984 diesel four-door that lasted damn near forever, but even with only 48 hp on tap, it was fun to drive, with light and precise steering and a steady ride. By 1984, most of the bugs had been worked out and Dad’s car was well-built (albeit with some shoddy interior plastics) and relatively trouble-free.
As for rabbits, I have only eaten it once, and that was in Austria, near Innsbruck. With a generous helping of spaetzle on the side, it was a memorably good meal!
A friend’s family bought a new green Rabbit back in 1978, and I was quite impressed with the room and performance of the little well made German car. Then again, I came home from the hospital in a ‘61 Bug, so it wasn’t much of a surprise…though a Rabbit would easily leave a Bug in the dust and was much more comfortable to boot. As for hasenpfeffer, I saw the old cartoon many times and always got a kick out of the old classic (and still do). My late father (a Scotsman who spoke German quite well) made hasenpfeffer on occasion and it was quite tasty. I never had a problem with eating rabbits – they’re great when cooked properly, though the wild ones can be a little stringy.
Another great article, Joseph!
How about a CC meetup in Chicago when the current crisis is over? I think there are a number of CCers in the area. We could even celebrate by eating Hasenpfeffer!
I’ll even bring an old VW…
Huey, that would be great. I know there are plenty of us Curbsiders in the greater Chicago area, so perhaps an eventual meetup is inevitable. Or should be.
My son, had just finished 4th grade last year, spent two months of the summer of 2019, with his mother’s family. Since his mother is Filipina that meant in the Philippines and not in a city or close to one. It was up in the hills east of Manila in slightly more than a house made of bamboo. No windows and no running water. Yard surrounded by animals from wild pigs to chicken and dogs.
Food is very basic and it is what you can get when you are poor. Two meals as three a day is pure luxury. Generally rice and salted fish. Mangos and papaya could be picked from the forest.My wife, being there with money, meant a dozen family members were going to have some decent meals and even get taken out to a restaurant down on the flat lands. Nonetheless, my son wasn’t eating much of what they had as he is picky. The family was so worried about their cousin they killed a chicken for him which was distressing for him. In the end he came back still alive.
As for me, I have had 52 trips there, since 1989 and I stay in basic hotels which in 1989 WERE basic. Stuck to western food, Chinese food, or high end Filipino restaurants after a basic one made sicker than a dog for three days. I’ll visit the family for a few hours but I am back in my hotel at night. No sleeping on bare floors of bamboo or concrete under a crude mosquito net. Consequently the family likes to visit where I am staying.
I love this account, and thank you for sharing it. Your son’s experience sounds a lot like mine in some ways. I’m sure he’ll look back at that experience as having been of great value.
My cousin’s wife is also Filipina, and thanks to her recommendation, she, my cousin and I have eaten at a couple of great Filipino restaurants here in Chicago – and I loved what I ate and sampled.
I’m sure the countryside was fairly wild when you were there. In the Philippines you can be urban like Manila, or in many of the average size towns, or out in the bush or jungle. He is a suburban boy who was out in the jungle for half the trip and then average town the other half. No wi-fi, computer, or X Box games for him just your typical jungle pursuits. The shot is right outside the yard’s fence as they head off to a small mountain waterfall to play for the day. They have lots of time with jobs hard to come by.
Never owned a Rabbit, but as I’ve owned nothing but watercooled VWs since 1981, they are pretty familiar to me. My first watercooled VW was a ’78 Scirocco, the 2nd a ’86 (Westmoreland) GTi, and my current car is an ’00 Golf.
My current car does have a hitch on it which I installed to pull a small trailer for hauling bulky but light stuff. I used to have a roof rack (on my GTi and the Scirocco) but it helps with certain things (could haul some lumber, bicycle, canoe, etc.) but bulky but light stuff (such as a dishwasher, other appliances) won’t fit. I don’t use the trailer much, frankly it is a pain to hook up, but when I need it it is there. Don’t want to have to glom on my friends or family with pickup when I need help with bulky stuff.
I like the A1 Rabbits, considered buying one when I fell in love with the ’78 Scirocco I ended up with. I’m too old for a Scirocco-sized car now, but will likely buy another hatchback (maybe another Golf….if I can get one with cloth uphostery) for my next car…though unfortunately it will probably be an automatic this time (have never owned an automatic VW thus far) mostly because I’m getting older and no one else can drive my car in an emergency or other situation.