Krefttik 2: The Search for Krefttik

In Krefttik
September 2, 2009

On to lighter matters. Made a little detour to Golders Green today, in search of the mysterious Krefttik. Friends, I went to Kol Tuv. I looked through their shelves. I saw no Krefttik.

Eventually I spoke to the man behind the counter.
“Excuse me,” I said, “do you have Krefttik?”
“I’m not sure…” he said, “what is it?”
“Ah,” I said.
I guessed at breakfast cereal, but it wasn’t there. Or anywhere. In fact, I suspect that Krefttik may be a rather more *specialist* product.

The hierarchy of kosher shopping areas in North London goes: Hendon < Golders Green < Stamford Hill, where < means “less removed from the modern world”.

It was immediately obvious to me when I saw the advertisement that no shop in Hendon would stock Krefttik. Hendon’s kosher shops stock sundried tomatoes, for goodness’ sake. Pesto, they have, and fake turkey bacon, and other products which mean that you can make a stab at a Nigella recipe with a few substitutions.

Golders Green, with its butchers that stock ‘jellybones’ (for making calves’ foot jelly) and the massive Kosher Kingdom superstore, is a little more esoteric. It was not impossible that Krefttik might be found there.

But it’s clear to me now that I’m going to have to go to Stamford Hill. The belly of the bearded beast. Where they stock newspapers labelled only in Yiddish and would have thought me a heretic even at my most religious. I have my suspicions that I may never see this Krefttik: perhaps I’d need to be wearing the full Chasidic-woman regalia to get my hands on it. Still, when faced with a quest like this, one must try.




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