Big Butter Pretzels + My grandfather, Mr Germany Lim

My grandfather, or “Yeye” as we call him, was named to be powerful.

His Chinese name, “Lim Teck Kok”, literally translates into “Germany Lim”, and he certainly lives up to the stature and strength that empowers the west European country in which I spent my university exchange, and coincidentally, where I also met Juan, “mi amor” (or my love in Spanish).

For as long as I can remember, Yeye has been the spitting image of determination to the extent of stubbornness; he’s the sort of person who believes he can bend the will of fate, and very often he demonstrates that despite being almost 85 years old, he’s still headstrong and tough and not to be easily defeated.

I remember sitting at his knee when I was about eight, asking him for the umpteenth time to tell me about his wartime adventures.

Yeye, who was born a decade before World War Two erupted, and before the Japanese army occupied South East Asia, would then proceed to tell me about how he had been captured but eventually ran away from the Japanese, running all the way from the south of Malaysia and eventually back to Singapore. I can recall feeling so proud of my grandfather’s heroic and brave escape – I’d imagine him at around 12 years of age, running for his life, knowing not to look back, and just to move forward until he had left his captors behind, and I’d breathe a large sigh of relief, for him and for me (because if he hadn’t escaped, I wouldn’t exist.)

Yeye is a handsome man, with large bright eyes and a sharp nose, and smooth oily skin that all of us in the Lim family eventually inherited.

Because of his smooth skin, people often mistake him to be at least 10 years younger than he actually is, and I remember my aunties telling me that he used to dye the roots of his hair black every fortnight, and it seemed as if he never had a strand of grey hair, despite his years of age.

He is also the kind of person who wakes up at five in the morning to read English newspapers, so his brain would not rot, his way of preventing Alzheimer’s.

Yeye worked hard all his life, and his motto was to change things to the way he wanted them to be.

I remember being on exchange in Mannheim, Germany, back in 2007, when I received a call from my cousin Shawn telling me that Yeye had been hospitalized after falling down, after which the doctors discovered that he had a blood clot in his brain that required immediate operation.

I remember the whiteness of my knuckles as I clutched so tightly to my cell phone, and fear gripping my heart, and most of all, feeling so incredibly helpless and too far away to do anything about it.

So I called him, just before his operation, and told him “Wo ai ni” (I love you in Chinese). I was trying hard to choke back tears and sound strong for him, and as I sat in the car on my way to Hamburg, a trip I’d planned even before Yeye had fallen, I prayed hard, tears in my eyes, calling out silently to God, lifting my family into His almighty hands.

Eventually, Yeye came out of the operation, his condition stable and within 11 days, was discharged and sent back to rest in his home. I marveled at his tenacity to live; after all, a brain operation is usually risky and the outcomes uncertain, but I know deep inside that it is Yeye’s strong will and determination that brought him out, together with God’s answer to my prayers.

Last week, Yeye was hospitalized again, after a stomach ulcer which led to blood in his stool resulted in a fainting spell. Apparently, the stomach ulcer had been caused by Yeye’s years of self-medication – there’s a running joke in my family that Yeye is self-titled “Doctor Lim” – and after the doctor’s warning that he should stop self-medicating, Yeye is back home, resting and recovering.

I called him a few nights ago, and upon hearing my voice, he said “xie xie ni, ni heng you xin” – which means, thank you for caring.

When I think of Yeye, I think of his determination, his strong-willed character, and his belief that it is his will and not fate which decides his outcome. 

And I think of his name, “Germany Lim” and the power of it.

Writing about my grandfather makes me feel much closer to him, despite the continents that separate us.

And today, I want to share this pretzel recipe I found from Melissa’s lovely food blog ChinDeep.

Pretzels are a common snack back in Germany; you can find them being sold from the street carts; they can be eaten buttered, salted or slathered generously with cinnamon and sugar. And they can be eaten alone or with a mug of cold German beer, whichever way suits your fancy.

And because pretzels are so synonymous with German cuisine, I’m dedicating this post to Yeye.

This is for you Yeye – my heroic “Mr Germany Lim”.

Wo Ai Ni!

BUTTER PRETZELS (Makes 12)
Barely adapted from ChinDeep

Ingredients:

For the pretzel dough:
1) 5 cups all-purpose flour
2) 1 teaspoon of salt
3) 2 teaspoons of sugar
4) 4 1/2 teaspoons of dry yeast
5) 2 cups of warm water

For the soda wash:
6) 1 cup of warm water
7) 1/4 cup of baking soda

For the topping:
8) 20g of melted butter
9) Kosher Salt to taste

Steps:

1) Combine the dry yeast and warm water together, mix well, and let yeast mixture rest for a few minutes
2) Mix in flour, salt and sugar, and mix well until combined. If dough is too dry, add one teaspoon of water at a time; if dough is too sticky, sprinkle on a bit more flour at a time.
3) Knead dough for a few minutes until it feels smooth and soft
4) Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a moist cloth, and allow it to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. Dough will rise.
5) Once the 30 minutes is up, transfer the dough to a floured, flat surface, and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Allow the pieces of dough to rest for 5 minutes.
6) Combine 1 cup of warm water with ¼ cup of baking soda in a shallow bowl to make the soda wash.
7) Pre-heat oven to 260 deg celcius
8) Roll each piece of dough into a long rope (about 15cm), and shape into a pretzel
9) Dip each pretzel into the soda wash before placing on a parchment-lined baking sheet (you may have to split the pretzels into 3 separate trays, baked in 3 different batches)
10) Bake each tray of pretzels for 10 minutes or until the tops are golden brown
11) Remove pretzels from oven and brush generously with melted butter, and then sprinkle kosher salt over.

Combine the dry yeast and warm water together, mix well, and let yeast mixture rest for a few minutes. Mix in flour, salt and sugar, and mix well until combined:

If dough is too dry, add one teaspoon of water at a time; if dough is too sticky, sprinkle on a bit more flour at a time. Knead dough for a few minutes until it feels smooth and soft:

Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a moist cloth, and allow it to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. Dough will rise. Once the 30 minutes is up, transfer the dough to a floured, flat surface, and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Allow the pieces of dough to rest for 5 minutes:

Combine 1 cup of warm water with ¼ cup of baking soda in a shallow bowl to make the soda wash. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope (about 15cm), and shape into a pretzel. Dip each pretzel into the soda wash before placing on a parchment-lined baking sheet (you may have to split the pretzels into 3 separate trays, baked in 3 different batches):

Bake each tray of pretzels for 10 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Remove pretzels from oven and brush generously with melted butter, and then sprinkle kosher salt over.