We are particularly grateful for Ronald Lee’s thoughtful input on use of the term “Gypsy.” As a descriptor, “Gypsy” is rightly viewed as insulting by many Romani, because so many uninformed and/or bigoted writers have used the term to promote inaccurate and demeaning stereotypes. Yet we have chosen to use the term Gypsy––as respectfully as possible and always capitalizing the term––for only one reason: because the more precise terms: Roma, Romani, Sinti and Yennish, remain largely unfamiliar. Over time, we hope and trust that will change.
Hitler’s Holocaust, the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish Problem,” has been thoroughly documented; the Third Reich’s treatment of other “undesirables,” including Gypsies, much less so. We hope that telling Hans’ story will stimulate much-needed additional discussion.
Somewhere between 250,000 and 1.5 million of Europe’s estimated 1939 population of 2.5 million Romani, Sinti and Yennish Gypsies perished during the war. The exact number will never be known, because accurate census figures are not available and the Third Reich kept poor records of Gypsies killed in camps and virtually no records of those killed in other locations. We do know that the effects of the Gypsy Holocaust, called Porrajmos (“The Devouring”) in the Romani language, are deeply felt by all of Europe’s Gypsies, and widespread discrimination against Romani, Sinti, and Yennish people persists in all cultures.
The concentration camps for Gypsies that we’ve depicted, including those at Majdanek, Lety by Pisek, Hodonin, Buchenwald, Flossenburg and Ravensbrueck, were all too real, as were the heinous medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele at the Birkenau-Auschwitz death camp. The Angel of Death’s infatuation with twins, particularly his fetish for Gypsy twins, is in no way exaggerated, and the events of Mengele’s life after the war are a matter of historical record.
That said, Eye Wit is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between actual persons, living or dead, and our characters and their activities and dialogue is entirely fictional.
Recipes
Yoko’s Beef Shabu-Shabu
Ingredients:
3-inch dried kombu (kelp)
1 lb Chinese cabbage, chopped
1/4 lb scallions, sliced thin
1 block tofu, cut into bite-size pieces
1 enoki mushroom, cut in half
1/4 lb carrot, cut into thin round slices
l lb fresh spinach (wash well by soaking in a bowl of water)
1 lb sirloin beef, sliced very thin
Steps:
—Fill a deep electric pan or a medium skillet two-thirds full with water.
—Soak kombu in the water, preferably for 30 minutes.
—Arrange the ingredients on a large plate.
—Set the electric pan, ingredients and serving bowls with dipping sauce at the table.
—Heat the water and remove the kombu just before the water comes to a boil.
—Put a slice of beef in the boiling soup and swish it gently back and forth in the boiling soup until the meat changes color to desired degree of doneness.
—Dip meat in a sauce of your choice (see suggestion below).
—Add the vegetables piece by piece to the boiling water, which is gradually becoming soup, and simmer them for a few minutes until they are done the way you want them. ——Enjoy the veggies dipped in the sauce as well.
Yoko buys a bottle of sesame dipping sauce but you can use any sauce you like or make your own (see below).
Traditional Sesame Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
3 TBSP mirin, a sweet, yellowish condiment (12% alcohol)
1-1/2 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP rice vinegar
3-1/2 TBSP soy sauce
1/2 tsp grated garlic
1/2 - 2/3 cup dashi soup (dashi is tuna soup stock: use any stock you like)
Steps:
—Grind sesame seeds well.
—Add mirin gradually over the sesame seeds and mix.
—Add sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce to the sauce.
—Add grated garlic and mix well.
—Pour in dashi stock gradually, stirring well.
Dan’s Grandma’s Breakfast Bake
(if you’re making this for lunch or dinner, add lots of vegetables)
Ingredients :
Bread––your choice
Butter
Grated cheese (cheddar is good, but Yoko likes Trader Joe’sDutch goat cheese)
Eggs
Milk or cream or soy, rice or almond liquid
Steps:
—Butter a glass baking dish, your choice of size.
—Butter slices of bread and cut into quarters (some people cut off the crusts!).
—Line bottom of pan with bread squares.
—Cover the bread with a layer of grated cheese.
—Add another layer of the buttered bread squares.
—Cover with another layer of cheese.
—Mix eggs and cream (or milk, soy, rice or almond liquid) and pour over the food.
—Melt butter and pour that over the top.
—Cover and refrigerate overnight.
—Next day, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
—Put a large pan of water in the oven and place the baking dish in the pan of water.
—Bake for about an hour, until the top is toasty brown.
Quiche/Frittata
Ingredients:
12 eggs (best available)
8 oz cream cheese/Neufchatel cheese (not whipped)
8 oz Gruyere cheese, cubed
1 cup milk, cream, half & half or rice, soy or almond liquid
2 bunches green onions, sliced
6 8 oz cooked ham, bacon or sausage (top quality)
2 cups fresh green veggie (spinach recommended; broccoli and asparagus also good)
1/8 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano (the real stuff—splurge)
Steps:
—Rub inside of 8- to 9-inch quiche pan (or two glass pie pans) with 1 tsp of olive oil or butter.
—Heat milk & cream cheese (medium heat) until cheese melts.
—Set pan aside to cool, then dump mixture into large bowl.
—Dice spinach, onions, meat and Gruyere; put in large bowl.
—Add 12 beaten eggs to the mixture in the bowl and stir.
—Pour mixture into the quiche pan(s), arrange evenly.
—Top with 1/8 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano.
—Bake at 375 degrees until top is nicely browned and knife inserted in center comes out clean (about 40-45 minutes).
Notes:
—Additional salt, pepper and other seasonings aren’t needed. The frittata will emerge from the pan with a nicely browned edge and bottom, but if your prefer a quiche to a frittata, line the pan with pastry crust before baking.
—Serve with crusty Italian bread and slices of fresh tomato.
—Leftover slices remain fresh for three days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to three months. Thaw frozen slices before re-heating in a microwave oven. Double-wrap slices before freezing to keep ice from forming.
Yoko and Dan enjoy the following recipes enormously; they found them in Terry Plotkin’s ebook, The Love Diet (www.freethehuman.com):
Puttanesca
A fast, easy recipe that serves two. The secret is the olives - you can buy them from a deli. Perhaps make a double batch, it freezes well.
Ingredients:
8 oz capellini (very thin spaghetti – Yoko likes De Boles)
extra virgin olive oil
2-oz can anchovy fillets; do not drain, use the oil they’re in
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can (35 oz) plum tomatoes
2 oz (1 jar) capers, drained
1 cup pitted imported black olives
black pepper to taste
3/4 cup bulgur wheat (or rice)
Steps:
—Place oil, anchovies and garlic in a heavy, medium saucepan. Mash thoroughly into a paste.
—Ad
d tomatoes, capers and olives.
—Stir on medium heat until the mixture simmers.
—Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
—Cook and drain pasta.
—Season the puttanesca to your taste with pepper and serve over the pasta.
Vegetarian Chili
Yes, it looks like a long list of ingredients, but they’re basic items. Most of the work is in the chopping and after that, the rest comes together quickly and easily. This chili is very nutritious and will please most meat eaters.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups each of chopped onions and mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup each chopped green or red peppers and carrots
1 TBSP minced garlic
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TBSP ground cumin
3/4 TBSP dried basil (or lots of fresh)
2 TBSP chili powder
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
Salt to taste – Terry uses 2 tsp
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
2 cups kidney beans (you can use the liquid)
1/2 tsp Tabasco
2 TBSP lemon juice
3 TBSP tomato paste
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup dry red or white wine
2 TBSP chopped canned green chilies or to taste
Steps:
—Heat olive oil in a large skillet.
—Over high heat, add onions, celery, green peppers, garlic, mushrooms, spices, salt and pepper.
—Cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes.
—Add remaining ingredients & bring to a boil, stirring.
—Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered.
—If too thick, the chili can be thinned with more tomato juice.
About the Authors
Hazel Dawkins, an editor-writer who started out in London’s newspaper world, has worked in Paris and New York and now is based in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Her factual books on behavioral optometry, a specialty in optometry that is available in forty countries, are published by (and available from) the Optometric Extension Program Foundation in California, the professional organization for optometrists (http://www.oepf.org/).
Eye Wit is the second Dr. Yoko Kamimura mystery. The intrepid behavioral optometrist and sleuth was introduced in Hazel’s first mystery, Eye Sleuth, a cozier read, also set in New York City.
Dennis Berry’s career as a writer includes stints with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, architecture and engineering firms in the Pacific Northwest, the Royal Saudi Navy and the Saudi Aramco oil company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and The Boeing Company in Seattle.
Journalism credits include feature articles for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon and the Chinook Observer in Long Beach, Washington.
Works of fiction, besides Eye Wit, include Mommie Dearest, an Andy Eastman novel, and Papa Doc, another Andy Eastman novel (to be published in 2012).
Dennis enjoys life with a diminutive yet stalwart badger hound in Oregon’s tsunami zone near the mouth of the mighty Columbia River.
Both authors’ books are available at: http://www.murderprose.com
Eye Wit Page 21