Book, 2025
CREMESCHNITTE is a book exploring the dialectical relationship between languages, cultures and geopolitics. Together with video CREMESCHNITTE, it is part of my continuing project CREMESCHNITTE.
Published by Interlocutor Press, New York
A5 5.5 x 8 inches
82 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9973030-2-5
Limited editions and printed with high quality Shiro Echo recycled paper.
In 2018, I visited Karlovy Vary of the Czech Republic.
I stayed in a hotel near a river, later I learned its name to be the Ohře, in English and German it’s called Eger, the name is believed to be Celtic or Pre-Celtic origin, meaning “salmon water”.
It was a snowy night, I went downstairs to get something to eat. There was an old concierge at the desk, he led me to the storage room and tried to offer me something. He didn’t understand a single word of English, so he just took out everything in the cupboard and showed me each of them, while saying their names in a language I didn’t know. I could only nod or shake my head to indicate yes or no.
And this was the first time I came across it. It was a cake, a pastry, or a dessert. Although it didn’t make sense to me, the old man still pronounced its name in his language while he pointed to it, as if the gesture was bound to the name.
It tasted cream and custard, was made of puff pastry as its base and multiple layers.
I left the country without knowing its name. I never talked to anyone else about it, as it’s hard to describe it without an appropriate name.
I never saw it in English-speaking countries. If it doesn’t exist in these countries then it doesn’t need an English name to be spoken of. It was only until 2 years later I know the name to be Cremeschnitte, translate into “cream slice” in English. The recipe turned out to be simple and using only basic ingredients.
The first recipe book included Cremeschnitte was published in 1804, written by Maria Anna Busswald. In the next 200 years, this dessert travelled 3000 miles, and survived the turbulent history. Bakers use similar ingredients, similar ratio and similar procedures to make it.
In 2024, I finally made cremeschnitte with ingredients I purchased in New York and shared it with a friend I haven’t met for 6 years.
back ︎︎︎
Published by Interlocutor Press, New York
A5 5.5 x 8 inches
82 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9973030-2-5
Limited editions and printed with high quality Shiro Echo recycled paper.
In 2018, I visited Karlovy Vary of the Czech Republic.
I stayed in a hotel near a river, later I learned its name to be the Ohře, in English and German it’s called Eger, the name is believed to be Celtic or Pre-Celtic origin, meaning “salmon water”.
It was a snowy night, I went downstairs to get something to eat. There was an old concierge at the desk, he led me to the storage room and tried to offer me something. He didn’t understand a single word of English, so he just took out everything in the cupboard and showed me each of them, while saying their names in a language I didn’t know. I could only nod or shake my head to indicate yes or no.
And this was the first time I came across it. It was a cake, a pastry, or a dessert. Although it didn’t make sense to me, the old man still pronounced its name in his language while he pointed to it, as if the gesture was bound to the name.
It tasted cream and custard, was made of puff pastry as its base and multiple layers.
I left the country without knowing its name. I never talked to anyone else about it, as it’s hard to describe it without an appropriate name.
I never saw it in English-speaking countries. If it doesn’t exist in these countries then it doesn’t need an English name to be spoken of. It was only until 2 years later I know the name to be Cremeschnitte, translate into “cream slice” in English. The recipe turned out to be simple and using only basic ingredients.
The first recipe book included Cremeschnitte was published in 1804, written by Maria Anna Busswald. In the next 200 years, this dessert travelled 3000 miles, and survived the turbulent history. Bakers use similar ingredients, similar ratio and similar procedures to make it.
In 2024, I finally made cremeschnitte with ingredients I purchased in New York and shared it with a friend I haven’t met for 6 years.
back ︎︎︎
