Wasn’t sure if it was chrayonaise or chrainaise- so I went with the “y”
Until attending yeshiva high school I had no idea what chrayonaise was, let me say that was before the secular companies stole the age long tradition of mixing chrain with mayonnaise to make it into a paste like substance that was easily spread able on challaha and round fish balls that could hardly be trusted to retain the traditional chunky chrain. This was before all the squeeze bottles came filled with pre-made chrayonaise, before Hellmans started competing with heimishe companies like Ungers and Leibers. Back then it was just me, my Styrofoam plate stained red from the old school golds horseradish and a big jar of industrial mayonnaise that was filled with lost plastic spoons from past diggers like myself, trying to get a big enough dollop so their table could share in this artery clogging treat.
Till this day the city of Rochester with a Jewish population of 25,000, cannot get the sweet chrain.Evene the other upstate NY cities of Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo have sweet chrain. Till this day they must suffer with the old school, sinus clearing Golds in its weird shaped glass bottle. Luckily for them he chrayonaise boom has reached their city and though they cannot pucker their lips while enjoying some sweet beet horseradish they can buy chrayonaise almost anywhere, from bullet hole laden bodegas to the super Wal Mart.
In fact I feel so bad for my friends in Rochester that whenever I come from another city that has the sweet chrain, I will pick up some and bring it instead of the traditional bottle of Moscato Diasti or flowers. Most sweet chrain’s unlike the old Golds tall oddly shaped glass jars, come in plastic containers which allow the user to take without sticking their hands in, making it a real hit with the adults, who are sick of fishing spoons and loose pieces of gefilte fish out of the jars.
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