MARKETS : Speck and Sprats

Ernie’s European Imports, 8400 8th Ave., Inglewood, (213) 752-1002. Open Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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The reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a customer at Ernie’s turned out to be true. This old-fashioned, Continental-Austrian delicatessen in Inglewood stocks Arnold’s favorite Mozart gift chocolates and deli items. But don’t rush over expecting to bump into him in the aisles. “Schwarzenegger has his stuff delivered,” says Ernie’s Bob Hess, who co-owns the shop with Peter Gruschka.

Ernie’s doesn’t reserve its special treatment for the famous. To accommodate loyal customers who had moved away (some as far as Alaska or Texas), the 53-year-old deli developed a mail-order business that began somewhat serendipitously.

“Customers would call Ernie asking for ‘a little favor,’ ” says Hess, reminiscing about his stepfather, Ernie Colton, the shop’s founder. “They’d want him to send them their favorite Hungarian salami or the latest German-language films.” Colton, always enthusiastic about pleasing a customer, happily complied. Word got around, requests multiplied, and finally the store printed a Christmas catalogue and organized a mailing system.

In the ‘40s, most of Ernie’s customers were Austrians, Germans and Eastern Europeans from the neighborhood. Many had relocated there before World War II, when troubles were beginning to flare up in Europe. But now the deli has become an L.A. phenomenon--an institution like Claro’s Italian Market in San Gabriel or Norwegian Imports & Bakery in San Pedro--a store that seems misplaced in a neighborhood enormously changed by the city’s shifting population. Since Ernie’s is surrounded by several Louisiana gumbo restaurants and fish markets that stock Southern buffalofish and gaspergou , it would be easy to miss this shop in its secluded side-street location.

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Colton, says Hess with pride, built up a good clientele by depending on old-fashioned virtues--offering attentive service, selecting the finest products and catering to his customers’ whims. Colton, who had been a pharmacist in Austria, established a successful deli concession inside the Lintz market across the street from Ernie’s current location. But he really wanted a place he could own. After almost 20 years at Lintz, he bought three tiny shops in 1952 and converted them into one large, very plain shop.

Ernie’s new deli cases had the same careful selection of fine hams, salami, cheese and cured fish that Colton’s customers demanded. But patrons came in for more than the food. Ernie’s, says Hess, had what German’s call Gemutlichkeit , an atmosphere of warmth and fellowship. Customers gathered at the plain Formica-covered tables for coffee and Strudel or a sandwich. In the time-worn ritual of staid Viennese coffeehouses, they would discuss the news of the day with the jovial Ernie.

At the shop until the week before he died at age 84, Colton came in to socialize and be sure everything was up to snuff. “My stepfather knew everything about his customers; they were like family,” Hess says. He remembered what their favorite items were, and what their kids were doing at school.

Many of the old regulars who drive over on weekends to stock up now share their gossip with Colton’s widow, Shari, who is always at the counter. Hess and Ernie’s son-in-law, Gruschka, seem genuinely proud to be carrying on Ernie’s traditions.

“Some of our customers have been with us so long we know exactly what they want,” Hess claims, illustrating his point as a familiar customer walks in the door. He speculates that the man will order a turkey breast sandwich with Butterkase on rye.

“I’ll have a turkey breast sandwich on rye with Butterkase-- dry,” the man tells Shari, as if ordering it for the first time.

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The next customer to come in is a woman. “She’ll probably buy her usual three tubes of German face cream,” Hess guesses. She does.

Over the years little has changed at the shop. Now the green corrugated paper on the wall behind the Oktoberfest travel posters and Austrian Alps scenes is slightly faded. But the Wurstwaren are still from top purveyors such as Schaller and Webber in New York. Fancy European cookies, breads, candies, European sundries and medicinal teas are displayed with precision. And Ernie’s prides itself on a fabulous stock of wines and spirits from every corner of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Maybe Schwarzenegger has his stuff delivered. And some customers may need to shop from Ernie’s by mail. But there’s nothing like visiting in person. For now, at least, you can still get advice from Peter or Bob on the pedigree of that 30-year-old Hungarian Tokaj wine displayed behind the counter. Sample a sausage or cheese before making your final decision or bone up on the techniques of cooking with Hungarian kolbasz before you go up the street to try out that interesting-looking gumbo restaurant.

SHOPPING LIST

Ernie’s merchandise illustrates the dual character of Austro-Hungarian Empire cooking. It draws refinements from Western Europe and earthy peasant influences from the old empire’s Balkan states. Elegant seven-layer Torten and hearty farmer-style sausages both factor into the eclectic mix.

HERRING

In Austria, marinated herring is thought to cure hangovers. But that’s not its only function. Although Austrian and German kitchens are more frequently associated with sausages and Schnitzel than fish, their larders are well stocked with herring prepared dozens of ways. Around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, these rich fish are pickled, brine-cured, salt-cured, smoked or sauced and eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ernie’s carries an enormous assortment.

* Matjeshering: Herring that haven’t yet spawned, these young fish have a rich, satiny-textured meat. Ernie’s carries the whole ungutted matjes in salt brine, but as an introduction to this fish the staff recommends the salt-cured fillets packed in soy oil in plastic trays. Unlike canned, unrefrigerated herrings, these have never been heat-treated; they are as close to fresh-from-the-brine-barrel as any herring available.

Serve matjeshering well-drained with a little mound of minced shallot or the white of green onions and accompany them with some of Ernie’s hearty rye or pumpernickel. Or use them in potato salad and in open-face sandwiches topped with a slice of ripe tomato.

* Bismarckhering: Named for the Bismarck curing method developed in the 19th Century, these are skin-on fillets cured in a strong vinegar. Once cured, they are packed in a mild vinegar brine seasoned with onion and sugar.

* Rollmopse: A classic vorspeise , or appetizer, these are simply Bismarcks rolled around a pickle wedge and onion and then marinated in a spiced vinegar. Garnish the drained rollmopse with a fresh sprinkle of minced parsley and eat them with dark bread spread with sweet butter.

* Sauced Herring: One of Ernie’s upright refrigerated cases is almost completely filled with herrings in various sauces. Fried herring in a vinegar sauce or mushroom sauce sits next to herring fillets luxuriating in paprika sauce, mustard sauce, Burgundy sauce, cream-horseradish sauce, tomato sauce or beer sauce. These are neither mere snacks nor the vorspeisen that are served as a first course; with potatoes or a vegetable, sauced herrings serve as a main dish.

* Echte Kieler Sprotten: In a little box with a photograph of tiny, gold-skinned herring packed in oil, come Kiel sprats, one of the world’s most delicious smoked fish products. They take their name from the famous, and still busy, Hanseatic port of Kiel. Packed in soybean oil, the sprats should be well drained and served with minced onion or scallion, tomato and egg wedges and a wonderful beer. Kiel sprats are not sold refrigerated.

HAMS AND BACONS

Cooks all over the Austro-Hungarian Empire used bacon as a flavoring ingredient. Usually they would fry it with onions to make a base for a braised dish, a soup or vegetables. Unfried, the thinly sliced bacon appeared as a cold cut. Ernie’s bacon selection includes the region’s most popular styles.

* Geraucherter Speck: Often called “double-smoked,” this bacon is favored for the intense flavor it develops during a slow, lengthy smoking over wood. Geraucherter speck adds its deep savor to stewed wild mushrooms with tomatoes, a warm potato salad or warm coleslaw seasoned with caraway. Speckknodel soup--Tyrolean bacon dumplings in soup--is another beloved use.

* Kolozsvari Szalona: This Hungarian-style double-smoked bacon originated on the Transylvanian side of Hungary, according to Eva, who works at Ernie’s counter. But, she says, it’s used all over Hungary now.

* Paprikas Szalona: A cured, unsmoked bacon cloaked in paprika, paprikas szalona often adds a whimsical thin red stripe to the cold cut platter on which it is served cold. Eva also likes to dice this bacon and then saute it with onion and scramble it into eggs. She also recommends that both Hungarian-style bacons may be cooked in a microwave on a paper plate (one that’s not plastic-coated).

* Schwarzwalder Landschinken: Schinken , of course, is German for ham. And Ernie’s imported Schwarzwalder Landschinken , or Black Forest ham, is a solid chunk of lean with a snowy mantle of fat to keep it moist. Double-smoked and lengthily aged, Black Forest ham has the most intense smokiness of all German hams. Landschinken is served simply: in thin slices with or without bread.

* Lachschinken: Ham, jambon , schinken --whatever the language, ham comes from the pig’s hindquarter (usually the leanest part of the animal). But every German meat with schinken in its name isn’t necessarily a true ham. Lachschinken , for instance, is a cold-smoked loin eaten as a cold cut. Its buttery-soft texture is completely different from the sturdier Westphalian and Schwarzwalder Landschinken hams.

SAUSAGES

* Weisswurst: “These are called Nurnberger bratwurst in Germany,” Grushka tells me, dangling a pair of white hot dog-shaped sausages above the deli counter. At brotzeit , the Bavarian equivalent of a coffee break, people buy weisswurst at stands, snack shops or their favorite pub. Every city or region in Bavaria has its own weisswurst style. Ernie’s Nurnberger bratwurst (from Nuremberg, naturally), a slightly rough-textured veal and pork mix flecked with parsley, has a fresh, mild flavor. Germans and Austrians never seem to tire of their weisswurst accompanied with the traditional go-withs-- semmel (a bread roll), sweet Bavarian mustard and Weissbier (a very light beer brewed from wheat). Serving weisswurst at the table in a little casserole of simmering water is traditional, but nowadays many cooks like to grill them.

* Bockwurst: Another weisswurst- style veal-and-pork sausage, this one is longer and thicker than the nurnberger style. With its smooth texture and succulent spiciness, bockwurst has been described by sausage magnate Bruce Aidells as “great tavern food.”

* Gyulai Kolbasz: Paprika-laced and lightly smoked, gyulai is king of the Hungarian sausage repertoire. It’s a semi-dry pork sausage that can turn cabbage or potatoes into a savory meal. Gyulai make fine munching sausages too.

* Liverwursts: Ernie’s “boutique” liverwursts are a different animal than the mass-produced variety; they may have you rethinking the traditional sandwich spread. The most luxurious style, goose liverwurst, a rich smooth pate-like roll, combines gently seasoned goose liver and goose fat. Grobe liverwurst (it means coarse or rough liverwurst) is studded with tiny chunks of bacon and lightly smoked.

PICKLES

Ernies gets most of its homemade-style pickles from Krugerman’s, a family-owned, fourth-generation Los Angles company which sells its pickles primarily through specialty shops and delis. Ernie’s carries about eight Krugerman varieties. Among them are:

* Uborka: Hungarian-style pickles strongly spiced with garlic, small whole chiles, branches of dill and bay leaves.

* Senfgurken: German-style mustard pickles that are traditionally made with peeled yellow cucumbers and quantities of whole mustard seeds.

* Frischgurken: A tart-sweet Berlin-style pickle lively with garlic and spicy with mustard seeds and onion.

MUSTARDS

Ernie’s lavish selection of mustards runs the taste gamut from hot to mild to sweet to tangy.

* Bavarian Mustard: Since Ernie’s sells weisswurst , it naturally carries the sweet Bavarian-style mustard that must accompany those sausages. Handlmaier’s is the Bavarian mustard from the city of Regensburg, made with lots of whole seeds.

* Tiroler Krensenf: Packaged in a toothpaste-style tube, Tiroler Krensenf is nicknamed lion’s mustard. It has a slight horseradish kick.

WINES AND SPIRITS

Ernie’s liqueurs, schnapps, fruit brandies, aquavits, eaux de vie and wines come from every corner of the Austro-Hungarian region. “That’s because the people from each area like to drink what they’re familiar with,” says Hess. The shop stocks more than half a dozen styles and brands of plum brandies alone. There is German Zwetschgenwasser, or Black Forest plum brandy; O-Szilvorium, plum brandy from Hungary, and the famous Bosnian Slivovitz made from the large, sweet pozega plum and part of its kernel. Slivovitz gets its dry almond bitterness from the kernel and its amber color from an aging in wood (unlike most clear fruit brandies, which are aged in crockery).

Ernie’s keeps 20 styles of Hungarian wines. Modestly priced red Egri Bikaver, or bull’s blood, and Debroi Harslevelu, a slightly sweet white from the Debro region east of Budapest, sell briskly. Of the dessert wines, the 33-year-old Tokaji Eszencia, in numbered bottles at more than $200 apiece, is the most prestigious. All Tokay wines are produced from grapes infected (or some would say, enhanced) with the botrytis mold that draws off the grape’s moisture, leaving an intensely sweet juice. But the Eszencia is the most condensed of all.

The highly regarded German Steinhager gin, double-junipered and double-distilled, is also part of Ernie’s collection. Restaurateur and German spirits expert Ronald Knoll explains that Steinhager’s production process infuses this distillate with a more pronounced juniper flavor than other gins have. “Steinhager makes a great martini,” he says.

The vodka-like Doppelkornschnapps, often served ice-cold from the freezer--sometimes as a beer chaser--is a wheat-and-rye distillate known to Germans as a type of klarer (clear one). Most klarer are popular in the grain-growing north, while in the south, where fruit trees are abundant, fruit schnapps, or brandies, are favored. Ernie’s no doubt can satisfy both tastes.

One of the most baroque liqueurs at Ernie’s--or probably anywhere--is Danziger Goldwasser. Originally from Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Goldwasser holds sparkly flecks of potable gold leaf that swirl around in its anise-caraway-flavored liqueur. If nothing else, this drink will get the conversation rolling at any lethargic gathering.

EQUIPMENT

* Spatzle Maker: When they tire of potatoes, Austrians often get their carbohydrates from spatzle , a squiggle of cooked dough that’s a cross between a tiny dumpling and a pea-sized noodle. Made from a flour and egg dough and marvelous for soaking up sauce or adding substance to light soups, fresh spatzle can be whipped up in a few minutes and easily formed with the help of a sliding spatzle maker. You simply run the spatzle dough over its surface and the little dough shapes drop below it. Some people prefer to push their dough through a die, so Ernie’s also carries a “press-down” spatzle maker.

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Modern German cooking isn’t all sauerkraut and wurst. This recipe and many others from “The New German Cookbook,” by Jean Anderson and Heady Wurz, is a delicious demonstration.

GREEN BEANS, PEARS AND BACON

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound green beans, tipped and snapped into 1 1/2- to 2-inch lengths

1 pound small, firm-ripe pears, peeled, halved, cored, then sliced crosswise 1/4-inch thick

6 ounces lean double-smoked bacon, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon dried leaf summer savory, crumbled, or 1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme and 1/4 teaspoon marjoram, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley

Bring water and salt to boil in large, heavy saucepan over high heat, then reduce heat to very low. Add beans, layer pears on top, then bacon. Sprinkle evenly with savory and pepper. Cover tightly and simmer 45 minutes.

With heat on low, fruit will soften and vegetables will be crisp. Sprinkle in parsley. Toss well. Ladle into soup plates to serve. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Each of 4 servings contains about:

340 calories; 908 mg sodium; 28 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 2.88 grams fiber.