Did the pork dumpling look like a colorful cube for pensioners? Even a sick person can eat food

Diakonie Krabčice is located about five kilometers from Roudnice nad Labem and at the foot of the memorial Říp mountains. A rather unconventional home for the elderly can be found in a large complex of renovated buildings and greenery. Just because it’s called “Home for our parents”. The name also symbolizes the approach to clients, as a generation that allowed the current productive generation to grow.

Here, they strive for the greatest possible self-sufficiency of seniors and involve them in meaningful activities from cooking to gardening to balls. As big as possible he tries to maintain self-sufficiency in food as well and they came up with their own invention, the so-called crab boxes, which they are now patenting. Most people have a hard time when they depend on others to help them eat and have to be fed. Such consumption does not bring them any joy and they prefer to limit it.

Masaryk University sociologist Lucie Vidovičová positively evaluates the lunch formed into a colorful layered cube:

The crab cakes look like they are from a four-star hotel, the sociologist praises the dish

It is similar to those who suffer from swallowing difficulties and would be dependent only on mixed and unattractive dishes. “The idea originated in the boarding house of my friend Miroslav Tatka in the Beskydy Mountains. We had an outing session with other heads of homes there and were looking for a way to adjust food for people with swallowing difficulties. He was intrigued and began to play with the pulverized food so that it still looked like a tempting meal and not a shapeless mush. And also so that people can eat it themselves, even if they no longer eat with cutlery,” says Aleš Gabrysz, director of the Krabčice Diakonie center.

Director of the Diakonie center in Krabčice Aleš Gabrysz.Source: Diary/ Zuzana Hronová

Together with Tatka, he developed a method where each part of the course is layered into a mold and with the help of starch or gelatin, the individual layers are connected and held together. After the shock cooling and subsequent reheating of the food, for example in the microwave oven, the client can enjoy rice with meat and sauce or perhaps steak with potatoes in the form of a colorful and tempting-looking cut.

“However, we are still solving the problem that the food looks tempting, but does not resemble the original dish. Then you don’t know what you’re going to bite into,” the Krabčice director points out a possible weakness.

It looks like a dessert, but it’s not a dessert

Direct service manager Marcela Jeníková shows a cube in the photo, which has red cabbage with gelatin on top, mixed meat in the middle and mixed semolina gnocchi as an alternative to dumplings. “It looks like dessert. Some therefore look forward to biting into a raspberry slice. Then they are disappointed because they really like sweets,” he describes his experience.

They did not give up and gradually found dishes that, even after being made into a crab cake, look like the original food: potatoes with cauliflower, pasta with meat and sauce, risotto, lecho with potatoes.

Carrot salad can also be eaten with your hands. Aleš Gabrysz shows a picture of an orange cube, most reminiscent of the famous Amaroons from the series Visitors. It is a mixed carrot with a little gelatin. They also use the form of crab cubes for breakfast. For example, Bavarian muffins can be squeezed into a handsome three-color cube with a layer of dough, jam and cream.

According to the director, the preparation is not expensive, all you need is a blender and a shocker (food shock cooler, editor’s note), and the only ingredients are gelatin, agar or starch. It takes a little time to prepare, but you work with raw materials that are served in a different form to other clients. “It also helps us more easily check how much a given person has eaten. If for example two cubes, one or half. And we know how much one portion is,” explains manager Jeníková.

At the Home for Seniors in Zastávka in Brno, a professional nutritional therapist handles the diet and nutrition of each client:

Lunch is a social event here. In the retirement home in Zastávka, they also cook on request

Out of the hundred meals served, they prepare crab cakes for five people. Still, it’s worth it to them. “We don’t care how people eat here, how they feel. For them, diet is very important, and managing it yourself is also a matter of self-esteem. The more things they can do on their own, the more their self-esteem and zest for life rises,” explains director Gabrysz.

Together with Tatka, he now organizes workshops throughout the country, where chefs homes for the elderly teaches to produce this novelty. There is a lot of interest, most events fill up in no time. And in the same way that the mountain Říp gained fame thanks to the great-grandfather Čech, the village under Říp can become famous for the forefather of lunch in a box.