The secret of Sama-Sama
Within the storybook setting of Munich’s Old City lies a veritable dream world of an entirely different sort, a place where the intoxicating aromas of rich chocolate and exotic fruits and flowers are powerful enough to halt the most hurried of pedestrians in their tracks. If this were a Saturday morning cartoon, there’d be long, wavy lines floating through the air, leading you by the nose to Sama-Sama. The stunning display of confectionery in the window of this unique specialty shop could easily be mistaken for an art exhibition. Iridescent candied flower petals, glittering sugars, plump dates, bright shards of dried mango and pineapple, assorted nuts and fine chocolate ribbons are some of the elements used in the spectacular compositions. Inside the cool, dimly lit shop a woman stands behind the counter rolling out cranberry marzipan and assembling her latest creation. “I work as people did 150 or 300 years ago,” says owner Wilhelmina Raabe. Using only natural ingredients she makes everything by hand, adding exotic infusions to basic marzipan and nougat for her signature sweetmeats. The Sama-Sama repertoire includes over 120 varieties of sweetmeat (about 40 of which are available daily), numerous other confections, dried and candied fruit, fresh juices and dozens of exotic imports like red banana trees, miniscule physalis in their papery jackets, dimpled passion fruits, yellow watermelon and spiky-skinned, malodorous durian. With so many exotic ingredients at hand, how does Raabe know which flavors to combine in her seductive sweets? She says she relies on her imagination, which must be exceptional given the results and Raabe’s own claim never to have tasted one of her own creations. “I have all my recipes in my head and I know exactly how they taste,” she says, “but I can’t eat them, I won’t allow myself to.” This seems a little hard to believe, but Raabe claims it’s the trick to her success. Once a new sweetmeat has been produced, Raabe chooses ten or twelve customers she knows and probes them for feedback, tweeking the recipe if necessary. Whether she’s up to her elbows in nougat, constructing a wedding cake or quietly tending to a delivery of Costa Rican flowers, Raabe’s passion for her work is obvious. “What fascinates me the most,” she explains, pruning a pink Prince of Darkness, a flower she says is related to the banana, “is the beauty of nature.” Out of that fascination and her desire to give her customers both pleasure and surprise, Raabe has forged something that evaded her in her previous work: what she calls “the most beautiful means of communication and exchange.” She trims a centimeter from the stalk of the meter-high flower and holds it out to be sniffed. The scent of ripe banana wafts through the air. Raabe only fleetingly mentions the years she spent in the catering industry, clearly preferring to talk about the little corner of paradise that she and husband, Karl-Heinz, have so painstakingly created. Encouraged to offer some idea of how the concept of Sama-Sama evolved (the name is inspired by an Indonesian expression that roughly translates as “all of us together”), the Munich native briefly summarizes her résumé. Flexing the muscles in one arm, she recalls serving countless Mass of beer as an Oktoberfest waitress. She also worked in the hotel trade, but eventually tired of night shifts. In the late 1980s the Raabes opened a stand at the Viktualienmarkt—and it was then that the making of Sama-Sama truly began. Like the other vendors, the couple sold common European produce, but their fascination with the exotic blossomed as they began traveling to destinations like Southeast Asia. Soon they were introducing exotic fruit at the market. “We started out very small,” she admits: five papayas, a jackfruit, a few coconuts and mangoes nestled among the familiar apples and pears. “It was a new experience for the customers,” she recalls. However the outdoor conditions were not always kind to Raabe’s fragile products, which she says, “You have to handle as if they were little children.’’ In 1996, dismayed by regulations prohibiting the sale of their jewel-like confectionery at the Viktualienmarkt, the Raabes opened Sama-Sama on the nearby Westenriederstrasse. They've never looked back. Today her son Tobias is also active in the family business and Wilhelmina Raabe says she would like to expand Sama-Sama. She has considered opening a second shop in Munich or another city, but if she had her way—and found the right partners—she says she would start a franchise in New York or London, where she already has a few customers to whom she ships orders. “I’d love to have a presence at Harrod’s,” she admits. A lofty goal, perhaps, but Raabe has already proven that she can work magic. Sama-Sama, Westenriederstrasse 21; Tel. (089) 29 16 33 79; open Mon.–Fri., 10 am–6 pm; Sat. 8 am–4 pm