Csardas (1850); Gnocchi (1875)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Tue Nov 12 04:43:01 UTC 2002


   A few more items before I find people guilty of running red lights.

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MEMOIRS OF A HUNGARIAN LADY
by Theresa Pulszky
in two volumes
London: Henry Colburn
1850

VOLUME ONE
Pg. 55:  In their Csardas (their national dance), they being by meeting and retreating, like two gallant adversaries in the lists of a tournament; but when at last they join, they turn together with such swiftness as if carried off by a hurricane.
(OED has 1860 for "czardas," the Hungarian national dance--ed.)

Pg. 59:  ...the poppy seed dressed up into a pudding _makos macsik_ is highly relished, and forms the regular Christmas dish.  In Germany there is no Christmas without a tree; in Hungary there is none without _makos macsik_.

Pg. 67:  Their cellar is provided with wine, and the ample tub with _kaposzta_ (pickled-cabbage), an indispensable ingredient in every Hungarian household.

Pg. 105:  *Bunda is the fur of a sheep's skin, the inseparable ornament and comfor of the Hungarian peasant.  It is his cloak, and in case of need, his bed.

Pg. 155:  *Csarda is a tavern on the wide plain in Lower Hungary resembling a "Khan" in eastern countries.


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RAMBLES IN ISTRIA, DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO
by R. H. R.
in one volume
London: Hurst and Blackett
1875

Pg. 93:  ...we shall take a _granita di caffee_ (a water-ice flavoured with coffee), and study the moving panorama before us,...

Pg. 145:  We first had an excellent Julienne soup, with abundance of grated Parmesan for such as appreciated it; next was served the "_fritto_," according to old Italian custom, which always enumerates the (Pg. 146--ed.) following dishes, to succeed each other in an orthodox dinner:--minestra, fritto, lesso, umido, arrosto, dolce, frutta, and. when in season, slices of melon, or fresh figs, to be eaten with thin slices of raw ham or Bologna sausage.  (...)
   The _fritto_ was delicious (assuredly nowhere else can they fry as in Italy); it consisted of zucchettine and fiori, _i.e._, young expanded gourd flowers and very young gourds not bigger than an egg, cut in thin slices, dipped in the thinnest of batter and fried quite crisp and golden brown, and served dry without a particle of grease.  Then came a dish of _gnocchi alla Milanese_, a superb dish, but difficult to explain; imagine the ingredients of a colassal _vol-au-vent a la financiere_, replete with livers, cocks' combs, unborn eggs, &c., &c., surrounded by a bastion of a peculiar preparation, made of maize-flour, and the whole bathed in tomato sauce and (Pg. 147--ed.) sprinkled right over with grated Parmesan, "_proprio do far riavere i morti_," as the _chef_ exclaimed to me after dinner, when, handing him a cigar, I complimented him on his gnocchi.  Then came the _arrosto_ which consisted of veal and fowls, and after that a splendid _piatto dolce_ of stewed peaches in an artistic cage of caramel sugar, ornamented with strange devices of most delicious marzapane.
(I found "gnocchi" in 1867 in BAEDEKER, but this 1875 adds to that.  OED and M-W have the 1890s--ed.)

Pg. 202:  I remember it was, though I was not minding it much, being occupied at the time with listening to a man performing on the national instrument, the _guzla_ (pronounced goozla), whilst a girl was singing a low, monotonous, plaintive air.

Pg. 232:  We now all withdrew to the drawing-room for coffee and tea, _a la Russe_, without cream and with a slice of lemon.

Pg. 252:  They export immense quantities of a small dried fish "_scoranza_," much used in the neighbouring Catholic and Greek countries during their religious feasts;...

Pg. 253:  Castradina (dried mutton and goat hams), honey, wax, goat and kid skins to any amount, as also martin, fox, and hare skins, together with many substances I have forgotten.



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