Magyar News, 1991. szeptember-1992. augusztus (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1992-04-01 / 8. szám
PAPRIKA There are certain words that we use almost daily, words that are identical to a nation. Amigo is Spanish, Sholom is Jewish, and we know we are using French when we write on an invitation RSVP. For Hungarian there is an unmistakable word that you may say anywhere in the world and that is: paprika. Well neither the word nor the famous red pepper started out as Hungarian, but as it happens to many things, the Hungarians made it into someihing that the world could put on a pedestal and give credit to the Hungarians and nobody else. In the following few chips of the Hungarian Mosaic I will lead you along the hardly traceable, zig-zagging trail of the Hungarian paprika from it’s origin, the legends, through the fantastic ingredients and qualities, and at the end we will cook something with it. While we will be enjoying our meal we will tell you about a famous character, Paprika Jancsi. But first, let us start with a famous person who is well known to us, Christopher Columbus. His discovery of America in our modem times had great significance. Along with the effects it had on history, tobacco, coffee, cocoa and Jamaica pepper were brought in the hull of his ships. Columbus’ ship surgeon considered the pepper to be an interesting, exotic plant, which might perhaps prove of value in medicine. He mentioned that the natives used it as a condiment. This revelation didn’t make an impression on the amateur botanists who spread the paprika plants to all western and central European botanical gardens of the 16th century. György Lippay, Cardinal of Esztergom, had a fine summer residence in Pozsony with extensive and lovely gardens laid around it. Among the multitude of rare and exotic plants the paprika occupied only a modest place. In 1585 Clusius, the court botanist of Emperor Maximilian touring Central Europe wrote about plantations of capsicum, or Indian Pepper in the northern part, but did not make mention of it in the southern region. Some researchers say that a thousand and five hundred years before Columbus the paprika was already present in Europe. This statement is based on a book written by the family doctor of the Roman Emperor Nero. Under the designation of Piper Longum et Rotundum he described a pepper plant identical to the paprika. The name paprika isn’t too much help. The plant that arrived to Spain in the 15th century was called pimiento, and the Spanish name for it today is pimenton. Not much of a change. When it arrived to Italy it took it’s name after pepper and was called peperi or piperi. The Greek merchants took the peperi and sold it to the Slavic people living on the Balkan peninsula who named it peperki, piperke or paprika. Since the Hungarians spoke their own language, in the next step, they baptized the peperi and gave it their name: Paprika. Today this is not only a Hungarian name, but the only one used in all the languages of the world. With all this investigation, I didn’t lay a straight track for the paprika, and I left out such confusing facts as it originated somewhere in India at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains. I have a feeling that the scholars seem to agree that the paprika plant spread from the West to the East, but as a spice or condiment it conquered Europe from the south and the East The only reason for the paprika to zigzag around the world was to find Hungary and the Hungarians may be because the paprika was originally created to be Hungarian. (CMB) TO THE READER The Magyar News is given out free. You may pick it up at the Hungarian Churches and at some businesses. If you would like to have it delivered to your home, please send self-addressed, stamped envelopes to our address. If you are a paid-up member of the American Hungarian Heritage Association, for an extra $5.00 fee you will receive it to your home for a year without sending in envelopes. We also encourage our readers to send in news and articles to be published. We would like to see your contributions that will help produce this publication. ERESZD EL A HAJAMAT This expression is for the good times. If you want to translate it, you might say: I’ll let my hair down. It’s not the same, but it is close enough. Besides, the tradition I want to mention is not as wild, it’s just a hell-ofa-good time. And that is what we had in February at the Holy Trinity Hall on Scofield Avenue. It was a dinner dance, a pork supper, a Disznótoros Vacsora. It is an annual tradition at the Holy Trinity Church, going back probably close to a hundred years. Though it is not a religious activity, we consider it a vision given by higher-ups, and we know that blessing is on it. It is true that many Hungarians forgot their ancestors’ language, and many other things. But to have food in a real Hungarian style, and the proper music that twirls you out to the dance-floor is an experience that every Hungarian enjoys. As a matter of fact, anybody else, too. Thanks to the ladies of Holy Trinity and the organizers for keeping a good Hungarian tradition alive. MANY PEOPLE WISH FOR THIS SHOE During the winter Olympics many of us wonder where the people get their equipment For outstanding performance, they should have the best. Here and there one could pick out a name of a brand, or recognize names on equipment or on the clothing. But whoever thinks about the shoes that the skaters wear. It seems too evident that it comes with the blades. This is what we are used to. Well we are wrong. You have to go to Toronto, Canada, where an elderly man with a heavy accent custom-makes the skating shoes for most of the professional skaters. But only if they put the order in time, have the measurements taken, and be happy that their request was heard. An elderly lady has control over the hundreds of boxes containing the orders, measurements and the special lasts. She keeps the orders in proper order, and she too has a heavy accent. They are Hungarians and everybody in the skating world knows them and envies those who are lucky enough to wear the shoes they make. % First Opel rolls in Hungary t» i £ SZENTGOTTHARD, Hungary — The first §. gleaming while Opel Astra rolled off the assembly w line at General Motors’ new Hungarian plant "g Friday amid a general feeling that what’s good for ^ GM is good for Hungary, g Prime Minister József Antall said the plant’s w I first car symbolized Hungary’s economic rebirth. “This is a great day in our lives to see the first Opel manufactured in Hungary,” he said at the inauguration of the plant, where a huge GM balloon hung over the gate. Ernst Hofmann, who heads the auto manufacturer’s Hungarian operations, agreed, saying: “This is a milestone not only for GM Hungary and GM Europe, but also for Hungary.” General Motors and Hungary’s Raba Factory established a joint venture in January 1990 to manufacture engines and assemble cars. GM has invested $193 million in the venture.
