Magyar Hírek, 1983 (36. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1983-09-17 / 18-19. szám
Obviously, many young people will ask: what’s the use of learning Hungarian ? True, Hungarian is not a world-language. Let me mention only two points, one a little abstract, and the other more practical. “Anybody able to speak two such different languages as the Swedish and the Hungarian” said a Swedish friend, “who becomes acquainted with two such different cultures will acquire considerable intellectual mobility, which will profit him whatever career he may chose.” The practical argument is that young people of the second or third generation will understand what their relatives say and will get to know Hungarians, and through them the country, better. Children are grouped according to the level of their mastery of the language at the camps, thus there is no need to fear that they will be perhaps isolated because speaking only a few words of Hungarian. The variety of camps was improved by a new site this year. Some children of Hungarian origin were taken to Baja, on the shores of the Danube, some distance south of Budapest. The Baja college is situated in pleasant surroundings, beside the Sugovica, a dead arm of the Danube. The Baja course differs from the one at Sárospatak in t hat there were also Hungarian children living in Hungary here, who wanted to learn English with the help of children of Hungarian origin who came from Anglo-Saxon countries, and of English children from England. The experiment proved successful, it seems that this way does not handicap the learning of Hungarian, indeed, the children of Hungarian origin took pleasure repaying for the three weeks spent there with some English conversation. ISTVÁN BALÁZS PHOTO: ISTVÁN BALÁZS A GALLERY ON CASTLE HILL ART GALERIE Amerigo Tot, the Hungarian sculptor who lives in Rome had a 200 year old house reconstructed in the Castle district of Buda in 1982. The gallery of the Creative Community of Copper Engravers was established in this house, at Táncsics utca 5. This is a gallery in the commercial sense of the word, where the works are not only exhibited, but also sold. The top story is the new Budapest home of Amerigo Tot, while the lower two floors house the exhibition halls, with the works of art, consisting primarily of drawings, etchings, water-colours. The Creative Community was established in 1950. Soon after the Second World War artists came to realize that they had to turn to a new section of the public in the changed economic and social situation, and win over people to the appreciation of the arts, most of whom very likely had never been to a museum before. The foundation of a community of artists, which would jointly keep up a studio and workshop, which would act as an agent for the buying of materials and the selling of the works offered itself. Jenő Barcsay, Miklós Borsos, Béni Ferenczy, Lajos Szalay, Károly Reich, Vladimir Szabó, Endre Szász, and many others of the best Hungarian artists did not passively wait for buyers. They also realized that copper engravings were a relatively inexpensive art form, which could find its wav easily to the walls of even the most modest homes for that very reason. Since then many artists joined the original founders, Amerigo Tot being one of the most recent of them. The old workshop in Szondi utca on the Pest side is still in use, but the Táncsics utca premises give a home to a representative gallery in the district most frequented by tourists in Budapest, where passers by can go in to view and buy. The basic principle of the Creative Community is to exhibit only good works. Whatever one can see and buy there is of lasting value, available for a comparatively modest price. The Gallery held exhibitions in 1982 also at the London Bankside Gallery, and in the exhibition room of the Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford on Avon. ÁGNES SZÉCHY PHOTO: JENŐ BOROS Hungarian cooking offers a rich range of spicy and nourishing soups .The tastiest of them all is, perhaps, the favourite bean soup of the last-century novelist, Mór Jókai, which bears his name. The soup was created by Jókai’s wife, Róza Laborfalvi, celebrated actress and member of the Hungarian National Theater. By all accounts she was a remarkable housewife too. Jókai told her — so the story goes — that he would like to have a soup richer than the usual bean soup which was prepared with smoked shanks and without vegetables. So she added some carrot and parsnip as well and topped it off with sour cream to make the soup “really rich”. Jókai was delighted and the bean soup bearing his name has become one of the standard dishes in Hungarian cooking. Ingredients: 500 grammes of smoked shanks (or some other smoked pork), 300 grammes of mottled beans, 3—4 carrots, 3 parsnips, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2 table spoonfuls of cooking oil, 20 grammes of flour, 1 level teaspoonful of ground red paprika, 5 grains of black pepper, a few drops of vinegar, and 200 grammes of sour cream for dressing. JÓKAI BEAN SOUP Doing enamel work in camp Place the well-washed shank of pork in a pot with the beans, cover them with water, and leave to soak overnight. Next day add the cleaned, sliced carrots, and parsnips, the garlic and the black pepper, and cook the lot on a slow flame, covered with a lid, until the meat and the beans are tender. No salt is needed, for the meat is salty. The cooked shank of pork is then placed on a chopping board, boned and cut into small cubes. Take a small pan, and let the finely chopped onion fry in it, in the oil. Add the flour, and brown the mixture to a golden yellow. Now sprinkle the ground red pepper and immediately dilute the mixture with a glass of cold water. Stir it fast to avoid lumpiness, and add the smooth mixture to the soup. Place the cubed meat back into the pot, add a few drops of vinegar, and boil the lot for 3—4 minutes. Pour the sour cream into a turreen, and pour on the soup. Stirring constantly to make sure that the sour cream dissolves smoothly. . _ ANGÉLA F. NAGY PHOTO: BÉLA LISCINSZKY
