Word: metternichs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...apple pie a la mode.†† The champion was a writer for Budapest's Communist daily Vilagossag, who (he related in his column) recently walked into a "people's restaurant" and promptly had his appetite ruined by an item on the menu called Tournedos a, la Metternich.*Nor was this all. Austria's great conservative statesman, "this symbol of European reaction," was joined on the menu by a symbol of British imperialism-Veal Steak a la Nelson^-and one of Hungary's famous feudal families-Beef Steak Esterhdzy.- There were other dishes whose names...
...they either could not understand or which called up memories to turn any decent proletarian stomach. "Competent quarters should take to heart this piece of advice-a restaurant filled with workers is of more value than a 'bonne femme' in the company of Prince Esterhazy or Prince Metternich." Furthermore, it simply did not make sense "that a dish of veal should have five different names, each of which is priced higher according to its unintelligibility...
Culinary nomenclature subtly manages to convey certain historic sidelights. Metternich, whose name on any menu stands for paprika, was a firm enemy of Hungarian nationalism but a great lover of Hungary's national spice. The Esterhazy family, gastronomic historians aver, oscillated for centuries between opulence and (relative) frugality: one generation would have to economize by eating things like beefsteak a la Esterhazy (made from a cheaper cut of meat) because their heedless fathers had eaten too many Tournedos a la Metternich...
...proper. He taught history with an actor's skill. Looking majestically out into space, he would boom a few sentences, then pause, then boom out again. Sometimes he would wrap his double-breasted coat close around him as if it were a cloak and seem to become Disraeli, Metternich or Bismarck himself. Even his prolonged "Aahhs . . ." ("A miracle of breath control," one student called them) seemed dramatic. Once, in the midst of his pacings, he fell right off his platform. Nobody laughed, for fear of breaking his spell...