Thursday, August 02, 2012

Young Mr Rot "texts", and drives off a cliff

8 comments:

Mr roT said...

Tecs, don't make me forward the "texts" from the Rumanian.

Tecumseh said...

Not while you're driving.

And it's Romanian, as in Roma --> Roman --> Romanian. Have you gotten around studying these implications?

Mr roT said...

Seems that the arrows indicate derivations, not logickal implickations. Yes, I studied them, but I have my doobts. For example, Katz's spells it my way and their pastrami is the best in the Universe.

You're wrong. Q.E.D.

Tecumseh said...

Far as I remember, that NY deli calls it "Roumanian" pastrami, which is even more absurd than your transliteration as "Rumanian" pastrami.

I first noticed that purported "Roumanian" pastrami way back when I got off the boat at Ellis Island, and made my way to the Lower East Side. I tried the concoction -- not bad, but had nothing to do with the real pastramă, which is usually made from mutton (berbec), or pork (and also other meats, but that's rarer). You should try the real McCoy one of these days. As for the etymology of the word, here it is (with some bad Wiki-English more-or-less fixed):

The word pastramă is etymologically rooted in the Romanian "a păstra", which means "to keep" or "to preserve". But the word is maybe more ancient and comes from the Latin pastor, which means shepherd. So Pastramă is shepherd's meat, thus lamb or mutton.

The Pastramă was introduced by the Romans to the city of Caesarea Mazaca in Anatolia, known as pastron. This recipe may be the origin of pastirma.

In 455 AD the Gepids under king Ardarich conquered Pannonia, and settled for two centuries in Transylvania. The Gepids were destroyed by the attack of the Lombards in 567 AD. At that time, the Lombards discovered pastramă, konwn as bresaola.


So you see, Herr Rot, those damn Lombards stole some quintessentially Romanian notions, and tried to pass them for their own. But they don't fool me.

Of course, you should also learn that the correct way to grill the berbec is on a BBQ (evidently, berbec => barbecue), preferably on the BBQ perfected by Coanda.

And that's the lesson for the day.

Tecumseh said...

A codicil:

The Pastramă was introduced to the United States in a wave of Romanian Jewish immigration from Romania in the second half of the 19th century. Early references in English used the spelling "pastrama", closer to the Romanian original. The modified "pastrami" spelling likely was introduced to sound related to the Italian salami.

Jeez. Why did you have to mess up the correct spelling, once again, Herr Rott? Real pastramă has nothing to do with salami. And the best salami, of course, is the salam de Sibiu. And everyone knows that pastramă and salam are not supposed to rhyme. Duh.

Mr roT said...

Holy shit! I saw the picture at wiki of the "chicken pastrami" and I was close to hurling. This should be illegal.

Mr roT said...

After his death in 1943, Filippo Dozzi confided to his son, Giuseppe Antonio Dozzi, the secret of Sibiu sausages.
You Rumanians as usual had to rely on Wop brains to do your inventing for you. Coanda was a Roumanian and so the thermojet engine and ciorbă de sfeclă were fettuccine inventions, really.
BTW, Mrs. Tecs once made a wonderful white borsch while I was visiting your house for CD indoctrination. It was deliciously sour. Tell her that I remember it and thank her again. It was great.

Mr roT said...

Another reliance on imported Wop neurons. Seems that it could be good, that pizza, yes?