Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/494

except as the designation of a milk-shake more satisfactory to the prohibitionist and certainly not made of mare’s or camel’s milk, is almost unknown in America, despite its inclusion in our lexicons. Borsch (transliterated from a Little Russian word) is an insipid soup made with beet juice. An enterprising housekeeping magazine has lately endeavored to introduce borsch to the American natives; I have eaten it with Polish Jews, but doubt if Bohemians know what it is, and am pretty certain the soup would appeal to the average Czech as little as it did to me.

An Anglicized Hungarian word, goulash, listed in our dictionaries, has been popularized in this country by Bohemians rather than by the Hungarians themselves. The Czechs spell it gulaš, but quite frequently it is pronounced kuláš, American restaurants often have “Hungarian goulash” on their bills-of-fare, but the article served is generally a poor imitation of the delectable product of the Bohemian kitchen: real gulaš, a ragout of meat, highly seasoned with red pepper, garlic and onions, ^[1] is very much in favor with Czechs everywhere. Incidentally, one of the ingredients is paprika, Hungarian for a particular kind of red pepper. The Bohemian language has adopted the word bodily, as has English, and many American grocers, because of the frequency with which paprika is demanded by Czech housewives, are under the impression that it is a Bohemian word.

While on the subject of things articles of Bohemian bakery, culinary, I am reminded that two much relished by Americans living in Bohemian communities, have no English names; consequently, the Czech words for them are known, at least to a limited extent, wherever they must be used for lack of an English equivalent. These are koláč and rohlík. A koláč is a kind of small tart, usually round (kolo, a wheel, circle,) made with a variant of bread dough, and filled or topped, before baking, with jam or preserve. The favorite filling is a typical Czech marmalade made of dried prunes and known as povidla. This is freshly prepared on each occasion. Sometimes curd, sweetened and flavored, or a cinnamon and sugar mixture, is used; another filling, which however has not proved so acceptable to the American palate, is boiled poppy seeds, highly sweetened. Almost unlimited variations are introduced by the inventive Bohemian housewife into the preparation of koláče. Most Americans living in Bohemian