ZKV8: 'Hotchpotch'

 

HOTCHPOTCH

"Cette sauce de haute qualité est un mélange de fruits  orientaux, d'épices et de vinaigre de 'Malt'. C'est absolument pur,  avec un bon effet stimulant sur la digestion, et ne contient aucune matiere  colorante ni preservative. La sauce ‘HP’ est appétissante et délicieuse  avec les viandes chaudes ou froides: poisson, jambon, fromage, salade,  &c, et pour relever le goût des soupes, hachis, ragoûts, &c.”

 

“This high quality sauce is a blend of Oriental fruits, spices and malt vinegar.

It is absolutely pure, with a stimulating effect on the digestion, and  does not contain any colouring or preservatives. HP sauce is appetizing  and delicious with meats hot or cold, fish, ham, cheese and salad, and  to enhance the flavour of soups, hashes, and stews.”

 

From French hochepot, from hocher (“to shake”) + pot (“pot”);

of Dutch or German origin. Compare Dutch hutspot.

 

Pærevælling sb.

1. [a dish made from milk and pears]

2. (fig. sammensurium) hotchpotch, jumble

 

The label on a bottle of HP Sauce half a century ago used to laud its excellence in English down one side and in French down the opposite. Pa would pick up the bottle and pretend to be translating from French into English. He fooled me for a long time. And ‘Ja, veer harben kine bahnyarn, veer harben kine bahnyarn hoytee,’ was his only conversational gambit in German. He sang it to ‘Yes, we have no bananas.’ Ma stuck to English.

 

Seduced by the sound of languages rather than the sense, I have ended up with seven puzzles of reality jigsawed by craftsmen into deceptively similar pieces in their respective workshops. Each language picture has to be isolated for communication purposes, but when on my own I let them swirl and mingle, sometime short-circuit each other. As no word ever quite corresponds to its supposed counterpiece in another language, I often find myself jamming words into a puzzle that they do not fit. I live in what the Danes call ‘a pear gruel’ of reality. A hotch-potch sauce.