Ring E: Making meat pasties Teonaht style

I came after Pete Bleakley in Ring E, who followed Sylvia, who followed Amanda.
So here is mine, and I'd be interested in knowing how it changed the Relay.
I've omitted the Teonaht grammar and glossary for length:

Contents:

I.                   Text and smooth translation of Teonaht

II.                Smooth translation of Kangathyagon (can't make the thorn in WORD)

III.             Remarks about my translations.

VI.              About Teonaht cuisine

 

 

I.  Rin tezzekran kwa mehdom kwecyrem 

 

Gnadol toil zoyzod esy reffodma:

 

                        ömharodnad

                        secelnarböv

                        pövöbor

                        tönöhemlykan

 

[Syl refod esy harym krespr: ______________________]**

 

Toil kraiman, aibban esy uen: feftkryem, memwa, eylya, noyril-jo.  

 

Toil zoyzod nadolihs, aibban esy uen: syl gnadol tsobreffodma uo temna kwecyb,
glenvro, eylya moyl, noyril, imffipryokryeem laz, niffarantönö, kömin,
ömhhsara ilid melssryka-jo. Poto tritib.

 

[?Nirrefod ouar to nilirity pom 'r sed?  Esy harym krespr:  _____________________]**

 

Li kraiman: rin anekin toil kraiman mrelmarem; rin mabbamban minka ev syl namo
hadharem; rinad ta korin myeer ta syl uennamo hdo mohs nisimrem.

 

Li zoyzod nadolihs: rin anekin nadolihs cely rekod nakuorem (ary emy doribint);
rin öndyk ömzzoyzod cely taso korin kraimanihs nakuorem; rinil hrenin ilid
kraiman to taiso somarem uo ad mrelmöfmarem.

 

Rinad cely kesrol tsobeylyama, send celyil vwarik esy nakuo ary orwemaht twav. To
enyverem temna lal!

 

 

 



SMOOTH TRANSLATION OF THE TEONAHT:

 

"How to Cook Tezzekran (meat or vegetable pasties)"

 

Choose your meat:

 

            rabbit

            blue snail

            smoke mushroom

            chestnut

 

[Write your choice here: ________________________]**

 

For the dough, take the following:  flour, water, oil, and sea salt.

 

For the meat stew, take the following: your meat selected and already cooked,
onion, olive oil, sea salt, powdered white pepper, farranty seeds, cumin, and
lemon juice. All cut up.

 

[Do you have other spices?  Write here: ____________________]**

 

The dough: combine the ingredients for the dough, make little balls with your
hand; press them into thin disks as big as your palm.

 

The meat stew: place the meat ingredients in a saucepan (until almost hot); put a
spoonful of the stew into every dough disk; gather up the edges of the dough of
each [disk] and pinch them together.

 

Put them in a greased casserole, and place them in the oven until they are golden.
Then are they ready to eat!

 

** About the bracketed sentences: in transmitting this text to the next
participant in the Relay, I suggested to Jonathan that he may translate what he
had chosen for a meat, or offer similar choices of a meat or spices, or those
of his own creation. Of course no one should really try any of this at home, or
if one does, have some discretion about the amounts!

 

 

 

II. SMOOTH TRANSLATION OF THE NOBLE KANGATHYAGON (an attempt)

 

"How to cook meat pasties (or meat pies, or pizza)"

 

Make dough out of white flour, oil, salt, and water. Put it aside. (lit. place the
things elsewhere)

Cut cooked meat and onion, spices, and a small quantity of salt into small pieces.

Make the dough into balls the size of a nut.  [so not one big pizza]

Flatten the balls so they become round [circular?] and are the size of your hand.

Put balls [of the?] meat mixture into contact with [-ebgriamar?] all the round things.

Put a round thing [sg]  into contact with [-ebgriamar] all the round things, putting them together.

[i.e., put caps of dough on the pressed containers of meat-filled dough, making a pasty?]

 

Put the things into an oven and cook them until they are golden brown.  

At that moment they will be ready to eat.

 

 

III. REMARKS ABOUT MY TRANSLATIONS

 

Well I had to go and complicate, things, didn't I? It was smooth sailing in K.
until I hit the part about how the meat and the dough were supposed to go
together. K. is an agglutinative language with strings of suffixes that,
combined, have idiomatic meanings that were not explained, unfortunately, in
Peter's presentation to me. So I assumed that

-ebgriamar had something to do with connecting one thing to another. I know the British
meat pasties are a little bit like dough pots with lids on them, containing the
meat mixture inside, but to simplify things I made them more like pierogis. And
then I forgot the well-worn cooking expression "set it aside." You're always
making something and then setting it aside while you make something else. And
then I forgot that the balls of dough were supposed to be the size of a NUT
(nuts come in a variety of sizes and shapes). And then, to complicate things,
because I'm an obsessive cook, I felt it necessary to add that the pasties go
in a greased casserole (so they won't burn they're little bottoms), and then,
for further complication, I decided to offer the next player a variety of
special "meats" for the pasty. "Meat" seemed a little general. And then, adding
to the spices. well, we'll see what concoction this turns into. Not for the
weak of stomach!

 

 

VI.   ABOUT TEONAHT CUISINE:

 

 

Since the Teonim travel regularly back and forth between this and their world, they
bring distinctive foods to the table. Other conlang cultures may have their own
distinctive cuisine, so I'm interested in seeing whether the ingredients will
change in the transmission of this text. Here, however, is a sense of what some
of these foods from Teon are:

 

1) Harod. The Teonim edible rabbit is raised, grazed, and allowed to feed on a
variety of vegetables that give it its distinctive flavor. Rabbit meat in a
tezzekra often consists of the heart and liver chopped up as well, both of
these organs large and tender. The edible harod is usually the size of a
Pomeranian, and has short ears, large dark eyes, and golden fur (but no curly
tail!). They have a ferocious nature which makes them poor pets--probably a
good thing. The name is taken from the English "hare," which in Teonaht covers
all rabbits.

2) Fipryokryeem laz is the pulverized seed of the white peppercorn, prized for
its heat and subtle flavor. You find it in English cooking, usually on a fried
egg in the morning. The Teonim have borrowed this food as well.

3) The Teonim are a little generous in their notion of what gnadol is, and often
extend it to mushrooms (which seem fleshy and alive to them) and some nuts.

4) Niffarantönö are the bitter seeds made from the farranty plant, which
enhance memory; the memories that diners say are enhanced are usually sexual,
but that may be the combination of the seeds and the wine. The "bitterness" of
the seeds are likened to that of bitter chocolate, with a hint of charcoal.

5) Nipövöbor are called "smoke mushrooms" because of their distinctively smoky
flavor, and they have the added quality of enhancing smell and taste, but
unlike MSG they have no unpleasant side-effects. They are a favorite at dinner
parties.

6) The blue land snails of Menarila are quite large, and everything about them is
blue, including their flesh, which is quite dark. The shells are prized for
their blue and purple streaks. The flesh is more flavorful than most escargot,
having a sweeter taste to it that has been compared to lobster.

7) Tönöhemlykan. This is the common chestnut, which resembles one half of the
brain to the Teonim, and are considered intelligence-enhancing. The fleshy
nature of this nut makes it a "meat" for them, as well as its resemblance to
half a brain (when peeled), and they are often included in tezzekran and other
mixtures.

 

In general, though, Teonaht cooking draws from Europe and Asia, and from their
native land; but since we can't get those items, we try to recreate Teonaht
cooking by using lemon or lime in just about EVERYTHING, including zested lemon
and lime and orange peel, and of course lemongrass; favoring cilantro, nutmeg,
and cumin as spices and coconut milk in sauces; using powdered white pepper as
a seasoning because it adds gentle heat with gentle taste--occasionally
chipotle or green chili; and making very small servings frequently served,
which is why this recipe is so perfect. The Teonim have their version of tapas
or hors d'oeuvres (called nisytamarp) especially between 10am and 2pm. The
tezzekra is one of them, which they call a selib ("filling"). Other fillings
are avocado skins with avocado salads in them; potato skins with potato salads
in them; papaya, orange, and grapefruit skins with fruit salads in them;
deviled eggs of COURSE (including duck, goose, and ostrich egg); stuffed
peppers a la Teonaht, etc.

 

An in-progress recipe page can be found at:

 

http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/recipes.html