When will gypsy sauce be banned?
Not to make things too difficult for impatient readers: soon, very soon.
For years, the dispute has been smouldering, not among the producers of culinary foodstuffs, as the Saucenpanscher are officially called in their own association, as to who holds the copyright to the designation, but among the representatives of the ethnic groups. In 2013, an association in Hanover started a campaign to abolish the name, which has been in use since 1903, or at least to rename it in a value-neutral way. The leadership of the Yenish in Germany distanced itself at the time on the grounds that the name had already been established before the National Socialist seizure of power and the suffering of the Jews, Sinti and Roma by the Nazis.
Opinion about this has changed among the German population
Now, the obligation to accompany every order in the snack bar with a detailed receipt of consumption has set the ball rolling again. What if a Traveller wants to eat a spicy tomato sauce with peppers, onions and mushrooms in an establishment of fast cuisine completely in the spirit of his origin and comes across a designation he would not expect by suggestion of the proprietor? Gypsy schnitzel! What is it made of? From the side slice of a fellow traveller, breaded and fried in hot fat? But no, the Wiener Schnitzel is not made from the inhabitants of a European capital or, like the hamburger, from the body parts of inhabitants of the port city that have been put through a meat grinder - although one is not sure about that.
Preventing escalation, the UN intervenes
In order not to make the discussion worse, the obvious analogy of the origin of the dog/apple pie was abandoned and the focus shifted to the vegetable in question. While mushrooms are not a vegetable, the paprika felt discriminated against to be literally lumped together with the Balkan region. It was hastily decided in the General Assembly that, upon request, any organic material would be recognised as a nation and given a seat at the United Nations.
Representatives of Onion House, Paprika Land and Aubergine are now sitting in their own committees to finally clarify where they actually come from and whether the restriction to dishes like 'Balkan sausage' or 'Budapest-style schnitzel' does not undermine the rights of Serbian and Croatian vegetables.
Finally, the soothing assessment that 'shish kebab' or 'spicy' did not capture the volume of olfactory and gustatory perceptions was only a snapshot. It was determined that each ingredient must now be prepared and cooked separately, entirely in the spirit of apartness. If white and red onions do not come together with green, red, yellow or even mixed peppers, there is simply no danger of any flavour coming out that can be given its own name.
Kilometres of cash receipts are the result
Although it is likely that chefs will complain that they can no longer be creative and that their secrets will be revealed if every ingredient is listed individually and with quantities on the receipt, this is definitely the lesser evil than having to fear protests of racist vegetables in front of the governments of the world. Who doesn't remember the slippery slush in front of the embassies when the negro kisses took to the streets because the light fat icing seemed paradoxical to the sugar foam.
Fortunately, those days are over, and newer inventions like crisps have always had no controversial claims in their names; harmless additives like 'paprika flavour', 'Hungarian' or 'spicy' have always been normal and nobody gets upset about them.