The Significance of Food.
Obviously food is important in the biological sense, i.e. if you don’t eat food you will die. However, food is also important because of the beautiful cultural variations in the way it is served, the way you eat it, and the way it can break down barriers. Food is so much more than food–it’s an experience. When you go on a trip, one of the first things people ask you when you get back is usually, “How was the food?” The types of food cooked, the way it is cooked and how people eat together says a lot about the culture.
I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about Hungarian gastronomy at this point, but I would like to show you a few examples of the great experiences I have had with food here.
First, let's talk coffee. Coffee is so much more of an experience here than in the U.S. where getting your caffeine is more of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am sort of event. Here, you order your drink, and along with the incredible coffee, you get sparkling water and a cookie to top you off. This way of serving coffee may be the single reason for me never leaving Europe.
Chris, Maria and I have been enjoying cooking for each other. She brought back Austrian sausages from Vienna and we made tasty potatoes to go with them.
Could there possibly be anything better than bacon-wrapped cheese-filled sausage? If there is, I don't want to know. If I'm going to have aortic blockage later in life anyway, I want it this way.
Cutting bread is hard when all you have is a butter knife.
All the KIBU researchers got together last week and made their favorite dishes. Chris made this insanely good Thai curry chicken soup. Silence fell upon the land when he served it to everybody. The man standing next to Chris is Gabor, who is a coordinator at KIBU like Chris.
My favorite chef working his magic.
The soup, right before it brought tears to people's eyes.
Martszi made these delicious chocolate-filled crepes.
Maria and Reka made Maria's now-famous tacos. She makes this refried bean concoction that will make you want to run naked out into the streets.
As you can probably tell, we have not limited ourselves to strictly “Hungarian” food here. The effects of a global economy can be seen here too, and there are many fabulous foods from around the world in Budapest. You can get everything from pizza to gyros here, and all the goodness in between. However, there are a few classic Hungarian foods that we have eaten on occasion and, boy, are they tasty.
Langos (pronounced laan-gosh) is a fry-bread disk the size of your head covered in sour cream, cheese, and garlic sauce. I, unfortunately, had one of these an hour before I came down with the stomach flu. I now associate the two together and will never be able to eat one again. But don't let that stop you from eating one.
Toszni are deep-fried potato and onion patties that are served drizzled with sour cream. You may be noticing a pattern here in the use of hot oil and milk products here. You are not alone in your assessment.
Hungarian goulash ain't like the macaroni/ground beef casserole your momma used to make. REAL goulash is a tasty meaty broth soup. It's tasty. And brothy.
If you aren’t drooling by now, than you need to get your eyes checked. Or come and visit us and we’ll guide your tour through these Hungarian delights. Or, because plane tickets are expensive, we can always send a langos through the mail. Your choice…
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I’ve just been catching up on your adventures! I AM drooling…this food looks so tasty.
oh wow….my tummy kinda hurts just looking at all of this rich food! But it sure looks good…when i get rich and come visit you , all of these are required on the menu…
um, yes. drooling!!
Is that galangal in that thai curry soup?
And that is some tasty looking goulash…
i want those bacon, cheese sausage things…wow