Monthly Archives: August 2007

Sunflower

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Like good Hungarian restaurants, it’s also hard to find Hungarian literature in English outside of Hungary. Even in Hungary the selection isn’t great (although if you’re in the habit of scouring the antikváriums you’ll occasionally come across some out-of-print finds). In America, fans of Hungarian literature (or readers who want an introduction to the relatively little known literature of Hungary) now have the chance to get acquainted with one of Hungary’s most beloved writers. The New York Review of Books* has just released one of Gyula Krúdy’s novels, Sunflower, in its Classics Series which aims to reintroduce out of print books or books that have fallen out of sight.

Part of the reason Hungarian literature has been so little translated is the notorious difficulty of the Magyar language, and Krúdy is said to be one of the hardest of all Hungarian writers to translate. If you’ve never read any translated Hungarian literature, Krúdy’s Sunflower is a fine place to start. One more reason to read Krúdy: he writes beautifully about Hungarian food, and was known as a passionate gourmand who spent all he had on large quantities of good food and wine. That’s my kind of writer.

Check out this review from Sunday’s LA Times or read more about Krúdy and the book here.

* My publisher, The Little Bookroom, is an imprint of the NYRB

–Carolyn

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The Country Life

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This is the second summer in a row that we’ve left Budapest and headed to the Hungarian countryside for some falusi turizmus (or “rural tourism”) and we’re already planning our next trip. It was a fantastic week of total isolation spent in a tanya (peasant farm house) on the prairie, not far from Kecskemet. Though it was built just four years ago, the house we rented was constructed in the traditional style with wooden ceiling beams, a thatched roof, and mud brick walls. The only other neighbor, luckily not a close one, was the owners brother-in-law who ran a duck farm, had pet peacocks, and had his shotgun on his shoulder both times we saw him.

We picked fresh vegetables from the owner’s garden in the evenings, and we had access to his homemade apricot pálinka (brandy) stored in the attic and his homemade wine in the cellar. While the Hungarian Great Plain is usually associated with producing massive quantities of undrinkable wine, this stuff was actually pretty decent (even more so when mixed with soda water). It was also the first time that I tasted kövidinka, a native Hungarian grape widely grown on the sandy plain. On the few times that we did leave the place we took trips to swim in the Tisza river and we went to a horse ranch where we saw these Hungarian Grey Cattle.

Since there was little else to do, our days revolved around eating and cooking, and then planning what we would eat next. We cooked a few traditional things like pörkölt (stew) in a bogrács (cauldron). We couldn’t leave without having a szalonnasütes–a favorite Hungarian summer activity–which involves sticking a hunk of fatty bacon and a whole onion on a sharpened stick, roasting it over a fire, and sprinkling the bacon drippings over bread. We made lecsó (pepper and tomato stew) with vegetables from the garden and ate it with túrós csusza (pasta with curd cheese) made from homemade egg noodles and cheese that we bought at the market in Kecskemet.

We even attempted to make kürtőskalács–a yeast-raised dough rolled thin, wrapped around a special wooden contraption, rolled in sugar, and rotated over an open fire until the sugar caramelizes. It wasn’t a successful attempt, and we lost big chunks of dough into the fire (but the leftover dough was great the next morning when we turned it into doughnuts). I’d try it again though, if I can find the kürtőskalács-roasting tool anywhere. The house also had a kemence (a traditional brick oven), which we couldn’t get ourselves organized enough to use since it had to be preheated for three or four hours.

The whole rural tourism thing isn’t as developed in Hungary (and also doesn’t seem to carry as much romance) as it is in other places I’ve visited, particularly Italy where agriturismo holidays have long been promoted. But after doing it a few times, I see no reason to rent a drab hotel room when you can have a whole house and a few acres of land (not to mention the unlimited wine and pálinka) for just 7,000 HUF a night. In Hungary there are many sites like this, this, and this one with listings of countryside rental properties, which seem to vary widely. Traveling like this is a great way to check out other parts of the country and to not feel like such a tourist while doing so. I highly recommend it.

–Carolyn

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Ten Things to Taste in Hungary

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Spend a few days here eating at Hungarian restaurants and you’ll quickly become familiar with the classic Hungarian dishes like chicken paprikás and gulyás (better known as goulash). But there’s lots more to eating in Hungary than those ubiquitous dishes. Here are some other of my favorite Hungarian specialties that you must try:

  1. A bar made of chocolate-covered curd cheese may not sound appealing, but the tasty túró rudi is one of the best-known Hungarian brands, and possibly the country’s most adored confection. Look for them in red and white spotted wrappers in the dairy aisles of grocery and convenience stores.
  2. You’ll never eat bland grocery store honey (méz) again after tasting the Hungarian single varietal honeys sold at the markets. The most prevalent varieties are acacia and lime blossom, but chestnut and sunflower honey are also commonly found.
  3. It may sound barbaric, but bone marrow spread on toast and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and paprika is an indulgence worth trying. Look for it on the menus of Budapest’s more traditional restaurants.
  4. Sweet Tokaj dessert wine gets all of the fame, but the dry and semi-sweet wines from Tokaj can also be phenomenal. Do sip some of the sweet stuff, but also sample other types of Tokaj wine such as dry furmint or hárslevelű, both native Hungarian varietals.
  5. If you’re drinking homemade stuff, pálinka (Hungarian fruit brandy) can go down like gasoline. But the high-end artisanal stuff can be fantastic. After a big dinner, any type of pálinka from Agárdi or Zimek will make you happy.
  6. Hungary may be a landlocked country, but it’s paprika laced fisherman’s soup (halászlé), made from freshwater fish like catfish and carp, is excellent. Hungarians like it best when the fish roe and milt are also in the pot. Have a glass of light red Hungarian wine like kadarka or kékfrankos to accompany it.
  7. Curly haired Mangalica pigs nearly died out during the Communist era since their preference for roaming the woods and foraging for food didn’t mesh with the Communist-era industrial pig farms. Breeders have been slowly bringing them back, and many of Budapest’s best restaurants offer dishes made with their tasty meat. It tastes nothing like the pork you are used to, partially because of its high fat content, which also makes it ideal for sausage and salami making.
  8. Aranygaluska, “golden dumplings”, are yeast-raised buns, brushed with melted butter, flavored with apricot jam and ground walnuts, and sprinkled with vanilla sugar. It’s traditionally a home-made dish, rarely found in restaurants.
  9. Now is the season for szilvás gombóc, which is plums wrapped in a potato dough, boiled, tossed in buttery bread crumbs, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Beware, these dumplings are addictive.
  10. Székely káposzta, a dish best eaten in the winter, is a pork and sauerkraut stew seasoned with paprika and served with sour cream. It’s one of the best things I can think of to eat when the weather is cold.

This list, of course, is just the beginning.

–Carolyn

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Summer at Fény utca

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One of the things I like best about living in Budapest is doing my shopping at the markets, especially in August when there’s so much good stuff there. My neighborhood market, the Fény utca piac, also happens to be my favorite market in the city. On some days old ladies come and set up tables to sell their farm-fresh eggs, as well as homemade butter, sour cream, and cheese. There are good butchers, especially the one who specializes in Mangalica pork and Hungarian Grey beef (two Hungarian heritage breeds that were in danger of extinction not too long ago but have made somewhat of a comeback since breeding efforts were revitalized).

But, today my interest was solely with the late summer fruits and vegetables, some of which won’t be around for much longer. There’s a nice mix of vendors here selling stuff produced by independent growers and producers (opposed to those selling only the stuff that comes from Budapest’s wholesale market). I bought two tiny Ogen melons, which were too cute to resist. Almost like honeydews, these two tasty
melons were less than 200 HUF ($1). Raspberries aren’t as plentiful (or as cheap) now as they were in July when I bought them in massive quantities and made jam, ice cream, and tarts with them, but they’re still around. And then there were the figs for just 60 HUF each (about 30 cents).

The fruit quickly disappeared, but I still have these gorgeous rókagombak (yellow chanterelles) from the Mátra hills. A forager had a pile of these earthy mushrooms and nothing else spread out on a tablecloth. They’re usually as expensive as they are sought after, but these were just 300 HUF for 100 grams (which works out to a little more than $7 a pound). I haven’t decided yet what to do with these, but I know it will be something simple like sautéing them in butter and tossing them with pasta and herbs or just adding them to an omelet.

It’s often grimly noted that in America it’s less affordable to eat fesh fruits and veggies, and cheaper and easier to buy the mass produced energy dense foods that are so high in sugar and fat. In Budapest, I’m happy to say, that isn’t so.

–Carolyn

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The Royal Cooks

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In Hungary there are food festivals to celebrate nearly every commonly used ingredient, from the humble onion to the walnuts that are essential to bakers. Last weekend was the annual food festival in the village of Nagyszakácsi, which translates as “master chef.” Legend has it that this is where all royal chefs in Hungary once hailed from. Generations of chefs were trained by their elders here and favored chefs were granted noble status. These days the only reminders of the village’s proud culinary past are the two tiny so-called museums holding old cooking equipment and folksy ceramics. It’s pretty much a one-street village whose claim to fame is this annual festival (which happens the first weekend in August).

The Festival— In The Footsteps of Royal Chefs (Királyi Szakácsok Nyomdokán)—is a Renaissance festival complete with actors in costumes, elaborate food displays and sculptures, and music. But, it’s really all about eating, and eating in large quantities. The different sections of the village are devoted to different guest chefs and groups from neighboring villages who came to cook. The Nagyszakácsi locals made some fantastic rétes (strudel), a restaurateur from Transylvania brought her entourage and cooked up Transylvanian soups and stews in big cauldrons, served puliszka (polenta) loaded with homemade curd cheese and sour cream, and fried some of the best lángos (fried dough topped with garlic, cheese, and sour cream) that I’ve tasted yet in Hungary. Everything was cooked over open fires or in brick ovens; breads were mixed, kneaded, and baked in the open; and the displays were meant to invoke Medieval decadence. Other highlights included halászlé (fisherman’s soup) cooked in ceramic pots next to a fire, lots of tasty stuffed breads, and did I mention the lángos?

It may be Hungary’s biggest food festival, and keeping with its goal to keep things as they were in Medieval times, the quality of the food is excellent and its all homemade. If you go next year, be aware that there’s no accommodation in Nagyszakácsi or the surrounding villages (either stay in Kaposvár like we did, or somewhere in Southern Balaton).

–Carolyn

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