What's to Eat?

We are continuing our short series on cultural differences between Hungary and America that affect our lives and work.

One of our favorite cultural distinctions in Hungary is the food.  We enjoy Hungarian food.  From gulyás soup and fruit soup to stuffed cabbage and paprika chicken to eszterházi cake and poppy seed roll, Hungarian cuisine is delicious.  Most meals begin with soup of some kind and most main dishes contain paprika.  (Paprika is a spice made from Hungarian red peppers and can be either mild or hot.)  Desserts are usually less sweet than American desserts, but tasty nonetheless.

We eat Hungarian food at restaurants and when invited to Hungarian homes and events.  At home, we eat mostly American food.  Almost all ingredients for American recipes can be found here in Hungary.  Hungarians eat more chicken and pork than beef, so ground beef is not always available  prepackaged, but the butchers are always ready to grind meat to order.  Some ingredients are a little more expensive because they are in the foreign foods section.

We have found that Hungarians like most homemade American food, so when we have guests, we usually cook American.  Some favorites are three-bean salad, roast turkey breast, apple pie and oatmeal raisin cookies.

Eating together is a good way to build relationships with people, so, whether we eat Hungarian or American food, we enjoy being with Hungarians and getting to know them better.