Our annual trip to Serbia to visit Z's hometown and get her Serbian papers begins today in unbearably hot weather. I took my turn at driving the back roads of Hungary, always an adventure. Driving here is not for the timid. You will be passing places you never would have dreamed of at home. We lived to tell the tale (!), so I must have done OK.
We stopped by Lajos and Bori's house in Topolya for lunch. Lajos, you will recall, makes palinka commercially. Lunch, then, began with two extra-large sized apricot palinkas, fresh off the still - followed by potato soup, sun-dried red peppers with garlic, fried zuchinni and potatoes for me, accompanied by grey-long-horn cow steak for the carnivores. The Grey-Long-Horn Cow, by the way, is a Hungarian region specific animal. Lajos has the only license in the area to grow them. Desert was palascinta with cinnamon and sugar or home-made marmalade. All this was washed down with Savignon Blanc and Chardonnay house wines. Their sons have sold the grocery chain and moved into the wine biz, among other things.
From there, once again, home to pour ourselves into bed.
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Hungarian Customs No. 1: The Ritual Greeting
The Hungarian Ritual Greeting starts with a lot of excited cries of pleasure about renewing an acquaintance, friendship, family association - or being in the same bowling league for all I know - that you haven't run into for a while. You then embrace, and kiss them warmly on each cheek. Except, sometimes you only kiss one cheek. And then, if you really care for someone, sometimes you kiss them three times. It is all rather confusing.
Should you be called upon to perform this ritual, be forewarned that you start on your right, their left. You greet both the opposite and the same sex this way - so get over it, guys.
Mmmmm, lunch sounds great, except for the Horn cow steak! What exactly is a palinka? Even more important does Z make them? Those palascinta sounds wonderful too...are they like the palinka?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're all having a great, wild time!
Teri