We visited Pityu-Basci this afternoon. Avid readers of our blog will remember his 75th birthday from the beginning of the blog (worth a revisit if you haven't read it, this would be the dread "Quince Extract Palinka Affair"). His 80th birthday was scheduled for Sunday, but they were forced to cancel. He is going to the hospital tomorrow for an indefinite stay. He looks awful, but, as always, is a generous host. None the less, I can't shake the feeling as we leave that we probably won't be visiting with him next year.
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Evening in Kishegyes, and we are sitting at Laci-Basci and Erzsi-Neni's house, around a table made from the lid of a baby grand piano, sampling the fruits of our labor from yesterday. The palinka has sat in an open 26-ish gallon bucket overnight to breathe. The sugar and alcohol are then adjusted using a hydrometer and distilled water. Then it is ready for bottles. The final yield was around 70 liters.
As we were sitting there, sampling the product, there was this exchange between Vera and Peter that I found humorous:
Vera: "Doesn't it say 'for external use only.'"
Peter: "No, it stings when I use it that way."
We also met Sandor this evening. He is the third partner in the palinka empire. He and Z went to elementary school together. He is a very funny guy – at one point dialing up an old classmate that he and Z had in common and handing the phone to her. They only went to school together through kindergarten.
This is one of those evenings where I have had enough palinka that I actually think I speak Hungarian. As a result, further notes in my journal a more than a little illegible – so we'll leave it here for today.
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