8/1 & 2, Keszthely

We had a genuine Central Oregon-type thunderstorm this afternoon - complete with thunder, lightning, torrential down pours - but alas, no hail and no drop in temperature. Gradually things began to cool off as the day wore on, but it was a good afternoon to be inside...
Which is not really a great thing, as we are barbecuing again this evening. Kis-Kazi, Zsuzsa, Klaudia, Gabie and Csabi are down using Kazi-Basci’s condo, and are coming by for a visit.


*****


A break in the weather, and the grill is fired up. Peter is making chicken, steak, cevaps (many of you will remember these from the wedding) and potatoes, Vera has made a salad bowl featuring a green salad, a cucumber salad and a blanched cabbage salad. My contribution is tofu, lightly browned, and, as it turns out, heavily spiced.

We may have told some of you the story my first use of hot paprika. If you haven’t heard it yet, the short version: Paprika in Hungary comes in a variety of levels of "heat." Zia kindly provided me with some of the "extra fiery" variety after her last visit. She just neglected to tell me what it was. Now most of us don’t think of paprika as a flavor as much as a coloring agent. So, being nice, I threw a bunch of this stuff on a bunch of grilled vegetables I was preparing. A bunch. This stuff is pretty great, in that it lets you get a mouth full down and enjoy it before the heat starts, and then "whoa, baby." We ate the vegetables, but I think we went through a roll of paper towels wiping sweat from our brows. Mostly around here it is used as a condiment, right next to the salt shaker.

So, flash to Dave, browning the tofu on the stove. Things are browning nicely, a little salt, just like the cooking shows, pick up the paprika shaker - you know that prank you used to play on your friends in high school - OK, well not you, but people you know - where you loosen the cap on the shaker and it all comes out. OK, accidents happen. Anyway, let’s just say the final product was very hot.

Dinner was great. Peter, Kis-Kazi, the boys and I enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting around chewing the fat (vegetarian based, I assure you), while the ladies watched the Mega-Magdi DVD.


*****


Wednesday, the wine festival in Keszthely began this evening. As you all know, I am more of a beer guy, but, you know, when in Rome.

The festival begins with a parade. We moseyed down to the Centrum to catch the beginning of the parade, and got there just in time to bump elbows with the band getting off the bus. They quickly formed up and started entertaining the crowd with European marches. Next to arrive were two horse-drawn carriages, one for the Hungarian folk band, and one just because. Zia is in awe of one of these horses. It is a small horse, but very muscular, and very spirited. Next is a choir from Poland and their accordion accompaniment. Yes, they march and perform in the parade (all you choir teachers take note). Last to arrive are the representatives of all of the wineries at the festival. They are dressed up in the regalia of their region (think cap and gown, like graduation).

They quickly formed up and, with the band playing Stars and Stripes (enough to make you homesick), started down the street - only to stop about the time the end had reached us. So we walked to the front of the parade and watched it again. And again they stopped. We still are not really sure why. At this point, having seen the parade twice, we went ahead to the festival. We figured they would catch up eventually.

The wine festival is a lot like a small beer festival. Booths from all over the country, not just this region, will serve you a taste, or a full glass of wine. There are food booths all over selling goulash, stir-fried vegetable and meat dishes, shish kabobs, pommes frittes, and a Transylvanian Bread thing that is like a cinnamon roll, but less sticky (and one of Zia's favorite food groups). We met Peter and Vera, and had dinner - and some wine, two whites, local specialties, one sweet and one dry.

We then wandered down to the stage, where the choir was just finishing up their set. They were doing a call and response thing with the audience where they sang the call in four parts, and the audience sang the response - IN FOUR PARTS! It was pretty cool. They didn’t even teach it, just spontaneous four parts from the crowd.

They were followed by a Hungarian Dance group. A live band of musicians provided the tunes. Different than the gypsy group we saw earlier, this was the true Hungarian folk ensemble. The "lead guitarist" of this type of ensemble is the violinist. Very good Hungarian violinist are very popular, and can make bundles of money. There is a contest here every so often to crown the king of all violinists, who then is shown regularly on TV, etc. The "rhythm guitarist" is the viola player. When I say viola, I am not talking about the one you see in the orchestra. The viola used in this type of music only has three strings and a slightly flatter bridge, so that the player can play triple stops all the time. There is a wash of sound that comes from this that is an awful lot like an electric guitar, and a good viola player can add huge amounts of energy to a performance, especially when they lock up with the bass player. The bass is a traditional orchestral bass, and is almost always played bowed, not pizzicato. In slower tunes, the player will use a lot of portamendo, which gives the tunes a kind of "sea-sick" feeling that is kind of slick. The last member of the band is the cymbalom player, kind of the equivalent of the piano player in our mythical rock band. Almost never a solo voice, and always a surprising color when it is, the cymbalom player mostly improvises accompaniment figures to counterpoint the melody. Good players add another rhythmic element to complement the melody.

The dance group was very good. A variety of ages performed a variety of traditional dances on a stage that was really too small for them. (And, low and behold, there in the adult group is our Vaida from the other night.) Standing for an hour and a half was hard on the back, but the show was really good.

On the way out we passed one of those Peruvian folk groups that you see at malls and stuff all over the States. Same little set up, same generator, except these guys are obviously faking it - and they are wearing Native American Indian outfits, with full headdress and everything. Kind of wacky...

Dave

July 9, Kishegyes...Hungarian Idol

Hi all,
We went to the big semi-annual market in Topolya this morning. (An indication of how far things are going to have to go before things stabilize here politically can be found in the city identification signs that proudly display the name of their berg in Cyrillic, Serbian, and Hungarian...with spray paint if necessary. Needless to say the other guys version is frequently "X-ed" out.) The market covers about four city blocks and has all kids of stuff. Clothes, tools, replacement parts, livestock, produce, toiletries, etc., you have to see it to believe it. Things are pretty cheap and a certain amount of bartering goes on.

On the way home we passed a wrecked building. Peter told us that it was wrecked by a guy who swerved his car to miss a bicyclist and lost control of his car. He, miraculously, was in great shape when they loaded him into the ambulance and took him to the hospital. You know, check and release. Regrettably the attending nurse was drunk and fell on top of him. Broke three ribs.

Lunch this afternoon is at the home of Lajos (Loy-osh) and Bori. Bori is Peter’s sister. Also in attendance were Zia’s cousin Lali, his wife Adrianna, and Feri, and his wife Ani. Lali and Feri are a couple of self-made business tycoons. Lali, whom Zia refers to as the "Bicycle King," started his business by driving to the Hungarian/Serbian Border, selling his car, buying 28 bicycles, and paying school children to ride them across the boarder into Serbia, where he sold them for a handsome profit. He then sowed the money back into his business (see www.Capriolo.com, nice bikes with parts from all over the world). Feri, in addition to doing some form of work "for the government" that gets him diplomatic immunity that he won’t talk about ("If you get in trouble with the police, don’t do anything stupid and I can fix it." A comfort...), also runs a very profitable grocery store chain. These guys are a couple of characters, and I can easily see them getting into mischief as kids, although Zia assures me that is not the case.

From there to Feri and Ana’s Villa for kaffee mit schlag, champagne, an inground pool for the kids, and an opportunity for the tourists to gawk at some world class woodwork. The family have this guy on a retainer that is an artist with wood. The centerpiece of the house is a stair case constructed with branches to match the trophies hanging from the walls. All very rustic and amazing to look at.

Home to sleep off the schnapps, beer, champagne, etc., and then off to see the "Hungarian Idol." The warm-up band was a local group (the lead vocalist is a sister of the Idol) that did such varied Hungarian Folk Tunes as "Sweet Home Alabama," "All Right Now," "Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door," and the classic, "House of the Rising Sun" (I’ve been around many a poor boy, and God I know I’m one.). To be fair, their English is was better than my Hungarian, and they spent their entire set competing with the big screen showing the World Cup Final. (Italy beats France after double overtime and penalty kicks to much rejoicing. France hasn’t been popular here since the world wars.) The "Mega Stars," as they are referred to in Hungary, wisely waited until after the game to start their set.

Now I thought that we were just seeing the winner, but in Hungary the whole troop lives and dies together, and when the show ends, they all go on tour together. They are a very talented group of Karoke artists, and pretty entertaining to watch. The hometown hero is now referred to as "Mega-Magdi." People around us consider her to bring honor to the region and the whole community is proud of her. Tough to imagine that kind of community support for an American Idol winner. The crowd response was good for pre-80’s pop tunes, but the absolute best response was for rock covers of Hungarian and Serbian folk tunes!

Dave