Sometimes when I am going international I pack old clothes on purpose just so I can throw them out to make room for smuggled comestibles on the home trip.
I have also been known to pack corn fed US steaks to Sweden.
Nothing says I love you like a suitcase full of charcuterie.
For lunch we had a salad Bordelaise: lettuces, tomatoes, shallots, dried smoked duck breast and of course, foie gras. After we have some shared 2 quails among 5 of us. With glasses champagne, we are still in the mood of feast…
Ate this before headed out. I have lots of sausages brought with me from Budapest so I’m eating them 1 by 1 now. Even found pomelo in a supermarket. Tokaj is so small and everything is so limited. It’s probably not easy to live here if you are complicated, have a complicated lifestyle, have (expensive) hobbies etc.
Wiki has a nice photo of Tokaj. The town is really small. I’m near the end of the populated area and it’s not a long walk from the bridge. You can see the restaurant where I had lunch -the long building, near the intersection, bottom right of the photo,ingcome from the left side of the bridge.
I will manage, with a fast internet line and an efficient post office, that will be alrighty. Especially, they have real fire place, nice fish soup and beautiful lamp posts.
I was joking, I need at times to eat food from elsewhere, that seems difficult…there
Today’s lunch…
Here my in-laws are accustomed to big lunch and very light dinner. So we started our meal with some Italian antipasto Bruschetta, prosciutto, mortadella, rosette on grilled bread with pickles… then grilled pork with a creamy Roquefort sauce and the classic poêlé de petit pois - onion, peas lettuces, mushrooms and some aromatic herbs. A clafoutis with prunes to finish off the meal.
Had a standard lunch before wine tastings (yesterday).
I ordered the first 4 dry Tokaj wines. Shortly after the man brought out a glass of another wine for us to try. Then a plate of cheese his friend made.
After 10 different wines we decided which to buy for drinking later. Man said it was the last bottle. Showed us the bottle, there was only enough for a glass left.
We thought that was the end but no! He brought a few slices of Hungarian grey cattle salami his other friend made! We were talking about Mangalica pigs and Hungarian grey cattle.
And before he cleared the glasses… a glass of Palinka, traditional fruit brandy. Hungarians drink it with everything, before, during and after. He brought us all kinds of things and did not charge for them. We had a good chat.
Where the 2 rivers meet. On the bridge, walking to lunch restaurant.
More wine tastings yesterday. We were the only 2 people at every place. Just a couple of photos because they seem all the same if you are not there drinking.
It amuses me they always mention Goethe. He used to like all the beers and wines wherever he had travelled to or lived. True or not we shall never know.
Employee and I were talking and out of nowhere he offered to give us a tour of the cellar. Partner said “we often get special treatment because of you”. I seem to have a strange effect on people.
Yeah, makes perfect sense. In that case I would drink a lot of beer in the middle ages, as I do now, assuming beer wasn’t as sweet back then. Women used to be in charge of making beer then.
In Goslar they also claim Goethe used to love Gosebier. Wherever Goethe had been to he loved the alcohol there, apparently.
Lunch in Debrecen. It was so big we have no desire to eat anything else til tomorrow. Restaurant is so dark and the lighting was deep yellow. I had to resort to using flash on the camera.
Mangalica pork (2 big pieces) and a pile of fried onions. Plus fried potatoes with fresh cheese underneath. Hungarians love (fried) onions, even more than paprika, according to my Culinaria Hungary book.
Got to the big supermarket near my lodging just 5 minutes before closing time to get water and bubbly. They only have cheap Hungarian sparkling wines and everyone was buying it so we got one as well. So what happens when one’s birthday falls on the 30th? You drink sparkling wine and have a marathon of Seinfeld, Absolutely Fabulous and Muriel’s Wedding all the way into new year.
It has been a fantastic year. I’m incredible fortunate and thankful.
Especially, they have real fire place, nice fish soup and beautiful lamp posts.
