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Lunch was mostly liquid. Wine tasting at the wine shop of my lodging’s owner. All good wines and from small producers only. Her wine business focuses on small producers and quality. You don’t see these wines in supermarkets and most Hungarians would not get to drink them. One, wines in Hungary is a regional thing. Two, they cost a bit more than the average Hungarians would want to pay.
It looks even beautiful.[quote=“Presunto, post:399, topic:1743”]
Went to the christmas market directly after lunch just for this… “chimney” pastry.
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I saw this dessert Kurtoskalacs once in The Best Baker competition on tv. Looks quite simple to make, was it good?
Splendid view!! I just missed eating good sushi…
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Naf, the chimney pastry is a simple yeast dough. It’s a bit chewy and not too sweet. I wouldn’t like it at all if it was sweet like most pastries.
New pork products for lunch today. And new bread as well. The bread is quite German. I think in Germany it’s called 'farmer’s bread". Heavy dark rye and chewy. Sourdoughs in Germany tend to be very chewy. So much that you need to take time to enjoy it. Not the kind for those who only have the patience for browsing FB and IG.
And a new Hungarian cheese. Not impressed with Hungarian cheese.
They have impressive pork products to make up for the lousy cheese. From left to right: smoked pork loin, spicy air-dried sausage, Speck, ham with rinds, and meat/vegs in aspic. The latter is common all the way to the far reaches of north western Europe.
After lunch we went to the nearest market, about half an hour walk, in -3C with windchill factor of -7C. Marvelous market and it’s just a little one, saw no tourist. Got a bunch of cured meats but I will post the haul some other time.
Just had to try this deep fried flat bread topped with cheese once and for all. It’s like going to Montreal and not eating poutine (I did and didn’t care for it). Langos is a typical snack and it’s sold everywhere. The cheese is a bit salty and there’s just too much of it. I don’t need inferior cheese.
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Found the elusive Mangalica jamon, finally! This is from a small market near my lodging. Didn’t even see it at the big, mesmerising Central Market yesterday! All 3 meats on the plate are Mangalica.
New bread and cheeses. One cheese is sheep’s milk, the other is cow’s milk and is aged. Found a decent cheese shop at the market. Cheese shops here have mostly French cheeses. That goes to show even Hungarians prefer the French stuff.
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The other day I asked the cashier at the Turkish baths about the duck restaurant across the street. She said “I have never been. It’s expensive. It’s fancy for us.”. It’s on my list because I wanted to check out 2 things they have on the menu: crispy duck with cherry sauce and Hungarian grey cattle steak.
Duck is crispy and tender, not dry and not salty. However, the wild duck with cherry sauce I made a couple of weeks back was a lot better, especially the cherry sauce.
Hungarian grey cattle is indigenous to Hungary. They were also dangerously on the verge of extinction like the Mangalica pigs. Steaks are extremely rare and expensive. Some bits are in (cured) sausages but the rest nobody knows where it goes to. Some cuts go to exclusive restaurants, just like fresh Mangalica meat. Too rare and expensive for most Hungarians.
Their selection of Hungarian Schnapps (Hungarians love their booze, meats and fats). Too bad we had to head straight to the Turkish baths across the street after eating, otherwise we would have tried a few Schnapps.
It’s expensive. It takes a long time and involves a lot of water loss.
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Yes to all that. I see imported Spanish Jamon and Italian Prociutto in the (super)market so they do like/eat it. They cure and smoke e.ve.ry.thing here and now they know they could also do it Spanish style but they don’t want to bother. I guess it hasn’t caught on yet.
Eating Jamon in Spain almost brought tears to my eyes every time (I nobody has ever seen me cry! -save for one person)!
I think unless you have that tradition and peoples who really have taste for it, it is a difficult thing to convince producers to make the investment in an expensive and time consuming process.
Sometimes it is actually easier to get the producers to do it for export, since they have a better sense the investment will pay off.
Of course, I have also seen Danish made “prosciutto” so sometimes lots of pigs could be a market factor as well.
Have you ever tried a real Schwartzwälder Schinken?
Xmas lunch - a lots of aperitifs including some with fois gras, a lot of oysters, a big turkey stuffed with minced veal with parsley, rosemary, thyme, bread crumb, garlic. Side dishes: Cêpes mushrooms, chestnuts and palm hearts. A lot of cheese (few of us took that, we were all waiting for the dessert), baked Alaska and a chocolate buche and mint tea.
One thing is sure, nobody is going to have a dinner tonight.
Even the idea of talking about food sounds a bit frightening.
I was busy serving and arguing, didn’t take all photos.
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Cost must be a big factor for Hungarians. The average Hungarians are not willing to pay that kind of money for other pork products that cost a lot less and are readily available. I looked everywhere for Mangalica Jamon and found exactly 2 market stalls.
It’s clear they don’t have a taste for Jamon.
Wouldn’t be surprised to hear (some) Italian prociutto is made with Danish pigs. As far as I know (saw in the news a while back) Italians buy the mother load of pork from Netherlands to make their prociutto.
Schwartzwälder Schinken is very common in NL, but I’m partial to Tiroler Speck.
Pfffff… I know I couldn’t. How could I? Would eat a bit of everything in the first photo. Every single thing on that tray looks so good.
So you were looking for Mangalica Jamon, and I stumbled across this baby on the D’Artagnan website:
At $ 450 a ham it’s not anything I will be ordering on my own soon, but someone in Spain is making it.
I would love to get a big plate sliced thin right now!!!
Also I really like the ham cradle in that photo on the D’Artagnan website:
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Salty, pasty, crumbly, tastes almost like nothing. They love to smoke everything, including cheese.
I know. Got a whole bunch of them, all different kinds. The selection is absolutely staggering. I want to buy them all. Am still collecting more before going home. Maybe I have to chuck some things in my bag to make room for meats!
The price is probably the real reason it doesn’t take off here, no matter how good it could be. On the other hand, even cheap Jamon in Spain tastes so good (to me). The Portuguese equivalent is also great. They all slice it to order for you, in both countries. I fecking love Spain and Portugal.
