The Food and Wine Lover's Guide to Hungary [antikvár]

PREFACEIt is their vitality and love of life that gives the Hungarians their special quality. And their food and cooking are as integral to their lives as they were in olden times. In Hungary the meal of the day is a ritual, not just a matter of filling the stomach. Sometimes Hungarians talk about the way things have changed. They are not at all sure that change means progress, but it has to be accepted. What else can you do? But however they may talk and shrug their shoulders, in their hearts the stubborn pride in an old and steadfast nation endures.-The Cooking of Vienna's Empire, Joseph Wechsberg, 1968Hungary is the right place to be for good eating and drinking. Hungarians are often passionate about food and winefrom the old ladies on the tram comparing cake recipes and the price of tomatoes to the young winemakers successfully resurrecting the country's long and proud wine tradition. There are radio programs devoted to cooking, and it's not surprising that Central Europe's first television channel devoted entirely to food is a Hungarian one (Paprika TV). On Sunday evenings buses and trains are filled with young people returning to Budapest with bags full of carefully wrapped containers of their mothers' food to last them through the week. There are beautiful ingredients, talented chefs and winemakers, and a tradition of recipes and cooking techniques that has been passed from generation to generation for hundreds of years. While Hungarians tend to take the quality and variety of their produce for granted, the country has all of the raw materials necessary for great eating. In fact, Hungary's natural resourcesrivers, valleys, volcanic