Csak érdekességként teszem ki. Mostanában lehet a könyvesboltokban kapni itt Oszakában, ahol jelenleg vagyok. Belelapoztam, teljesen kezdő magyar nyelvkönyv.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Magyar tankönyv Japánban/Hungarian language textbook in Japan
Csak érdekességként teszem ki. Mostanában lehet a könyvesboltokban kapni itt Oszakában, ahol jelenleg vagyok. Belelapoztam, teljesen kezdő magyar nyelvkönyv.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Hungarian Movies, Songs Subtitled/Magyar nyelvű filmek, zenék feliratozva
On this youtube channel you can find mainly musicals, Disney songs or other songs which are in Hungarian and are also subtitled in Hungarian and English. It is good for language learning, you can sing along or simply just follow the subs and the speech and try to understand what is said.
Have fun with it!
http://www.youtube.com/user/HungarianMovies#p/u/0/GkYMHhbWCbY
Ezen a youtube csatornán főként musicaleket, Disney dalokat, vagy egyéb dalokat találhatunk, melyek magyarul beszélnek, de magyar és angol nyelven is feliratozottak. Nyelvtanulás szempontjából nagyon hasznosak, lehet a szöveget énekelni, vagy egyszerűen csak követni a feliratot és próbálni megérteni az elhangzó szöveget.
Jó szórakozást!
http://www.youtube.com/user/HungarianMovies#p/u/0/GkYMHhbWCbY
Have fun with it!
http://www.youtube.com/user/HungarianMovies#p/u/0/GkYMHhbWCbY
Ezen a youtube csatornán főként musicaleket, Disney dalokat, vagy egyéb dalokat találhatunk, melyek magyarul beszélnek, de magyar és angol nyelven is feliratozottak. Nyelvtanulás szempontjából nagyon hasznosak, lehet a szöveget énekelni, vagy egyszerűen csak követni a feliratot és próbálni megérteni az elhangzó szöveget.
Jó szórakozást!
http://www.youtube.com/user/HungarianMovies#p/u/0/GkYMHhbWCbY
Saturday, April 23, 2011
How to dye eggs for Easter the natural way?/Hogyan fessünk húsvétra tojást természetes módon?
There are several traditions linked to Easter in different countries. One of the most widespread is colouring eggs. Eggs are traditionally symbols of fertility and in connection with Christianity they represent resurrecion, the start of new life as well.
I'm writing about Hungarian traditions now, which may be similar to customs in other countries as well.
On Good Saturday and Easter Sunday Hungarian girls and women colour eggs so that they can give eggs to boys and men on Monday who sprinkle the ladies with water or parfume. The eggs have to be nice as they can also be love tokens.
There are several traditional ways to colour eggs. The most widespread method is using the (bronwish) dried outer skin of onions as colouring material. This gives eggs a red-brownish colour.
There are various recipes on how to do this. Basically the most important thing is to use a lot of onion skin, boil them in water for about 30 min, put some vinegar into the water (depending on the amount you boil it can be 2 spoonfuls of 10% vinegar or more). Vinegar helps in fixing the colour. Some people say that you have to boil the eggs together with the onion skin, some say that first boil the eggs and then boil the onion skin and then let the eggs rest in the onion skin water for a day or a few hours.
I think it depends on what you want. If you want to eat the eggs it is better to boil the eggs for 10 minutes and then put them into cold onion skin water that you had boiled for at least 30 minutes beforehand, leave them rest and from time to time you can take them out to see if you are satisfied with the colour. You can leave eggs in the onion skin water overnight. If you don't want to eat the eggs you can boil them for 30 minutes together with the onion skin but then they become really hard, greenish in the middle and maybe not be so tasty to eat. But tastes differ. These kind of eggs are also not impossible to eat and they last for a longer time. If you want to put your eggs on display for a week in the middle of your dining table then it is a good idea to boil them long so that they don't go off easily.
There are other materials which you can use for colouring. These are camomille tea, red cabbage, coffee, paprika powder, saffron, beetroot etc. Basically any kind of coloured plant that you can normally eat if boiled in water for some time can colour you eggs. Just don't forget to put in vinegar (or salt in the case you use berries). Some people recommend using the dried leaves of walnut tree for a brownish black colour effect. This is of course a traditional dye but beware that walnut leaves are poisonous, so if your egg breaks in the process don't eat them. If you google natural dyes you can get many ideas for colouring eggs, but always keep in mind not to use poisonous plants.
Colouring eggs is simple. But there are also various ways to make patterns.
Tips:
Source of photo: http://www.ovodatar.hu/otlettar/2008/03/22/tojasfestes_petrezselyemmel/
Here you can see more photos and there is a good description in Hungarian on how to dye eggs like this with children in kindergarden. (They used 1-1.5 kg of onion skin to dye eggs for all the children!)
I'm writing about Hungarian traditions now, which may be similar to customs in other countries as well.
On Good Saturday and Easter Sunday Hungarian girls and women colour eggs so that they can give eggs to boys and men on Monday who sprinkle the ladies with water or parfume. The eggs have to be nice as they can also be love tokens.
There are several traditional ways to colour eggs. The most widespread method is using the (bronwish) dried outer skin of onions as colouring material. This gives eggs a red-brownish colour.
There are various recipes on how to do this. Basically the most important thing is to use a lot of onion skin, boil them in water for about 30 min, put some vinegar into the water (depending on the amount you boil it can be 2 spoonfuls of 10% vinegar or more). Vinegar helps in fixing the colour. Some people say that you have to boil the eggs together with the onion skin, some say that first boil the eggs and then boil the onion skin and then let the eggs rest in the onion skin water for a day or a few hours.
I think it depends on what you want. If you want to eat the eggs it is better to boil the eggs for 10 minutes and then put them into cold onion skin water that you had boiled for at least 30 minutes beforehand, leave them rest and from time to time you can take them out to see if you are satisfied with the colour. You can leave eggs in the onion skin water overnight. If you don't want to eat the eggs you can boil them for 30 minutes together with the onion skin but then they become really hard, greenish in the middle and maybe not be so tasty to eat. But tastes differ. These kind of eggs are also not impossible to eat and they last for a longer time. If you want to put your eggs on display for a week in the middle of your dining table then it is a good idea to boil them long so that they don't go off easily.
There are other materials which you can use for colouring. These are camomille tea, red cabbage, coffee, paprika powder, saffron, beetroot etc. Basically any kind of coloured plant that you can normally eat if boiled in water for some time can colour you eggs. Just don't forget to put in vinegar (or salt in the case you use berries). Some people recommend using the dried leaves of walnut tree for a brownish black colour effect. This is of course a traditional dye but beware that walnut leaves are poisonous, so if your egg breaks in the process don't eat them. If you google natural dyes you can get many ideas for colouring eggs, but always keep in mind not to use poisonous plants.
Colouring eggs is simple. But there are also various ways to make patterns.
- Scratch patterns into the already coloured egg with the help of a needle or a pointed knife, scissors (requires skill, eggs easily break.)
- Draw patterns onto the egg with melted wax before colouring, after colouring boil the egg again to remove the wax. The waxed areas will remain uncoloured. You need a secial tool for drawing with melted wax. This tool is called íróka in Hungarian therefore the name of this technique is írókázás.
- Drop wax drips to make a dotted egg and then colour the egg, remove the wax see above. (This is easier then drawing, you just light a candle and let drops of wax fall onto the egg.)
- Tie several pieces of onion skin onto the egg with a thread and boil the egg this way together with vinegar. This is supposed to give the egg a marble effect. This technique is called márványozás.
- This is my favourite method: Collect small leaves (parsley can be very decorative). Put water on them and stick them to the egg with water. After this put the egg with the leaves into a nylon stocking or tie it in ellastic gauze so that the small leaves remain stuck to the egg's surface. (The nylon stockings are easier to do and the holes on them are finer.) Place the whole thing into the dye. When later you remove the stocking the print of the leaves will remain on the eggs. See below. (This technique is called berzselés in Hungarian.)
Tips:
- Before colouring it is a good idea to wash the eggs thoroughly. Thery should not be greasy.
- Use strong dyes. If you use just a few onion skin pieces then you have to leave the eggs in the dye for a longer period of time. If you use a stronger dye (more pieces of onion skin or whatever material you use) the colour effect will be stronger and it works in a shorter period of time. (You can start to collect onion skins a few weeks before Easter.)
- When you fasten leaves onto the egg with a stocking make sure that it is very tightly tied onto the egg. Otherwise the contours of the leaves will not be strong.
Source of photo: http://www.ovodatar.hu/otlettar/2008/03/22/tojasfestes_petrezselyemmel/
Here you can see more photos and there is a good description in Hungarian on how to dye eggs like this with children in kindergarden. (They used 1-1.5 kg of onion skin to dye eggs for all the children!)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Easter vocabulary/Húsvéti szókincs
These are words connected to the Christian celebrations of Easter in Hungary. Basically from the end of the Christmas season these are special times that lead up to Easter and after it end with Pentacost (not Easter anyomore but in some way it is connected to Easter). I also included words which relate to the typical food and Easter traditions. You can read about locsolkodás and eggs in other posts.
- Epiphany-Vízkereszt (6th Jan)
- Lent - Nagyböjt
- Ash Wednesday-. Hamvazószerda (40th day before Palm Sunday)
- Palm Sunday -Virágvasárnap (Sunday before Easter Sunday)
- Maundy Thursday-Nagycsütörtök
- Good Friday-Nagypéntek (Jesus died on this day. )
- Holy Saturday -Nagyszombat
- Easter Sunday(Resurrection Day)-Húsvétvasárnap
- Easter Monday-Húsvét Hétfő
- Pentecost (Whitsunday)-Pünkösd(vasánap) (50 days after Easter Sunday)
- egg-tojás
- coloured decorated egg-hímes tojás
- water sprinkling (onto girls)-locsolkodás (takes place on Easter Monday)
- (smoked) ham- (füstölt) sonka
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Hungary EU presidency / Magyar EU elnökség
From 1st January 2011 Hungary has taken the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the first time since 2004 when Hungary joined the EU.
Here is the website of the Hungarian presidency. It can be accessed in Hungarian, English, French and German. The website contains information about Hungary (Nobel laureates, inventors, promotional video etc.
http://www.eu2011.hu/presidency (retrieved 20th February 2011)
Magyarország az Európa Tanács soros elnöke 2011 január 1-től. Az alábbi linken elérhető az elnökség magyar nyelvű honlapja: http://www.eu2011.hu/hu/az-elnokseg (angolul, franciául és németül is elérhető).
Az oldalt azért ajánlom Comenius tanárasszisztenseknek, mert sok Magyarországot bemutató anyag található rajta, illetve a soros elnökséget betöltő hazánk most különösen reflektorfényben van. Az elnökséggel kapcsolatos dolgokról illik tudnia egy Comenius asszisztensnek, vagy bárkinek, aki hazánkat külföldön képviseli, akár csak informálisan is.
Az oldalon elérhető például promóciós videó, cikk a magyar Nobel-díjazottakról, a Magyar elnökség emlékbélyege stb.
Here is the website of the Hungarian presidency. It can be accessed in Hungarian, English, French and German. The website contains information about Hungary (Nobel laureates, inventors, promotional video etc.
http://www.eu2011.hu/presidency (retrieved 20th February 2011)
Magyarország az Európa Tanács soros elnöke 2011 január 1-től. Az alábbi linken elérhető az elnökség magyar nyelvű honlapja: http://www.eu2011.hu/hu/az-elnokseg (angolul, franciául és németül is elérhető).
Az oldalt azért ajánlom Comenius tanárasszisztenseknek, mert sok Magyarországot bemutató anyag található rajta, illetve a soros elnökséget betöltő hazánk most különösen reflektorfényben van. Az elnökséggel kapcsolatos dolgokról illik tudnia egy Comenius asszisztensnek, vagy bárkinek, aki hazánkat külföldön képviseli, akár csak informálisan is.
Az oldalon elérhető például promóciós videó, cikk a magyar Nobel-díjazottakról, a Magyar elnökség emlékbélyege stb.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Farsang
The time period after 6th January (Epiphany) until Ash Wednesday (hamvazószerda) is called farsang (carnival) in Hungary. From the religious aspect this is a time to enjoy partying and eating before the start of Lent (40 days of fasting leading up to Easter, ). As today not many people are actually fasting the eating aspect has lost its importance.
In Hungary the farsang celebrations usually mean that small children in kindergarden and primary school dress up in costumes (pretty much like American children at halloween but not so spooky) and they have a party, eat cake or something etc. Their mothers are already busy with buying costumes or trying to sew one. I've seen some mums buying masks in the Interspar today. Teenagers and young people also go out and party but dressing up in costumes is less common than in the case of small children.
Some old traditions connected to farsang are eating donuts called fánk (pronounced like "funk"). It is a possible carneval game to bake numbers on pieces of paper into the donuts and people who eat the donuts may win things based on the numbers. So it's kind of a raffle.
There are all sorts of old folk traditions connected to farsang about which I'm not going to write this time. In some villages they may be celebrated for attracting tourists. An old tradition which might be kept today to some extent is that weddings are not supposed to be organized during Lent.
Vocabulary
carnival ...............................farsang
Epiphany..............................Vízkereszt (6th January)
Lent ..................................... Nagyböjt
Ash Wednesday.................. Hamvazószerda (40th day before Palm Sunday)
Palm Sunday .......................Virágvasárnap (Sunday before Easter)
Easter Monday.....................Húsvét Hétfő
to fast.................................... böjtölni
fast ........................................böjt
costume ................................jelmez
donut(doughnut) ................fánk, farsangi fánk
In Hungary the farsang celebrations usually mean that small children in kindergarden and primary school dress up in costumes (pretty much like American children at halloween but not so spooky) and they have a party, eat cake or something etc. Their mothers are already busy with buying costumes or trying to sew one. I've seen some mums buying masks in the Interspar today. Teenagers and young people also go out and party but dressing up in costumes is less common than in the case of small children.
Some old traditions connected to farsang are eating donuts called fánk (pronounced like "funk"). It is a possible carneval game to bake numbers on pieces of paper into the donuts and people who eat the donuts may win things based on the numbers. So it's kind of a raffle.
There are all sorts of old folk traditions connected to farsang about which I'm not going to write this time. In some villages they may be celebrated for attracting tourists. An old tradition which might be kept today to some extent is that weddings are not supposed to be organized during Lent.
Vocabulary
carnival ...............................farsang
Epiphany..............................Vízkereszt (6th January)
Lent ..................................... Nagyböjt
Ash Wednesday.................. Hamvazószerda (40th day before Palm Sunday)
Palm Sunday .......................Virágvasárnap (Sunday before Easter)
Easter Monday.....................Húsvét Hétfő
to fast.................................... böjtölni
fast ........................................böjt
costume ................................jelmez
donut(doughnut) ................fánk, farsangi fánk
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Karácsony Magyarországon/Christmas in Hungary
Just a brief summary about modern day Christmas celebrations in Hungary. My purpose is to write about how we celebrate Christmas today and not to write about outdated long forgotten traditions that museums present. I'm from Budapest, the capital of Hungary so I'm mostly wiritng about Christmas in Budapest.
The Christmas Tree
Hungarians buy the Christmas tree some days or weeks before Christmas. (Some brave people buy it on the 24th but usually it is possible to get a tree from around the end of November.) People decorate the Christmas tree on 24th December. There might be a few families who prefer to decorate it earlier but it is usual to wait until the 24th. (Of course shopping malls and offices buy Christmas trees at the beginning of November and keep it as a decoration.) Sometimes you can see Christmas trees hanging outside of windows or on balconies wrapped up in plastic or tied around with ropes. The reason for this is that people keep the tree in a cold place before they decorate it on the 24th.
Usual Christmas tree decorations are:
How to dispose of the tree? The traditional day to undecorate the tree is 6th January (Epiphany). However some people choose to get rid of the tree earlier. Properly disposing of the Christmas tree is a problematic point. People very often leave it on the streets here and there. Next to the garbage container (leaving the tree next to the garbage container is okay, if you do it at the right time). But some people put their tree into parks or playgrounds. You can often see skeletons of trees lying in the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A sad sight indeed. Some people throw their tree out of the window. So watch out for falling trees when you roam the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A nice way of disposing of the tree can be composting it if you have a garden, or making firewood out of it, or to taking it to collecting places on the designated days. http://www.fkf.hu/portal/page/portal/fkf/Hirszerk/Feny%C5%91fa%20elsz%C3%A1ll%C3%ADt%C3%A1s%20a%20kar%C3%A1csonyi%20%C3%BCnnepek%20ut%C3%A1n (This is the website of the company that collects the trees, unfortunately information about collecting places in Budapest is only available in Hungarian. If you click on the orange coloured text "A kijelölt gyűjtőhelyek listája..." you will find the list.)
24th December - Not a bank holiday. Many people work on this day. Sometimes working days are rearranged countrywise before Christmas (people work on a Saturday) in order to have a day off on the 24th.
Hungarians give presents to each other in the evening. Officially it is the baby Jesus (Jézuska) who brings the presents, sometimes he is aided by angels. Religious families go to church before or after exchanging presents (to the evening mass, where usually a nativity play or Christmas concert can be watched, or to the midnight mass)
Even some of those families who otherwise don't go to church attend church around this time. (Although I don't know what exact percentage of the entire Hungarian population attends church at Christmas. I don't want to generalise.) The midnight mass is popular in this sense. I don't know about other families but in my family the 24th is Christmas celebration with just the closest family members.
25th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, eating eating eating, drinking drinking etc. It's also possible to go to church on this day.
26th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, further eating and drinking, a lot of people have a stomachache by this time :) It's also possible to go to church on this day.
Typical food:
hal - fish (fried in bread crumbs, or as a halászlé soup or in any other form) Fish represents Jesus. (google ichthys or ikthus if you need more info on this) As for fish fresh water carp is very popular, people like to buy it alive. So you can see lines of people at marketplaces or in hypermarkets standing in front of water tanks containing incredible amounts of live carp jammed together Some people buy cheaper frozen fish, or frozen sea fish (as Hungary doesn't have a sea we don't really differenciate between types of sea fish. Frozen fish packages sometimes don't have a description about the species, they are just called sea fish.
töltöttkáposzta - stuffed cabbage
kocsonya - meat jelly/pork jelly (this is not definitely eaten at Christmas, it is rather prepared around Christmas and eaten during the winter holidays or any time in winter) It is usually made of piglegs, and skin, sometimes pig ears and tails and heart. For foreigners this can be quite shocking. Some people put boiled eggs and vegetables also into the jelly. It is also not unusual to sprinkle the top of the jelly with some paprika powder. Kocsonya is so popular that each winter there is a kocsonya festival held in Miskolc. http://www.kocsonyafesztival.hu/
mézeskalács - gingerbread Actually it is possible to prepare it without ginger. The chief ingredient is honey. Cinnamon is also very important. We decorate it with icing. It is not only for the Christmas tree but just for eating.
habcsók - meringue I personally don't like it because it is too sweet. And it's just protein and carbohydrate and the ones you can get in shops don't even taste good. But tastes differ. This is definitely the thing that lasts the longest from all the Christmas sweets. We still have it weeks after Christmas. It doesn't go off easily when it's dried and no-one really likes it in my family. But it looks cute on the tree.
bejgli - it's a kind of sweet roll filled with walnut or poppy seeds.
hókifli - literally "snow crescent" . These are sweet little crescents sprinkled with castor sugar. They are easy to make and it's also easy to eat big quantities of it. Some people prepare it with some kind of filling (like walnut, or chestnut cream).
forraltbor - mulled wine This is not a special Christmas drink. It is drunk in the winter. I listed it here because you can always buy it at Christmas markets.
It is either red wine or white wine. There are different versions of it. I like it from white wine with cinnamon (fahéj) , cloves (szegfűszeg) (neither of them powdered) and sugar. Usually mulled wine is made of not so good quality wine whose taste can be improved with the spices and sugar.
There might be many many other things I have forgotten about. These were just a few that came to my mind. There is a new trend nowadays that people should eat healthy food during the holidays. Thus the traditional meals are sometimes replaced by "lighter" meals prepared from chicken or turkey breast and salad. And muffins are also gathering popularity (not just for the holidays, but in general).
Other things that belong to Christmas
Karácsonyi vásárok - Christmas markets - They have become popular recently. But usually they are very expensive. The one in Vörösmarthy tér is very famous but it is really expensive and it's rather for tourists. Other districts of Budapest also have smaller Christmas markets.
Andrássy út kivilágítása - Lights of Andrássy road - Each year the trees of Andrássy road are decorated with light garlands during November. It's very beautiful even romantic especially when it's snowing.
Temető - Cemetery - People visit their relatives around Christmas, bring winter decorations to the graves made of pine branches and cones and candles or artificial flowers. Cemeteries are open on the 25th and 26th.
The Christmas Tree
Hungarians buy the Christmas tree some days or weeks before Christmas. (Some brave people buy it on the 24th but usually it is possible to get a tree from around the end of November.) People decorate the Christmas tree on 24th December. There might be a few families who prefer to decorate it earlier but it is usual to wait until the 24th. (Of course shopping malls and offices buy Christmas trees at the beginning of November and keep it as a decoration.) Sometimes you can see Christmas trees hanging outside of windows or on balconies wrapped up in plastic or tied around with ropes. The reason for this is that people keep the tree in a cold place before they decorate it on the 24th.
Usual Christmas tree decorations are:
- karácsonyfadísz/karácsonyi (üveg)gömb (bauble - glass or plastic)
- (karácsonyi) csúcsdísz (tree top decoration - glass is very popular, but ribbons are cheaper so shopping malls use it, stars are also getting into fashion, but red stars have a negative conotation in Hungary)
- szaloncukor ("saloon/parlour candy" see the post about Mikulás concerning this candy)
- habcsók/habkarika (meringue)
- mézeskalács (gingerbread)
- csillagszóró (sparkler)
- karácsonyfadísz boa (tinsel garland)
- gyertyák (candles. As many trees and sometimes curtains catch fire at and around Christmas candles are getting a bit out of fashion. Usually it is on the news how many times the firemen have been alarmed because of Christmas tree fires)
- karácsonyi izzófüzér/karácsonfa füzér/karácsonyi égősor/karácsonyfa izzósor (Christmas lights, light garland, for example LED, this is safer and more popular than candles)
- all sort of other stuff depending on the current trend dictated by shopping malls
How to dispose of the tree? The traditional day to undecorate the tree is 6th January (Epiphany). However some people choose to get rid of the tree earlier. Properly disposing of the Christmas tree is a problematic point. People very often leave it on the streets here and there. Next to the garbage container (leaving the tree next to the garbage container is okay, if you do it at the right time). But some people put their tree into parks or playgrounds. You can often see skeletons of trees lying in the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A sad sight indeed. Some people throw their tree out of the window. So watch out for falling trees when you roam the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A nice way of disposing of the tree can be composting it if you have a garden, or making firewood out of it, or to taking it to collecting places on the designated days. http://www.fkf.hu/portal/page/portal/fkf/Hirszerk/Feny%C5%91fa%20elsz%C3%A1ll%C3%ADt%C3%A1s%20a%20kar%C3%A1csonyi%20%C3%BCnnepek%20ut%C3%A1n (This is the website of the company that collects the trees, unfortunately information about collecting places in Budapest is only available in Hungarian. If you click on the orange coloured text "A kijelölt gyűjtőhelyek listája..." you will find the list.)
24th December - Not a bank holiday. Many people work on this day. Sometimes working days are rearranged countrywise before Christmas (people work on a Saturday) in order to have a day off on the 24th.
Hungarians give presents to each other in the evening. Officially it is the baby Jesus (Jézuska) who brings the presents, sometimes he is aided by angels. Religious families go to church before or after exchanging presents (to the evening mass, where usually a nativity play or Christmas concert can be watched, or to the midnight mass)
Even some of those families who otherwise don't go to church attend church around this time. (Although I don't know what exact percentage of the entire Hungarian population attends church at Christmas. I don't want to generalise.) The midnight mass is popular in this sense. I don't know about other families but in my family the 24th is Christmas celebration with just the closest family members.
25th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, eating eating eating, drinking drinking etc. It's also possible to go to church on this day.
26th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, further eating and drinking, a lot of people have a stomachache by this time :) It's also possible to go to church on this day.
Typical food:
hal - fish (fried in bread crumbs, or as a halászlé soup or in any other form) Fish represents Jesus. (google ichthys or ikthus if you need more info on this) As for fish fresh water carp is very popular, people like to buy it alive. So you can see lines of people at marketplaces or in hypermarkets standing in front of water tanks containing incredible amounts of live carp jammed together Some people buy cheaper frozen fish, or frozen sea fish (as Hungary doesn't have a sea we don't really differenciate between types of sea fish. Frozen fish packages sometimes don't have a description about the species, they are just called sea fish.
töltöttkáposzta - stuffed cabbage
kocsonya - meat jelly/pork jelly (this is not definitely eaten at Christmas, it is rather prepared around Christmas and eaten during the winter holidays or any time in winter) It is usually made of piglegs, and skin, sometimes pig ears and tails and heart. For foreigners this can be quite shocking. Some people put boiled eggs and vegetables also into the jelly. It is also not unusual to sprinkle the top of the jelly with some paprika powder. Kocsonya is so popular that each winter there is a kocsonya festival held in Miskolc. http://www.kocsonyafesztival.hu/
mézeskalács - gingerbread Actually it is possible to prepare it without ginger. The chief ingredient is honey. Cinnamon is also very important. We decorate it with icing. It is not only for the Christmas tree but just for eating.
habcsók - meringue I personally don't like it because it is too sweet. And it's just protein and carbohydrate and the ones you can get in shops don't even taste good. But tastes differ. This is definitely the thing that lasts the longest from all the Christmas sweets. We still have it weeks after Christmas. It doesn't go off easily when it's dried and no-one really likes it in my family. But it looks cute on the tree.
bejgli - it's a kind of sweet roll filled with walnut or poppy seeds.
hókifli - literally "snow crescent" . These are sweet little crescents sprinkled with castor sugar. They are easy to make and it's also easy to eat big quantities of it. Some people prepare it with some kind of filling (like walnut, or chestnut cream).
forraltbor - mulled wine This is not a special Christmas drink. It is drunk in the winter. I listed it here because you can always buy it at Christmas markets.
It is either red wine or white wine. There are different versions of it. I like it from white wine with cinnamon (fahéj) , cloves (szegfűszeg) (neither of them powdered) and sugar. Usually mulled wine is made of not so good quality wine whose taste can be improved with the spices and sugar.
There might be many many other things I have forgotten about. These were just a few that came to my mind. There is a new trend nowadays that people should eat healthy food during the holidays. Thus the traditional meals are sometimes replaced by "lighter" meals prepared from chicken or turkey breast and salad. And muffins are also gathering popularity (not just for the holidays, but in general).
Other things that belong to Christmas
Karácsonyi vásárok - Christmas markets - They have become popular recently. But usually they are very expensive. The one in Vörösmarthy tér is very famous but it is really expensive and it's rather for tourists. Other districts of Budapest also have smaller Christmas markets.
Andrássy út kivilágítása - Lights of Andrássy road - Each year the trees of Andrássy road are decorated with light garlands during November. It's very beautiful even romantic especially when it's snowing.
Temető - Cemetery - People visit their relatives around Christmas, bring winter decorations to the graves made of pine branches and cones and candles or artificial flowers. Cemeteries are open on the 25th and 26th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)