Life in Sarkad -- The Food

Hungarian style bacon -- with meat and pickle
This was freaking delicious -- the tips are crunchy and the rest is just fat that melts in your mouth

So much to cover -- but as Meliss and I want to remember what this experience was like on a day to day basis we thought it fitting to devote at least one entry entirely to what we eat here.  As we prepared to come to Hungary, we tried to research the foods we would be eating. Everything we read led us to believe that the Hungarian diet consisted of heavy spices and lots of river fish. It is safe to assume that Meliss was both horrified about her eating prospects and excited about dropping a few lbs.

Turns out that the food IS heavily spiced, but mainly with paprika -- which isn't necessarily spicy.  In fact, much to the dismay of my palette (and Melissa's ass), most of the food is really quite bland.  

Everything is quite orange after paprika spice is added...but it doesn't seem to add much more than color. Now, I can find spicy paprika (eros) and it does have a good kick to it. I think it would be really good with some butter and chicken wings -- and as soon as I figure out how to say chicken wings, I will buy some from the butcher.  

As for the fish, well Hungarians eat much more pork (like snout to tail style) than anything else and that is alright by us! 

Anyway, one of the (many) first things we needed to figure out when we arrived in Sarkad was what we were going to eat. There is a pizza joint at the base of the apartment complex as well as one full-blown restaurant down the street. There are also several hamburger stands -- but they are not very good.  

Besides, we can't afford to eat out every night so home cooking is a must.  We took inventory and had several pots but only one pan.  

We have become quite the rice/potato/pasta connoisseurs. Basically, every night we have onions and garlic with either pasta, potatoes, or rice. Throw in some kind of meat (chicken or pork) with lots of paprika, sour cream, salt and pepper (white pepper til it runs out because I didn't realize that's what I was buying), and we are good to go!

But first, we had to figure out how to buy all this stuff -- not so easy.

All kinds of meat we had to learn

CBA produce section -- less gnats and fruit flies

Assorted fruits and veggies

And the rest of the market (CBA)

 Milk -- just sitting in the middle of the store 

Meat counter at REAL

Sausages at CBA

Tesco aisles

I suppose I can't go forward without mentioning the first real thing we purchased in Hungary -- a cutting board.  We moved in and found a wood cutting board that pretty much disintegrated in my hand when I picked it up. For a few weeks we just used chunks of it to cut parts of meat and veggies, but it wasn't really a tenable option for the long term. 

It just so happpened that on the way home from one of our trips to Békescsaba we had to wait for our bus back to Sarkad. We had to go to Békescsaba several times with Sylvia to take care of all of our paperwork -- residency permits and work visas, etc. Each trip was about as pleasant as going to the DMV with the added bonus of it being in a different language.  

Across the street from the bus station was an OBI (we didn't know what the hell it was) and so we went in and walked around (it's a lot like Lowe's).   

Great! Now I am not handy in two languages

But, they did have cutting boards -- they had pans too, but we were surviving with the one we had so decided on just the cutting board.

Dreaming of cutting food stuffs without them flying all over the place!
Who am I kidding? I'm still in short sleeves, I was dreaming of not being hot anymore.
It's cold now -- I wish I could have this weather again!

Back to the food -- and my favorite meal we made at home thus far -- problem is I can't remember exactly how I made it!

Chicken, potatoes, garlic and onions

That looks like just about every meal we have at home in some way shape or form. Unless, we include eggs.

Big orange eggs.

Big orange egg, pork chop (karaj) and potato, onion and garlic

Breakfast for dinner
Eggs, potato, onions, garlic and BACON!!!
Buying bacon is a whole other headache

We have bought bacon a few times but bacon comes in a several different forms. The bacon above was kind of in a Canadian bacon type form. It looked good in the window so we bought it.  Came home typed the name of it in the computer translator and realized we bought bacon!

The last time I bought bacon we got it home and realized there was no meat to it at all. I asked for the same thing...I know I said the same word...and the butcher just turned around and hacked a slice off some slab hanging up behind him. Got it home, unwrapped it, and we just had bacon fat.

Bacon fat -- we just cut it up and use it instead of oil

After a few weeks, we were eating well enough but something was missing. No green! We had eaten kaposta salata (cabbage salad -- somewhat similar to coleslaw {the oil and vinegar kind}) at restaurants and at my school so we decided we could probably make that. We stopped at one of a few little veggie stands along the road in Sarkad and picked up some cabbage (not one of my favorite veggies) and some cucumber along with some vinegar from Tesco. 

We cut up the cucumber (it was actually zucchini the first time but these are mistakes we just get used to -- long green vegetable?  Must be cucumber...nope) and an onion, threw it in a container with some vinegar and water, and we had a nice vegetable mix to pour over some cabbage -- and the zucchini tasted fine.

Plus, I got to see this!

Look Grandma, Melissa's cooking!!!

Raise your hand if you ever thought you'd see this!!!

That opened the door to a whole new set of dinner options -- like pretty much all the same stuff we had been eating but with a salad on the side.

Now we're talking!

But, we don't just eat at home...or at least I don't...because I get a free school lunch! Melissa's school does not serve food. Instead all the kids and teachers just bring food and eat all day.  Many times the teachers will go out to lunch at 2:00 (14:00) and have what they call menü. Menü is just a lunch special for the day. Most, if not all, restaurants offer it. They just put a sign out for whatever the meal is that day and that's the only option. I assume my school serves lunch because there aren't that many places to eat here in Sarkad. But, a free lunch is a free lunch!

Sometimes it's good -- like when they have chicken or fish. Sometimes, it's not so good -- like when they have gyulmolcs leves (fruit soup). It tastes like apple pie...kind of, but not in a good way. It has the taste of assorted fruits but the texture of soup and it's warm. My teachers and students say it's better when chilled. Actually, my students say it is "phooey."

Melissa and I switched schools for a week and she got to experience a similar dish called forest soup. This was a soup made from the different berries one can find in the forest...and there was a piece of chicken in it.

Chicken and forest soup...and Meliss ate it!! That's a quarter at least!!!

Other examples of school food...

Liver and veggie soup -- not one of our favorites

Noodles and onions with bread

Ok, so Sylvia made a point to mention to us that the school serves a lot of traditional Hungarian dishes, but if we didn't like them to make sure to try them at a restaurant because, you know, school food and all. 

I've had some really good meals at school and some I could do without. Most importantly, I never leave hungry because every lunch includes two big bowls of food -- sometimes those two big bowls are both soup, sometimes it's soup and some meat dish. Either way, I at least like one of the two and the lunch ladies enjoy getting my take on all of them (which consists of frowns or smiles while pointing at each dish).

On occasion, we do treat ourselves to a night out at the one full-fledged restaurant in Sarkad, Avar Vendeglo. If we both get a meal and two glasses of wine it costs about 20 dollars...and we can eat on the leftovers for a few days.

A-var VEN-day-glu

We knew it was a nice place to eat because of the quality of bikes parked outside...we're not joking about that.

Always the place settings first -- and that is one single ply napkin they give you

Meliss in full-on Lynn Kasten pose (Meliss: did not work, forgot how to do it)

Fried pork cutlet and fries
We had the same thing in Vienna, it's just called wiener schnitzel (viener)

And fried pork stuffed with cheese and ham

Mmmmmmm

Yeah, it was good -- and good for about two days after this!
But, how did we know what to order, you ask?

Ok, they had an English menu too -- very surprising and very welcome!

And dessert? There was a couple behind us that ordered something so we just pointed at it and told our waiter "kettö," which is two (except it's not an umlaut over the "o" it's quotation marks and I don't know how to do that on the computer).

We got two of these.

It was half parts rice pudding and flan. It was all parts un-good.

We left soon thereafter though as a wedding party showed up.

Back to food though, and speaking of things Melissa doesn't like, she went to menü with her faculty a few times and ended up with some odd meals.

One day, she got this...

She ate a bite of hot dog looking (heavy on the looking because
Meliss says it did not taste remotely like a hot dog) thing, but none of the flour/lard/fat soup

Another time, we both went and shared a bowl of chicken soup.

Chicken soup...the bowl fed four and then we got to the bottom...

Wish we would have seen this sooner
When we tell our Hungarian friends about this they say, "Oh, well I always take the nails off before serving."
Yeah, like that's the problem!

Outside of that, we just walk around and find places to eat when we're hungry...or thirsty.

Truth in advertising...finally

We didn't go in here, though...no ice cream?  C'mon!

The more the pictures, the more we understand.

Early on, we were walking around Gyula and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. I had fish soup and Melissa had onion soup.

Fish soup -- carp in paprika broth, loved it.

Onion soup -- not French onion, just onion -- and couldn't really find the onions?

And then, lo and behold, the waiter we were semi-talking too gave us a free shot of Palinka.

That peach picture is just a front -- it doesn't taste like peaches.
It tastes like burning.

Ok, so basically that's what we eat on a daily basis. Most days we are at home eating rice, onions, garlic and whatever meat we know how to translate.

Oh, and after eating all of that -- well, you might need this!

Haha!

Up Next -- Pics of Gyula and Melissa's school

This...is...SARKAD! (part 1)

How to explain Sarkad?  Well, let's start with this -- after ten days in Hungary's capital we moved to a small, remote farm town on the border of Romania. 

Budapest

And Sarkad...

Now, small remote farm towns aren't that foreign to us (hell, I taught in Jerseyville for 12 years) -- however, living in a small, remote farm town on the border of Romania is something else entirely. 

We got up on our first day in Sarkad and made our way to my school, Ady Endre--Bay Zoltan Gimnazium Kozepiskola es Kollegium (yeah, that's right). It wasn't difficult -- it's only a 3-5 minute walk depending on if the back gate is open or not. 

Front of my school

To the right of the school is a fenced in courtyard where students hang out in between classes, if the weather is nice.  

Courtyard -- student dormitory on left and more classrooms on right
The church by our apartment is in the background

This creek runs between the main school and the courtyard

I still can't believe there aren't any "accidents" involving students/books/hats ending up in the creek. There is just a little sidewalk that winds around the courtyard next to it.  It really wouldn't be a stretch to actually have an accident.

Back of the classrooms and dormitory

Back of my school

And from the school looking back toward the creek and dormitory

And I almost forgot -- 

The school parking lot

BACK TO THE STORY  --

As Meliss and I walked into school, the teachers were all walking out of a meeting.  We met up with Sylvia and she introduced us (much like a receiving line at a wedding).  It was a lot of "hello," "how are you," "nice to meet you," -- that about sums up most of my everyday school conversations. There are 3 or 4 teachers that speak some English at my school...and since we speak little to no Hungarian...well, there is a definite language barrier. That being said, everyone is really friendly -- it's just that we have no way to really communicate.  

What's really crazy is when like five or six teachers get into a conversation around us when we are at school. It's hilarious and/or frustrating depending on our mood.  Meliss has taken to participating in these conversations by trying to look thoughtful and saying stuff like, "you don't say," "wow, that's really something," etc. I just keep my head down and make up fake conversations...usually dealing with fantasy football. 

Anyway, we went into the teacher's lounge (the tánari, as it were) and rifled thru my desk to see what materials I had.  

Sylvia explained that Andras and Zsuzse (pronounced Andrash and Shuzhee, but we call them Andrew and Susie) were going to pick us up to take us to Melissa's school. This was a big relief for "us."

Sylvia (who speaks fluent English) also informed me that there were teacher meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday that I need not attend and so I should just return on Thursday.  No argument there!

Andrew and Susie showed up soon thereafter and we hopped in a car for Gyula.  At this point, Melisss and I were clinging to each other for life. We had stayed pretty adamant about sticking together these first few days...at least until we could figure out how to successfully get from one town to the other. If they took Meliss to Gyula, then I was going as well. No questions asked.  Ok, we did ask, but it was no problem and off we went for Gyula. 

A lot of what they said on the ride to Gyula (about the school, our roles, and about teaching in Hungary) makes more sense now (3 months later) but it didn't at the time -- we were just happy to get some answers about Melissa's teaching arrangements.  I do recall that Andrew and Susie also made mention of the gypsy problem in Sarkad (if you are scoring at home, that would be two warnings in (our first) two days about the gypsy problem in Sarkad...comforting.

Susie and Andrew (Melissa's contact teachers)

Andrew dropped us all off at the bus station and Susie briefed us on bus transportation.  Then, we walked through the city center on the way to Melissa's school.  Gyula is a tourist(y) town in southern Hungary. Tourists come for the castle and for the thermal baths. The thermal baths are used to cure all sorts of ailments including, but not limited to, arthritis. As such, it is a tourist town for old people (kind of like Branson, but less Yakov).

We walked into Melissa's school -- Gyulai Romai Katolikus Gimnazium, Altalanos Iskola, Ovoda es Kollegium (we had to look that up) -- (it's Roman Catholic, that's all we could figure ) -- (and I didn't even put the squiggles and umlauts on all the letters) -- (Melissa really missed working at EAWR at this point!) -- and met many of her teachers. 

Melissa's school (pictures of which will be posted on the Gyula blog coming up) has several teachers that speak English -- so that was helpful (but, they're all named Csaba {Chaba}, as far as we can tell).  On this day though, we were sent to THE DIRECTOR.  Ok, that's a little over the top, but that's what they call the principal type person.  Still, we were beckoned to his office. Along the way Susie even told us how nervous she was...and she's Hungarian.  

We walked in and I swear it was like that scene in The Natural when Robbie Redford goes to meet with the shady owner that didn't like having any lights on.  Plus, this guy's name was Zoltán.  So, we sat in Zoltán's darkened office and he buzzed questions at us (thru Susie) about teaching, life, and other matters. It was TERRIFYING!  

Update: he loves Melissa (she teaches him English for one lesson a week) and has invited us to live in Gyula for next semester.  

For all of that, at least we found out that Meliss had a teacher's meeting on Thursday (which she did have to attend) and she would begin teaching the following Monday -- so done and done. 

Except that we still had to make our way back to Sarkad -- and that meant the bus.  This was our first bus trip alone.  As we waited for the bus, we decided it was probably best to just go with "Sarkad?" and hand the driver some money.  He looked at us, laughed a little, took our money, and we found a seat. It's about a twenty-five minute ride to Sarkad from Gyula and we just hoped we would end up there -- and then recognize it when/if we did. 

It has been three months now and I still have to ask the bus driver if I am getting on the right bus (and by ask, I mean walk up, say "Sarkad?" or "Gyula?" or "Békescsaba?" {two of which I can't exactly pronounce} and then hope he understands me.  I have had to get off of several buses because of this).  

On this day though, Meliss and I made it back to Sarkad and that gave us two days to clean and unpack in our new home.  

After cleaning, we struck out onto the mean streets of Sarkad.

Sarkad bus terminal (it's right across the street from the flat)

Blurry picture of our fountain -- I think Meliss was dodging a bike when she took this

The loud church

One of several different horse carts
The guys driving it always look at us like we're strange for taking pictures of them!

Above is the sign for the Real grocery store and the store itself.  For the first few weeks, we just walked around Sarkad checking things out. The most excited we got was when we stumbled upon a new grocery store (there are 4 of them).  Each has a few things we want, but none have everything we need, which means grocery shopping includes walking to all of them.  

Our tiny Tesco (we have seen these as large as Super Walmarts in other towns)

Penny Market is the furthest away so we go there the least.
Also, the security guy follows us around the whole time we're in there.

The last one is the CBA and it's our favorite because the the produce section has less gnats and fruit flies than the others. Also, the CBA is where I first attempted to buy lunch meat for us.  I went after school to buy some turkey. I know the word for turkey -- it's pulyka.  Turns out that I knew how to spell the word for turkey but did not know how to pronounce it. 

I went to the counter, pointed at the sliced turkey, and said, "Pull-e-ka." The lady just shook her head. So, I tried "Pool-e-ka." Nope.  "Polka?" Nothing.  I looked around for a second and was happy to see that not too many people were going to witness what happened next.  I pointed at the meat and did my best turkey gobble ever. The lady about fell over laughing, then called all her co-workers over and told them. A bit embarrassing, sure -- but I got that damn turkey!

I don't think the lady was messing with me but on the way home I thought about how far off I could've been from the right word (it's "poo-e-ka").  Pointing at turkey and saying something that had to be close to turkey should do it right?  Oh well. The good part is that now when Meliss and I go in we get waited on straightaway, just in case I do something else stupid for them. 

Our other favorite place in town is the húsáruház (butcher -- or something close to that).  When we were leaving Budapest, the only thing Hajni (our director) told us about Sarkad was that we should be very happy because they have a great butcher. Take from that what you will.

The butcher of Sarkad
Inside pics coming soon

And what he sells...

The first time we went in, the butcher was hacking some hooves off some animal's leg (guessing pig, but wouldn't bet on it). Then, those smaller hoof chunks were placed in the display case.

It's a very small place -- and there were just hunks of meat hanging on the wall and  others jammed in the display case in front of us. I wouldn't say that we recognize all the food in there yet -- there are certainly some parts and chunks that we hope we never have to eat -- but we do know what animal the meats are coming from at this point (without having to make any animal noises).

Usually we buy a piece of meat, take it home, and use the translator to figure out exactly what part of the pig, cow, turkey we have.

Back on the street...

Primary school across the street from our flat
The trees block our view of it from the balcony so we thought we were
in the wrong town when we first saw it from the bus

Another primary school down the road a bit....

We thought this was a bit violent for the little ones?
Trianon is the treaty the Hungarians were forced to sign at the end of WWI
They are not happy about it

Seeing these well manicured lawns made us feel more at ease -- we were a little
worried about this horrible gypsie problem --but this all seemed very normal

An average backyard (or garden as they say)

More horse cart action!

Walking on left -- bikes on right

Another street -- we tried to keep the church in sight (not terribly difficult) to avoid getting lost

I don't know if you can tell -- but look at how pointy those nails are! We have seen these in person and they look deadly

Horse cart -- I took a camera to school with me and stopped class just to get this picture

On the other side of town (about a fifteen minute walk), is Lake Eden. Meliss was still dealing with her mosquito phobia so we didn't spend too much time here, but long enough to get some pictures. 

Lake Eden Hall of Fame

I am not swimming in that lake.

Ok -- so that's Sarkad!  Well, not quite.  We'll have more pics from inside the butcher's shop and some of the grocery stores. Also, stuff from my school...and more horse carts as well!

We were going to add the first days of school to this one but it's too long already -- so that will be next.