More Snow!

This is the side view of the church in Szöreg.

It's been snowing nearly non-stop today. As I was leaving school in Szöreg I decided to snap a few shots because I was so excited to finally see so much snow this past week.

This is a tree.

This is the church next to the school.

Freak Snow Storm on Friday the Thirteenth

Snow!

Today's was a morning like any other...that was until I was hurriedly opening my door and I was greeted by a full carpet of white and thick snow fall. There was already a couple of inches at 7am and now it's noon and the snow still hasn't stopped though it has slowed down a lot and everything will most likely melt before the end of the day.

Mangalica Festival!

Oh, where to begin? How about the samples? Hmm, lets start with the pig.



This fellow is a Red Mangalica. Notice that I'm using the Hungarian spelling which is pronounced Mangalitza, which is a common Austrian spelling. These two countries have been a safe haven for the breed as they are popular and have thrived for nearly a century and a half whilst this wonderful pig fell out of favor and became extinct in other countries. This is a huge bonus to both Hungary and Austria right now as farmers who are eager to jump on the porcine train of popular pork want to begin raising them. So naturally they have to go to the former Austro-Hungarian Empire to pick out their breeding stock.



Speaking of stock here are all three varieties of the Mangalica: Blond, Red, and Swallow Bellied. Notice that these happy pigs all have their tails intact. There are many reasons why industrial farmers remove the pig's tails. All of these reasons begin with farming and social conditions that the pigs live in that result in tail biting. But if the pigs are happy, interested, and allowed to spend their curiosity on exploration, and they are mixed well this is not a problem that necessitates the docking of their tails.

Please check out the following blog: Wooly Pigs. I've been following him for a while, but had forgotten about his farm after his pack was doing well. Heath Putnam imported his own pack of Mangalica's to Washington from Austria (I believe) and began selling meat to The French Laundry, among other venues, and has now expanded his sales to retail available in farmer's markets and cities like Seattle and New York. If you are close to these sources, please, check it out.



This is some of the Mangalica kolbász I bought. Notice the dark colors and fat. Mangalica are known for their delicious fat and juicy meat. This kolbász was smoked and has paprika in it. Smoke and paprika just go together so well! The overall flavor is sweet and smoky and the texture is really soft.


Various cuts of Mangalica including prosciutto.

The szalonna, bacon (raw in this case), I tried melted in my mouth like a good chocolate does. I also tried other types of kolbász, but it wasn't the only food I ate...



This is a pan of stuffed cabbage, Mangalica stuffed cabbage to be exact. These pans are similar to giant paella pans and hold a lot of food.



Here's a close up...



These are a few of the friendly Hungarians who produce some of the best porcine products in the world.

I'd like to leave you with an image of the animal that makes all of this possible...

New Knives and Homemade Jerky

I'd like to start this post with a big thank you to my family: Nick who made smoked beef jerky, Sam who included a most indispensable candy dispenser, and my Mom who mailed it all. I just got it today at school and was most happy to see it!

On with the post. Spar, a supermarket chain store has been running a promotional for a while where for every 1,000 HUF spend you collect a sticker. Over time, these stickers add up and are saved for discounts off of the Henckels knives they are selling. When this happened during the fall I figure it was high time to have some decent knives. My best knife in Europe, until today that is, was a cheap Tesco paring knife with which I've done everything from prep for stir-fries and soups to cutting bread. These are no small tasks for such a blade: have you seen the 1 kg loaves of bread here?

The sticker dispensing part of the promotional is ending this next Sunday and I've been noticing that the knife stock has been running out at my friendly neighborhood Spar's so I added up my points last night and realised I didn't have enough points for 50% percent off of the chef's knife, but I did have enough to get 25% off of a chef's knife, a paring knife and a steel. So today, after lessons, I went to 3 different Spar's to find my two new blades. The first one at Csillag tér didn't have either. I went to the next Spar a couple of stops closer to my flat and they only had the paring knife, so I bought it. Then I went to the tiny little Spar next to Mars tér and they had the chef's knife! Mission accomplished!


New Henckels knives


New knives put to task on some homemade jerky


Please note the hand-crushed arbol chiles on the jerky



So I'm guessing Nick made a marinade of soy sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar before smoking the beef strips in his Little Chief. Good job Nick! I love the extra hot the best, it's not too hot for me. It's about 85% hot, but 100% delicious!



And just in case you were wondering: this is the indispensable candy dispenser. It's a Wii controller. Cheers!

tracks and packs dot blogspot dot com backslash hilarious

®photo courtesy Franny Finstrom

Hot off the press from freelance photographer Franny Finstrom: she has located THE source for tracksuits and fanny packs. Where on Earth can both of these wonderful fashion statements be found? Where else but Hungary, of course!

Pay attention Tommy: apparently the UK term for a "chad", you know what I'm talking about, is a chav. Enjoy!

Christmas Break: Hungary and the Prisoner of Worker Strikes

Starting from Szeged meant dealing with a few problems. Such as a train strike. The fastest, cost effective, and comfortable option to Budapest is the train, but with the trains on strike for a week my confidence of getting to there quickly, cheaply, and comfortably was waning. Franny and I checked the station hoping there would be an answer either way. The station was emptier than America's pocket book. Anyway, the ticket window was open and after consulting our adviser, an old woman chatting with the woman behind the ticket window, we bought the tickets and were told to walk out of the station and to the left to catch our bus. Yes, we had just bought train tickets for a bus, but don't get impatient, I'm getting there...we wished everyone a Merry Christmas and reflected upon the conundrum of purchasing train tickets for a bus.

Well, up pulled a city bus, but it didn't have route numbers glowing in the front like they should. We asked if it was the bus to Budapest and they laughed. They laughed, but at the same time beckoned us onto the bus, nay, they pulled us on, laughing as they did so. Despite the thoughts of being driven to Ukraine and into white slavery I have become used to odd experiences like this one and as odd as it sounds, white slavery is hardly on the list.

Ok, so we're on the bus which is populated by not a single Hungarian traveler. We have all of the groups represented though: there's the awkward Asian who sticks out all the more because this is a homogenized populated country in the off-season, some light travelers who are probably speaking English in the background, and us, the living-in-Hungary-but-trying-to-get-out group.

A short drive the the second train station in Szeged, one reserved for industrial uses, has us crossing the tracks to a lonely passenger train while until semi trucks are being driven onto a long train, tractor and all. Other than all of the odd prelude it's a train ride as usual where many of the platforms after Szeged were being used as normal. Upon arrival Franny and I jaunted over the Christmas market one last time in Vörösmárty tér, Budapest. Then we went to Jake's and Ellen's apartment one last time before to stay the night and have burritos. My first Mexican food in months. We were entertained by Carla's cat Boo who watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with us.

Waking at a ridiculous hour Franny and I made our way to Ferihegy, the airport, Terminal 1. Of course upon arrival there is naught but a single soul in the entire terminal. The place is deserted, which is odd for any airport terminal. Because of the airport worker's strike Terminal 1 was closed but we didn't see the sign until we walked around a bit, it was one of those signs that one sticks on the top of a stantion. But we gladly took the opportunity to have breakfast in peace at the Illy café. Afterwards we caught the next bus to Terminal 2 which is surprisonly far away from Terminal 1. Then it was a game of lines... Oh, holiday traffic! Luckily the EU imported greeks to work the terminal which meant that one terminal worked better than two under the operation of Hungarians. (Sorry Hungarian airport workers!) But that was the joke at least, and I have to admit that everything did go smoothly everything considered. So that means we caught our plane on time. I'll meet you all in Germany in my next post!

Happy New Year! -- B.U.E.K!

Boldog Uj Evét Kívánok!