It’s rather quiet here. The Universities are closed for the summer; everyone has gone to Lake Balaton. Lisa has had her head buried in the computer working on a couple of papers and I have been reading. It’s amazing how the absence of television has rekindled my enjoyment of books. The titles and authors are quite varied; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, an amazing story about a side of Lincoln I’d never heard about, several Agatha Christie books and currently I’m reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
We continue to work on perfecting the paprikash recipes. They are as varied from house to house as chili and spaghetti sauce recipes vary across the US. My nose has determined many Hungarian Mothers make a large batch of paprikash several times a week and then add the favorite or available final ingredient as it goes to the table, chicken, pork, potatoes, beans and mushrooms are all common. It is commonly served as a rich stew but can be served over meat. The expression “it will be better tomorrow” is used to describe the paprikash. It is often used as a sauce to bake meats and it thickens and richens as it blends with the meat juices. More investigation is necessary and I remain committed to the project.
We had a lovely evening at Andrea Karpati’s on Wednesday. We had not seen her flat, located on the Buda side. It’s a very unique and arty place with walls of books and special collections here and there. Her daughter Anna joined us for dinner and we enjoyed getting to know her, I knew instantly she was a brilliant young lady when we discovered we both liked South Park. I will bring her some SPAM on the return visit. Andrea had prepared a fruit soup, a chicken paprikash and her special spinach dumplings she had made for us in Illinois. We also celebrated Lisa’s birthday a couple of days early.
Andrea’s building is near the Rubik Studios, see pic, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of one of the Budapest street signs near her home. We were looking for her building, No. 74. We saw this sign and naturally walked to the right, her building was to the left. Maybe they moved the building. The sentry guarding the sign is further evidence of this.
We will celebrate Lisa’s birthday on Friday with a trip to the New York Café. I wonder if they have a Budapest Café in New York. There is a Russian Tea Room in Chicago.
We have a busy weekend planned. I think I have a car rented and we are heading to the wine country near Egar and then driving thru a National Forest toward Slovakia. There are several castles near Filakovo we want to see, a day trip on Saturday. We are spending part of Sunday with Stefan, Andrea and Eva going to a island in the Danube. We are heading to the flea market on Sunday morning to look for Lisa’s birthday present.
Anyway…here are a couple of pictures from the last few days. Lady vendor sleeping at the flea market; A nice flower shop; everyone reads on the trams; another interesting t-shirt; a view of the Gellert; Lisa, Andrea and Anna; art picture of a spider.
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