Cardi B eats tripe and George Clooney likes Hungarian chicken paprikash – VIDEO
Hungarian cuisine is one of those things you either love and are passionate about or something you do not like or maybe even fear. For Hungarians, food is a very important thing, and we love it if foreigners taste our traditional dishes, but Hungarians also have a tendency to scare other people with unconventional dishes and delicacies.
For some people, organ meat is scary, or they might have had a bad experience with it. In Hungary, many dishes often include organs or even blood; blood sausage might sound scary for many foreigners, but it is actually quite tasty and, if prepared right, there is absolutely no iron-like taste to it.
Sometimes, the most innocent traditional Hungarian húsleves, usually referred to as chicken soup, can have meat in it other than chicken, or it can also contain the organs of other poultry. Some people put gizzard or heart in it to enrich the flavour and to have some tasty meat-treats in their soup. In many cases, húsleves can be made with turkey neck; people either nibble on it after eating the soup, or sometimes the cook would get the meat off of the vertebrae and put it into the soup for you to enjoy.
Recently, Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, or as she is called in the media, Cardi B, shared a video in which she showed a soup on social media her father brought her. In the soup, there were, among many other delicious-looking items, cut pieces of beef tripe. In the Hungarian media, this hit the news as Cardi B eating Hungarian pacal. Well, although pacal or tripe is not just unique to Hungary as quite a few other cultures also eat it, it is not among the most usual dishes you might think of. In Hungary, many swear by the pacalpörkölt or tripe stew. By any means, it is not among the most popular everyday Hungarian dishes in its home country either, but if in the future, you travel to Hungary, and if you are in a high-quality restaurant, you should give it a try at least once.
While Hungarian cuisine might not be as colourful or extreme as some cuisines in the world might be, it still is quite diverse and utilises many things that might get thrown out in many other countries’ kitchens. Pig’s feet in kocsonya (aspic), chicken feet in soup, or rooster testicles in a stew. If you would like to know more about similar fear-inducing dishes, you can read our two-part article about Hungary’s weirdest dishes. Click HERE for part one and HERE for part two.
While some aspects of Hungarian cuisine are unusual, others have since conquered the world and, thanks to the booming movie industry in Hungary, the world comes to us. Many Hollywood stars shoot scenes or even whole movies in Hungary, and during the time they are in the country, there is a high chance that they might taste the typical Hungarian dishes.
As Index pointed out, here is a fine example in which the interviewer, Anikó Návai, brought George Clooney homemade csirkepaprikás (chicken paprikash). Clooney mentions that he had eaten the dish when he was in Budapest and bonus points for him because he pronounced Budapest properly, just as a Hungarian would. She also included a little heart-shaped Hungarian mézeskalács for him in that little care package.
If you would like to bring Hungarian flavours to your home, Daily News Hungary has many recipes that you can browse from. If you want to take a look at them, you can do so by clicking HERE. We hope you will enjoy them.
Read alsoHabits and customs of Hungarians that creep out foreigners
Source: Index.hu, Daily News Hungary