Some foods are only obvious to us Hungarians and some customs are incomprehensible to foreigners. Hungarian cuisine also harbours dishes that are not so appetising to others, or even horrifying. We've also put together a selection of some of the specialities that make other nations cringe.
Excesses of Hungarian ingredients
We have to accept the fact that every nation has its own gastronomic habits, which are not at all appreciated beyond its borders. There are dishes that are considered a delicacy in one country, and in another it is strange how you can eat them. It's good to know what not to offer foreign guests, as it can cause consternation. Of course, there is no doubt that there are some foods that even Hungarians do not cultivate. To a foreigner, there are many Hungarian dishes and has raw materials, which is indeed surprising. For example, they are surprised that most of our casseroles, stews, soups and one-dish meals start with fat and onions. They don't understand our obsession with peppers or sour cream, not to mention the fact that the sour cream we are used to is nowhere to be found, except in the form of sour cream.
What is a perfectly obvious dish for us, such as round stew and the like, is a surprise for foreigners. Like a fruit soup served before a main course, which can elicit startled looks from dinner guests.
What our foreign acquaintances look at askance
Eating fat is, for most foreigners, completely incomprehensible. Cooking with fat accepted, but they don't understand how to spread the almost solid fat on bread. And it's even stranger to sprinkle with red pepper, or just put onions on top and eat it on its own, it's a complete meal for us.
Anyone who wasn't born here is almost horrified to see the pig slaughtering customs we have. Starting with the brandy, which only we really like. The classic breakfast is fresh pig's blood cooked with a little onion, which is a complete shock to foreigners. Although similar in taste and texture to liver, the blood blood still makes them shudder. Then come the blood sausage, the fried pig's ear, the kidney stew and the jelly.
The consumption of offal is not new to world gastronomy, and indeed has a long tradition, but it is not a typical dish. In Hungary we eat almost everything. Marrow, heart, May, pacal, zúza, or even rooster eggs can be added to the food. These are already basically sharing dishes at home. The most peculiar to foreigners are round stew, round beans, roast pigs' feet or stuffed pigs' nails, including kidney stew. And what is sure to blow your mind is the staple ingredient of the cattle's forequarters, the pacal. Although not so divisive, there are very few places in the world outside our own country where lungs are used to make food. We have countless recipes, but when guests from other countries come to visit us, this is not the first dish we come up with.
Foreigners do not understand these foods
The main dishes
They are completely unusual for them. They look at the plate with interest and don't know where to put it. Because it's neither a soup nor a main course. Especially eating it with a spoon is totally strange to them. You can completely confuse foreign guests with main courses, and if you add a meatloaf, fried eggs or just the fried parsnips we know, they will be taken aback.
The poppy
Its consumption can be staggering. Because in most foreign countries poppy seeds are associated with mind-altering drugs, it is inconceivable to them that we would simply sprinkle them on pasta or bake them in a cake. Poppy seed bejgli should not be the first cake you offer your foreign friend.
The cottage cheese
Consumption is a typical Hungarian habit. Especially the more chunky ones we are used to can be divisive for foreigners. Although it is not only consumed here, it is used in many dishes in Hungary. The most surprising for them is the combination of sugar and chocolate, such as the cottage cheese rudi, which was first produced in Hungary in the 1960s, based on the Russian siroki. In any case, there really is nothing like it anywhere.
Sweet pastas,
They are not usual. Most pasta the nation can't imagine why we put sugar, nuts, poppy seeds, jam on the dough.
The fruit soup
Not unknown to foreigners, but for them it is dessert. But if you put the sweet cold fruit dish in front of them at the beginning of the meal, they won't understand why it's happening.
The pasta starters
Egg noodles, or potato noodles, are also incomprehensible to people from across the border. This is because they don't understand why we eat the side dish on its own. The most interesting for them is noodles, which is a pasta that is only familiar to us, so you can't really buy noodle cutters anywhere outside our country.
There are two other interesting facts for foreigners discovering our country's gastronomy. The first is why we eat bread with everything, even pasta, and the second, which is completely incomprehensible to them, is the taste of milk! If you have a foreign guest and want to surprise him, make it for him!
