Story

Vegetable soup. Zöldségleves

This is my personal favorite soup and the one my mother made the most as it was simple. The ingredients were almost always available in the pantry, as well as it was quick to make. The broth without paprika is insipid. I call this “paprika vegetable” as it’s no ordinary vegetable soup. It can be…

Beans & Hungarian Kolbasz

I don’t think a Hungarian could live without Kolbasz. The soft, smoke cured, heavily seasoned with paprika, links of sausage originally created in the town of Gyula. Gyulai Kolbasz is the national sausage I think. I know it was what my refugee parents missed as I was growing up. After we settled down and had…

The Best Chicken Soup: A Culinary Memory

My mother made the best chicken soup. It was a very special meal, a rare occurrence, because we had to catch, kill, scald, defeather, and burn the fuzz off that unlucky bird before it even made it into the kitchen. We were a family of four, and that pot of soup was a feast. After…

Palacsinta

The ones my mother made were almost always perfect. Mine however were not, I had a long learning curve, but later on I intentionally made mistakes. The imperfect ones were for “testing”. When I saw the kids waiting in anticipation, I made a wonky one so they could get one right away, I just had to hold it in the air to cool it for a minute not to burn their hands. It was my way of keeping the anticipatory magic alive for me.

I was the only waitress working, and then..

I was working in what’s known in Chicagoland as a greasy spoon diner. The food was good quality and the owners and cooks cared. I was proud to serve everyone who came in. It was a small place, with about twenty booths, and a counter. From the kitchen back and center, the cooks could see…