HUNGARIAN FOOD GLOSSARY
It's Hungarian Food Appreciation Week!! Let's start with some fun words to help you navigate the week ahead.
Hi, friends!
Welcome to Hungarian Food Appreciation Week here at Edible Living HQ (tonight: my couch with my laptop perched on my knee as we wrap up another busy family weekend)! I got the idea to do an all-Hungarian week of recipes and stories here because I was itching to share some of the special things from our last week in Hungary in August that I couldn’t get to in the moment.
My world is almost entirely split down the middle. One side is the world I know from the American family I grew up in, the meals we ate, our traditions and customs, and my adult home in America, where I’m raising my kids in many of the same ways (Sunday pancakes and pastries, family movies, and taco night).
But then there is our Hungarian world: the world of my husband, his Hungarian family, the Magyar language, our summers in the Bakony, and the foods from his Motherland we love and so often cook. More and more, these are my family’s favorite foods, our comfort foods, and the Hungarian world we lean into every evening when my kids come through the back door.
It’s a world with so much depth, history, story, struggle, and triumph (both personal and cultural), so I thought, why not invite you, dear readers, to immerse yourself in this part of my world for one full week?
I’m excited to dive into a week of Hungarian recipes, words, and stories, starting with a glossary of food words I use repeatedly in my writing here. Some of you have seen these words in past articles like Postcard from Hungary, and It’s Not August Without Palacsinta, and you’ll see them, again and again, this week and beyond. (note: this glossary is not exhaustive—I will keep updating it as a resource, year by year).
Next, I’ll be back soon with a personal essay from our August trip, followed by a Q+A and recipe from Jeremy Salamon, owner of Agi’s Counter and author of the new cookbook Second Generation.
If you’re new here, you should know this is one of the very few times in a year that you’ll hear from me more than once a week (the other time is around Christmas when we do traditions and treats from around the world!). Thank you for coming along for this ride. I hope you learn something, laugh, cry, cook, explore a part of your family’s culinary and cultural identity, and maybe even get inspired to travel to Hungary with your favorite people sometime soon.
xx
Sarah
This letter wouldn’t be possible without YOU! Enormous thanks to all who choose to support my work with a paid subscription. Paid subscribers will have full access to all posts this week! Other ways to support my work: like comment and share this post with friends.
HUNGARIAN FOOD GLOSSARY
Alma: apple
Lekvár: preserves
Süti: sweets
Fagyi: Ice cream
Rétes: Strudel
Rétesház: Strudel shop
Meggy: Sour cherries
Dinnye: Watermelon
Kakó: Cocoa
Palacsinta: Crepes (Hungarian Style)
Batyu: Classic Hungarian pastry, meaning a bundle
Túró: Fine curd cottage cheese or farmer's cheese
Meggylekvár: sour cherry preserves
Almas befőtt: Apple butter or apple preserves
Sárgabaracklekvár: Apricot preserves
Sárgabarack: Apricot
Májkrém: Pate
Uborkasaláta: Cucumber salad
Bableves: Bean soup
Gyümölcsleves: Fruit soup
Gombás- paprikás: Mushroom paprikas
Szilva lekvár: Plum jam
Kifli: Cresent bread
Gulyás: Goulash, Traditional Hungarian soup
Babgulyás: bean (and pork) stew
Kolbász: Hungarian dried sausage
Szilvás Pite: Plum and Poppy seed cake
Ribizli Fagyi: Red current ice cream
Paradicsomsaláta: Tomato salad
Pogácsa: Hungarian biscuits
Sör: Beer
Víz: Water
Bor: Wine
Mákos Guba: Poppy seed bread pudding
I love seeing the food of my heritage written about. It takes me back to my childhood and my Nagy cooking for me.
love this happy i found you.
❤️❤️