MIND THE DIFFERENCE between St. Stephen's Cathedral and St. Stephen's Basilica
Both Budapest and Vienna has a major church named after St. Stephen. However, there is a big difference.
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COLD FRUIT SOUP FROM HUNGARY
When in Hungary, do not miss GYÜMÖLCSLEVES (gyümölcs=fruit, leves=soup). It's served chilled as a starter but if you wish you can have it as desserts.
CUCUMBER SEASON
The term UBORKASZEZON (cucumber season) has become to denote a period when electronic and written media are filled with pseudo events or sensations about animals and plants.
ALEX, JOE AND BEN IN THE HUNGARIAN NAMEDAY CALENDAR
Hungarian folklore is abundant in weather forecast prophecies. One of the most popular ones is attached to these three popular name-days with the rhyming verse: SÁNDOR, JÓZSEF, BENEDEK, ZSÁKBAN HOZZÁK A MELEGET (Sándor-József-Benedek bring warm weather in a sack). SÁNDOR (nickname SANYI, the Hungarian equivalent for Alexander or Alex) day is March 18, JÓZSEF (JÓZSI, […]
Hungarian Pair Speech
In Hungarian, being a descriptive language, it’s easy to decode the meaning of compound words like PÁRBESZÉD literally: PÁR BESZÉD, pair speech i.e. dialogue. Beginners often give up learning Hungarian because they think it’s torture by grammar, as an American student of mine formulated it explicitly. However, persistent learners can achieve a lot by overcoming the […]
Fungarian’s wine tasting – USER REVIEW
Fungarian’s wine tasting was such a fun experience. Wine tastings can be stuffy and even though you learn a lot about the wines, most things are forgotten when you leave the room. Our sommelier Réká told us about the wine, the wine regions, the producers of the wines that we tasted (of which several are […]
THE STORY OF THE FLAG WITH A HOLE
Well before October 23, the anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, the national flag with a hole in the middle has been displayed on buildings all over the city. Newcomers to Budapest are wondering what the hole is about. According to eyewitness reports the story goes back to the late afternoon of October 23 when the demonstrating […]
St. Stephen’s Vikings
To our luck, Fungarian’s clientele is more and more diverse. Recently, we hosted a lovely couple from Iceland and we exchanged views on the Vikings. They were surprised to learn that Hungarians had strong ties with the Vikings whom we call VARÉG i.e. Varangians (Old Norse: Væringjar). Our St. Stephen, who we celebrate as the […]
CANICULE Hungarianised to KÁNIKULA
August is traditionally the hottest month in Hungary, often with periods of ’KÁNIKULA’ i.e. the Hungarianized French word for dog days. The national pastime is to escape to a STRAND, which even a small town can afford to have. As opposed to medicinal baths (GYÓGYFÜRDŐ) ’strand’ is a recreational establishment with cold water swimming pools […]
Can you guess what this kitchen utensil is used for?
Foreign visitors find some strange objects when they visit the Main Market. The thing you can see is called NOKEDLISZAGGATÓ, literally ’noodles shredder.’ The main difficulty in translation, however, arises from defining NOKEDLI, one of the most popular side dishes of Hungarian cuisine that goes with chicken paprika, stew and several other meat and vegetarian dishes. […]