Anyone Hungary?

Even before arriving in Bangalore I joined the Bangalore Expats Club (BEC). The BEC is a large organization of expats from all over the world. I've met people from China, Malaysia, Finland, Norway, Germany, France, England, Hungary and a dozen other countries. During the winter months I constantly entertained myself by asking people from "cold" places like Norway and Russia the average temperature back home. 100% of the time Minnesota/Minneapolis was colder. If you are reading this in Minneapolis congratulations, you are surviving in one of coldest cities on earth. I had it rough in India too though. Delhi had to cancel school several days because of the unbearable cold. It got down to 37F! Before anyone asks how I possibly survived such hardship remember Bangalore is far south of Delhi. We dipped down into the 50's a couple times causing parents to bundle kids from head to toe but to my knowledge no fatalities resulted and school went on as planned.

Back to the BEC. In addition to a weekly happy hour on Friday night the BEC also holds many charity events. The most recent was a Black & White Ball - everyone had to wear only black and white. Maybe this is a challenge for parts of the world less chromatically challenged than America but given that everyone in corporate America (myself included) owns at least 3 black suits and 7 white shirts, it wasn't too difficult. I upped the difficulty level by wearing a black jacket from here and a white shirt from Egypt.

There was a silent auction with all proceeds going to charity at which I won an authentic home-cooked Hungarian dinner. I had no idea at the time what Hungarian cooking meant, Hungarian goulash jokes notwithstanding. As far as I knew Hungarians ate Turkey deep fried in Greece (ba dum bump - even I have to admit that is a horrible joke).

The president of the BEC, Barbara, is a friend of mine. Barbara is originally from Hungary. She and her husband Robert had just returned from a trip there. She brought back a good supply of Hungarian spices and ingredients. Since she was going to do the cooking I had absolute confidence the meal would be good. I attended a charity Christmas cookie baking party which she organized so I was well aware of the kind of kitchen Barbara runs. Let's just say when she assigns you to put sugar on cookies you damn well better start sprinkling sugar NOW!

After a 2 month delay we finally found a day on which we were both free. Along a couple other epicurian Targeteers I went to Barbara's house for my first taste of Hungarian cooking. The meal was fantastic! We all enjoyed an eggplant appetizer, drunken chicken (chicken marinated in white wine), the most delicious potato dish I've had in a long, long, time, and apple strudel for desert. Along the way we also took care of a bottle of Hungarian wine. In addition to being great cooks, the Hungarians know how to make wine!

So THANK-YOU Barbara for a great meal and introducing me to Hungarian cooking. This was the best 2700 rupees I've spent yet!