Articles by Initial Letters

Hungarian Food Tradition and Jókai Mór (1825–1904). Jókai has been hailed as ‘the great Hungarian story teller’. He was a member of parliament, a member the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a leader during the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. This year marks 200 years since he was born. This column focuses on the important role that food and eating had in Jókai’s life. Jókai had a garden in the hills of Buda. He loved tending his garden, planted fruit trees, grapes, and vegetables andwrote about gardening. Here we read also about two grape harvest celebrations: one Jókai wrote about in the village of Felcsút where many illustrious members of the nobility were guests. Another grand grape harvest gathering was hosted by Jókai in his own garden in the Buda Hillsin 1898 where the food included: lamb stew made outdoors in a caldron over a fire, whole chickens slow roasted over the fire, bean soup with ham-hocks, stuffed cabbage, cottage cheese-dill pastry. His guests danced until dawn to the music of a Gypsy band. “The host was pleased with the quantity, quality and sugar levels of the grapes harvested.” By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.