Just for fun: Food culture in Hungary

fluffy2560 wrote:

Stella Kellner wrote:

Now this thread is about what Hungarians eat. They might cook with fat(less and less do as you can see it the article) but it's just not a regular thing to eat fat or lard on bread. I'm sure some do but few and less and less. It might not be as expensive as parmesan but parmesan has never been part of traditional Hungarian cuisine so what's the point in comparing. If you talk about what Hungarians eat today on a regular basis it's worth doing some research into the topic. Lard on bread is not part of the average daily diet. They likely use more cream cheese on bread than lard although I do not know the statistics on that. I personally know people from Budapest and small and big towns and villages and even the ones in small villages are consuming less and less animal fat. I know this for a fact.

I'm married to a Hungarian and I live in Hungary and like many others we've been here for years. 

But maybe we have alternative facts depending on where you come from.  We don't eat fat or lard on bread very often (me, never) but we live a suburban life in the burbs of Budapest. So we're city dwellers.   

People in the country probably eat goose or duck or pork fat more regularly but it's a personal choice. Cream cheese certainly isn't high on the list of things they eat out there.  We have connections to the countryside (agriculturalists and vets in the family) and we don't know anyone who produces their own cream cheese.   Goose fat would be more natural and preferable (and of course free) option for them.

I don't know how it is out un Budapest, but out in the sticks it is common. Lard, "dripping" goose / duck fat. It was very common during and even post war in the UK.

Alex, chill a bit.

I've just come across a couple of interesting sites.....
Actually learnt a few things

10 Hungarian eating habits that make foreigners go nuts

10 FATTENING HUNGARIAN FOODS YOU JUST CAN'T RESIST IN BUDAPEST

This maybe not goose fat but still on the same lines.

Sült Szalonna

SimCityAT wrote:

....
I don't know how it is out un Budapest, but out in the sticks it is common. Lard, "dripping" goose / duck fat. It was very common during and even post war in the UK.

Yes, it is common. 

My Dad told me that when he was in Germany during and after the war, the Germans labourers used to complain (to the level of a strike) they had no fat/dripping/lard for their bread.  It was very common to eat it to get by during cold weather.   It was one way of compensating for the cold and the intense physical labour they were tasked with performing post-conflict.   

I'll ask him about it (he's in his mid-90s, still with it and remembers it like yesterday - also helps to reminisce for exercising his recall and memory skills).

My Grandfather (from Yorkshire) loved his bread and dripping. My Mum would sometimes imbibe but they also liked tripe, black pudding and brawn.  I think something similar happens around here in the villages - especially with the pig slaughtering that goes on.

I don't mean to  as this is the Hungarian Forum, but an interesting article. Dripping is making a come back in the UK (dated 2014).

I was given dripping sarnies as a kid. We were poor but happy.

SimCityAT wrote:

I don't mean to  as this is the Hungarian Forum, but an interesting article. Dripping is making a come back in the UK (dated 2014).

Potentially not off topic as it's related if you make even a tenuous HU connection.   The link is behind a paywall - also has an Adblock detector.   I've yet to find a way of blocking the adblock detectors!  I tried the cached version but there must be an active link in the source that gets dynamically checked and if it doesn't work, then it brings up the pop-up paywall nag screen.  PITA.

I don't think dripping wherever it is can be a good plan for one's arteries!   Mind you, health concerns in HU outside the cities aren't a top priority.  Just getting by is way more important.

Fred wrote:

I was given dripping sarnies as a kid. We were poor but happy.

That's nothing - when I were a kid we used to eat dripping, bath in dripping, sleep in dripping and smear our clothes in dripping. I say clothes they were rags made from dripping.  We'd get home from 't mill and our Dad would beat us with a rod covered in 't dripping.  I say home but home was a 't hole in 't ground where Dad would make us lick dripping from the sides.  I say 'hole but it were a dripping mine where folk kept their whippets before beating us with flat caps.   Overseers were led by Geoffrey Boycott - it were a hard life but we were happy.

And you tell that to Hungarians and they don't believe you.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I don't mean to  as this is the Hungarian Forum, but an interesting article. Dripping is making a come back in the UK (dated 2014).

Potentially not off topic as it's related if you make even a tenuous HU connection.   The link is behind a paywall - also has an Adblock detector.   I've yet to find a way of blocking the adblock detectors!  I tried the cached version but there must be an active link in the source that gets dynamically checked and if it doesn't work, then it brings up the pop-up paywall nag screen.  PITA.

I don't think dripping wherever it is can be a good plan for one's arteries!   Mind you, health concerns in HU outside the cities aren't a top priority.  Just getting by is way more important.

There was a time when a jar of beef dripping sat on every stove top. The fatty, gamey-tasting sludge was spread on toast or used to make ultra-crisp roast potatoes. Then, a few decades ago, saturated fat became the bugbear of nutritionists, the Bond villain, if you will, of the culinary universe – and beef dripping fell out of favour, along with many other fatty treats.

But now that science is starting to point the finger at sugar and carbs as the culprits behind the surge in obesity and heart disease, saturated fat is getting a bit of a reprieve – and dripping is creeping back on to the menu. Eager to get my anxiety-free fatty fix, I wanted to learn more about this ration book favourite.

Earlier this year, butcher James Whelan of Nenagh, in County Tipperary, Ireland, won a prestigious Great Taste Award for his Angus and Hereford beef dripping, seeing off 10,000 other great "tastes", in what is widely regarded as the Oscars of the food world. A fatty by-product winning out over raisin scones and cappuccino marshmallows? Rendered cow rump better than porchetta and chilli bacon jam? Is dripping finally coming back?

The Quality Chop House in Farringdon, London – a Grade II listed building, complete with knee-knocking pews and galleon windows and boasting a restaurant, butchers and deli – is one of the few places in the capital to make its own dripping in-house. I joined the head chef Shaun Searley, to find out more about this war-time stalwart. First, what exactly is beef dripping?

"Dripping is rendered fat," Searley tells me, matter-of-factly. He goes on to explain that rendering fat separates it from connective tissue and meat, processing it into a clear liquid, free of protein and impurities. It's essentially turning a waste material into useful – and incredibly tasty – produce. Not that taste was the main reason people had dripping sandwiches during the First World War, of course.

"The days of rationing everything meant that invaluable ingredients such as dripping weren't thrown away," Searley says. Nowadays, however, we're free to enjoy it for its flavour, too. To those in the know, flavour and fat have always gone hand in hand. When judging meat for its quality, for example, fat is one of the first things that butchers and chefs take into account. It is for this reason that dripping makes such a great flavour enhancer. As Searley says: "That interesting flavour the farmer is trying to show will permeate through the fat and into your dripping. That's why those that have experienced it before get really excited, and as for the younger generation, they seem won over, too."

Type "beef dripping" into any social media platform and you can see that the movement is growing, led by Instagram-filtered images of dripping-fried chips with so much crunch they look as if they could crack the screen.

The on-trend, cost-effective, snout-to-tail ethos is another part of dripping's revolution. Every afternoon at The Quality Chop House, the trimmed fat from butcher Oliver Seabright's block is put through the mincer and carried into the kitchen, alongside the prime cuts for that day's menu. After that, it's an easy process of transforming what many call waste into a key component of Searley's signature dishes.

He spreads the fat on to the surface of a baking tray and whacks it in an oven pre-heated to 120 degrees Celsius. About 20 minutes later, he pulls it out and there is a shallow puddle of clear liquid. "The trick is not to roast it, just slowly render the liquid fat off on a low heat," Searley tells me. Some of the solids won't render at all, they'll just crisp up and brown. The mincing isn't essential; chopped or sliced fat will still yield about 50 per cent liquid which, once passed through a sieve (to ensure that there are no bits of protein such as connective tissue in there with it), can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a month. It can also be re-used two or three times, after which it will become darker; and once it goes a rusty opaque colour, it's time to throw it away.

With my nostrils suitably assaulted with Sunday roast goodness, it is time to sample two of The Quality Chop House's cornerstone dishes: Longhorn mince on dripping toast, and confit potatoes. Both are exceptional. The dripping toast, a super fancy version of fried bread, is a sophisticated homage to the great British greasy spoon, and as for the confit potatoes – like dauphinoise, but baked with dripping rather than cream, compressed overnight and deep fried in vegetable oil to finish – I'll never look at a shop-bought croquette again. As Searley says, it is the "gamey" quality of the dripping that gets you. It ratchets everything up a notch, until you end up in beefy heaven.

Far from being a lone advocate, Searley is not the only chef going dippy for dripping. At Story, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Southwark, London, the bread course is an edible candle made of dripping; Rick Stein's fish and chips at his restaurant in Padstow are fried in dripping; and Hawksmoor, London, triple-cooks its chips in – bingo – dripping. According to Richard Turner, Hawksmoor's executive chef: "Beef dripping is a great forgotten British ingredient and we should be using it more; it's the missing ingredient for truly great fish and chips."

It's not just flavour that makes beef dripping such an exciting prospect. If you're using fat extracted from a joint of beef, you know where that fat has come from, unlike some supermarket oils. Using dripping instead of buying oils is a money-saver, too. You've paid for the fat, in terms of weight, so you may as well use it. Throw in the ethical argument of using everything that the animal has to offer and it's a no-brainer. I can't help but wonder, if only it were called something else.

Growing up with a father born in the post-war era, with a ration book stuffed in his breast pocket and beef dripping sandwiches in his backpack, the connotations of dripping (as I'm sure others can testify) were a million miles away from hashtag-happy hipsters tweeting triple-cooked chips to the masses. Dripping was nothing to shout about. It was the food of the lingering war effort, of the impoverished and struggling; the predictable punchline to my dad's 10-mile trek to school and back, wearing one shoe, because they couldn't afford the other. Dripping is the food of nostalgia; of my father's childhood, just as Alphabetti Spaghetti, and all it's consumerist-friendly connotations, was the foodstuff of mine.

As rationing ended in the mid-1950s, the promise of no-mess and easily stored oils spelled the end of this wartime essential, and it soon passed into the annals of not-so-great British food, alongside suet pudding and other stodgy fodder. It has been a long road (almost as long as the one my dad allegedly walked to school) but dripping is finally back, even for those who don't want to get their mitts mucky.

There are many places that stock ready-made dripping (The Quality Chop House sells its own; James Whelan butchers delivers to the UK and Ireland; and Tesco and Waitrose stock generic brands, too) but there are also faff-free ways to make your own. The next time that you do a roast, rather than use the sticky meat juices and fatty deposits in the bottom of the tray to make a gravy, pour them into a jug and let them settle. The fat will separate and congeal at the top and from here you can skim it off and store in the fridge for a few days (it's great for making roasties, as Heston Blumenthal argued last Christmas), retaining the meaty residue to make a stock. Alternatively, you can use the fatty-meaty-Marmite-textured gloop straight away.

In fact, to many people this is what the mention of dripping will conjure up, as it does for my mum: furtively mopping up the fatty-meaty juices with bread as the roast rests and the table is laid. There are less roguish ways to enjoy this more casual of drippings, however.

John Quilter, the London Live chef, swears by it spread on warm, toasted sourdough "with a little salt and a cheeky cuppa". And Oliver Seabright, the butcher for The Quality Chop House, says that "thinly sliced skirt with dripping brushed on the bread makes for the best roast beef sandwich ever". And who's going to argue with a man with a meat cleaver?

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cream cheese certainly isn't high on the list of things they eat out there.

My lovely Hungarian wife loves cream cheese. Not just cream cheese, but specifically Philadelphia Cream Cheese. While I appreciate her American tastes, from an important historical source of American Independence and early government, I actually prefer to spread Hungarian Tejföl on my bread... How weird is that? 

I've just picked one example to show how inaccurate the article is, however entertaining:
Vadas marha is not greasy, not fatty and not even really Hungarian. These articles mix a few facts with some made up ideas and make it sound sensational. Young Hungarians eat less and less traditional food. Maybe the grandpas and grandmas still make rantott hus on Sundays but 20 and 30 something people go to Pad Thai and Absolute Pho. I'm speaking from experience, I work with young Hungarians(20-45) and even the ones who grew up in the country rarely go for the traditional, paprika-onion-lard based, meat heavy dishes any more. The food culture is changing rapidly, getting influenced by western trends. Btw Indian cuisine uses the same fat-onion base for most of the dishes.

SimCityAT wrote:

I don't know how it is out un Budapest, but out in the sticks it is common. Lard, "dripping" goose / duck fat. It was very common during and even post war in the UK.

When I first moved full time to Hungary, and was at a very, very POSH wine cellar at an event they were having, there was an out door fire, and people were roasting blobs of fat and touching bread to it. Never seen it before. My Hungarian wife had to explain to her American Hot Dog and Marshmallow over a fire husband what lard dripping was. I almost turned green. I thought it so.... well... to be honest.... vomit wrenching (as I am sure some people in Europe think about American dietary consumption like Marshmallow or peanut butter and jam on toast.... Cultures vary).

Stella Kellner wrote:

I've just picked one example to show how inaccurate the article is, however entertaining:
Vadas marha is not greasy, not fatty and not even really Hungarian. These articles mix a few facts with some made up ideas and make it sound sensational. Young Hungarians eat less and less traditional food. Maybe the grandpas and grandmas still make rantott hus on Sundays but 20 and 30 something people go to Pad Thai and Absolute Pho. I'm speaking from experience, I work with young Hungarians(20-45) and even the ones who grew up in the country rarely go for the traditional, paprika-onion-lard based, meat heavy dishes any more. The food culture is changing rapidly, getting influenced by western trends. Btw Indian cuisine uses the same fat-onion base for most of the dishes.

20-30s visiting the countryside will STILL eat it.  It's because while they might have been brought up in the countryside and they eventually migrate to the cities for education and work, they still go back to see Mum and Dad out in the sticks who make it.  It's passed down.

You must be joking if they would choose Pad Thai.  Lots of them wouldn't even know what that is - they wouldn't even know what it was in many places in the UK except amongst the educated and travelled.  They'd all go for pizza, spaghetti and burgers which are far more familiar. 

McDonald's influence on "cuisine".  I use the words McDs and cuisine in the same sentence with some trepidation - I guess it's an oxymoron.

So how old are you then Stella?   I wouldn't count people of 45 as young people although they are (now) young to me.

Indian food is easy to make if you use curry powder - the base is indeed the same.  It might be arty to make your own but some curry powders - especially Schwarz brand - are better than that you can make yourself.   I am pleased to see more Indian places in HU - I wish it was embraced even more. I could easily live on curry.

"You must be joking if they would choose Pad Thai.  Lots of them wouldn't even know what that is - they wouldn't even know what it was in many places in the UK except amongst the educated and travelled.  They'd all go for pizza, spaghetti and burgers which are far more familiar.  "

This is VERY funny(not) because Pad Thai is available in every shopping centre in Budapest and the restaurants are full around the clock. Literally everyone I know, even 50+ people know what Pad Thai is. And they haven't all been to Asia. Neither have I. Before you say something like that you really(!!) should find out about the facts.

Pizza, spaghetti and burgers are the choice of the less educated and lower classes these days(not judgement, facts).

And just a friendly Sunday suggestion: don't be an ageist. It's not cool.

Curry is great, I make it from scratch whenever I don't mind that the house smells like it for a week.

Stella Kellner wrote:

"You must be joking if they would choose Pad Thai.  Lots of them wouldn't even know what that is - they wouldn't even know what it was in many places in the UK except amongst the educated and travelled.  They'd all go for pizza, spaghetti and burgers which are far more familiar.  "

This is VERY funny(not) because Pad Thai is available in every shopping centre in Budapest and the restaurants are full around the clock. Literally everyone I know, even 50+ people know what Pad Thai is. And they haven't all been to Asia. Neither have I. Before you say something like that you really(!!) should find out about the facts.

Pizza, spaghetti and burgers are the choice of the less educated and lower classes these days(not judgement, facts).

And just a friendly Sunday suggestion: don't be an ageist. It's not cool.

Curry is great, I make it from scratch whenever I don't mind that the house smells like it for a week.

We are talking about the whole of Hungary not just Budapest!

I know. And Budapest has over 20% of the country's population so it's quite relevant.

I also randomly picked two other cities-they both have popular wok bars.

Debrecen :https://rendeles.woktobox.hu/kapcsolat.html

Sopron: https://www.tripadvisor.co.hu/ShowUserR … ngary.html

One of the most successful chains in Budapest, Pad Thai Wokbar is just opening a restaurant in Gyor(Arkad).

Again, I just randomly picked.

Stella Kellner wrote:

"You must be joking if they would choose Pad Thai.  Lots of them wouldn't even know what that is - they wouldn't even know what it was in many places in the UK except amongst the educated and travelled.  They'd all go for pizza, spaghetti and burgers which are far more familiar.  "...

Works better if you use the quote button, not the reply, then edit.  Otherwise we don't know (sometimes) who is replying to whom and on what points.

These are the restaurants in Sopron, Thai is that popular it isn't listed.

Stange that?

Stella Kellner wrote:

...

This is VERY funny(not) because Pad Thai is available in every shopping centre in Budapest and the restaurants are full around the clock. Literally everyone I know, even 50+ people know what Pad Thai is. And they haven't all been to Asia. Neither have I. Before you say something like that you really(!!) should find out about the facts.

Pizza, spaghetti and burgers are the choice of the less educated and lower classes these days(not judgement, facts).

And just a friendly Sunday suggestion: don't be an ageist. It's not cool.

Curry is great, I make it from scratch whenever I don't mind that the house smells like it for a week.

Some of us are trying to work out if you're a troll.  You don't seem to know much about Hungary at all and much has been very generic.  Everyone here knows about goose fat and it's universal appeal. 

And everyone knows people don't eat Pad Thai as a matter of regular choice (it's not that good and I've had plenty of it in Asia  - hyped up).   

Actually you (and I) are perhaps being ageist and other -ists for different reasons.  Junk food is not about education, it's about being young.  Kids like junk food even if the parents do not.  Pizzas etc are quick and accessible etc.  It's also like popcorn in the cinema - everyone knows about that.

Pad Thai at the shopping centres is not particularly cheap.  It's not uncommon for teenagers as part of growing up to go to pizza places with their friends.  They don't go to Pad Thai places in shopping centres like the Wok place as there's not always free WiFi there. There is always WiFi for free in McDs, KFC and BK and they can hang around.  They also know the products in the junk food "restaurants".

I know all that as I've had and still got culturally HU teenagers at home and I know what's going on (mostly).

BTW, junk food for the masses in days of HU yore would be Lángos or even Fánk. It's not a new thing.

SimCityAT wrote:

These are the restaurants in Sopron, Thai is that popular it isn't listed.

Stange that?

That's not such a good list . 

I've eaten at Chen's many times. 

If we go to Austria for some reason we usually stop for lunch there on the way back to Budapest.

It's not Thai though but Chinese - the chefs REALLY are Chinese.  I like the fact that it's a wok buffet.

SimCityAT wrote:

....
There was a time when a jar of beef dripping sat on every stove top. The fatty, gamey-tasting sludge was spread on toast or used to make ultra-crisp roast potatoes. Then, a few decades ago, saturated fat became the bugbear of nutritionists, the Bond villain, if you will, of the culinary universe – and beef dripping fell out of favour, along with many other fatty treats.

But now that science is starting to point the finger at sugar and carbs as the culprits behind the surge in obesity and heart disease, saturated fat is getting a bit of a reprieve – and dripping is creeping back on to the menu. Eager to get my anxiety-free fatty fix, I wanted to learn more about this ration book favourite.....

Thanks for sharing. 

I think just for reading that I'm going to need my arteries Dyno-rodding.   

If I read it again, I'll probably need a heart bypass.

Haha. I lived in Hungary for 33 years(over 90% of my life) and I don't know much about Hungary.

Stella Kellner wrote:

Haha. I lived in Hungary for 33 years(over 90% of my life) and I don't know much about Hungary.

Ok, so we know how old you are (or pretend you are).  Your name is not Hungarian either but of German origin.

If you are 33+ years, you're not old enough to know what it was really like in the countryside in say, the mid-1990s as you'll have  been a kid.  I've been here for 20+ years and some posters (Marilyn) has been involved even longer.  No, so no, you don't seem to know much about it considering the collective knowledge hereabouts.   

Everyone knows about goose fat - your original premise was ludicrously false.  It's very suspicious now you want to try and fool us into thinking everyone is eating Pad Thai.  That looks just like silly nonsense. 

But don't take my word for it - others will also post I am sure.

Maybe you can tell us something to convince us you might know something real about here.

Stella Kellner wrote:

That's not really my problem.
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hunga … n-hungary/

That article is the biggest load of bullsh!t I've ever read. It makes us sound like:

1, we eat what hotels serve for breakfast. When you go to work at 7, you dont prepare several plates of cuts and cheese, you just smear the bread with margarine/jam/nutella/lard, and go.
2, we dont eat 3-course lunches. During worktime? Is the writer out of its mind?! Bring what you've cooked at home, or order from Teletál/whatever. Which is mostly deep-fried or grilled whatever, as it is easy to prepare.

This whole argument is just a joke. Immigrants arguing what hungarians eat. And none are correct.

https://www.gfk.com/hu/aktualitasok/press-release/etkezesi-szokasok/

Yep, 1400 people were questioned, sounds representative.

https://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/stattu … gy1712.pdf

Average 918 HUf is spent every month on lard and other kind of fats. That is 1,5kg cooking lard. While 1423 HUF is spent on chicken meat. That is about 1kg. People eat about 4x as much meat as lard. That is a lot lard.

So people either eat lard by itelf, or deep-fry everything, including lard.

Rawlee wrote:

Stella Kellner wrote:

That's not really my problem.
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hunga … n-hungary/

That article is the biggest load of bullsh!t I've ever read. .....

https://www.gfk.com/hu/aktualitasok/press-release/etkezesi-szokasok/

Yep, 1400 people were questioned, sounds representative.

https://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/stattu … gy1712.pdf

Average 918 HUf is spent every month on lard and other kind of fats. That is 1,5kg cooking lard. While 1423 HUF is spent on chicken meat. That is about 1kg. People eat about 4x as much meat as lard. That is a lot lard.

So people either eat lard by itelf, or deep-fry everything, including lard.

I agree, the web site posted isn't what people eat every day.  Statistics good and useful too.

It's all such BS  it makes me believe Stella is just Googling and inserting whatever comes into view when challenged.   Stella says she's Hungarian but her (or his) English is too good as well. That's why there's a suspicion of trolling us  over goose fat (of all things).   All I can say is nice try Stella but don't try to fool the locals (natives or long term residents*) - unless she can prove otherwise.

Healthwise, stuffing faces with fat stuff is just asking for trouble.  It obviously depends on the demographic - countryside lard, city no lard. 

* BTW, I think yesterday's results from the local government elections, especially in Budapest, will bring some moderation to the ridiculous  slagging off of immigrants or indeed non-native residents.  There's enough of that going on with Brexit.

Rawlee wrote:

Yep, 1400 people were questioned, sounds representative.

Depends on your desired confidence interval, and confidence level. Using some basic sampling theory, you can actually calculate the needed sample size, it you really use a proper random sample of people (and it being a true random sample is very important -- surveys are not always really that random, and of course, there are other problems with surveying people that they give honest answers (but that is an issue sampling theory mathematics does not address unless you want to get into some really complex math)).

I actually had to manually calculate such sample size numbers many times in my research career (and, yes, I actually took Sampling Theory as a graduate student). Today there are online sources one can use:

For example, using this site:

https://surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm

and select a 95% confidence level with a 3% confidence interval (that is you are 95% certain your results are within 3 percentage points of your estimate), you need 1067 samples from a population of 9,000,000. Yes, seems small. But the math is correct and long ago worked out.

fluffy2560 wrote:

* BTW, I think yesterday's results from the local government elections, especially in Budapest, will bring some moderation to the ridiculous  slagging off of immigrants or indeed non-native residents.  There's enough of that going on with Brexit.

Off topic.

Reply moved to:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 19#4707109

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

* BTW, I think yesterday's results from the local government elections, especially in Budapest, will bring some moderation to the ridiculous  slagging off of immigrants or indeed non-native residents.  There's enough of that going on with Brexit.

Off topic.

Reply moved to:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 19#4707109

Point taken, but not entirely as I was replying to poster:

rawlee wrote:

This whole argument is just a joke. Immigrants arguing what hungarians eat. And none are correct

fluffy2560 wrote:

Point taken, but not entirely as I was replying to poster:

rawlee wrote:

This whole argument is just a joke. Immigrants arguing what hungarians eat. And none are correct

Ah! Got it.

"Fundamentally" I agree with Rawlee. Which is why I ask my Hungarian wife first before I post on such topics. So, and but, Rawlee (if he did), or anyone else, should not  assume all comments come direct unfiltered from immigrants.... Assumptions, by anyone without first getting facts, are always problematic. .

fluffy2560 wrote:

Stella says she's Hungarian but her (or his) English is too good as well. That's why there's a suspicion of trolling us  over goose fat

I thought the same.

At first....

But... Stella has moderated the recent comments. That is not at all a "trollish" behavior (real trolls would double down and go and on about their first statement -- I know... I have played with real trolls at other sites (out of personal amusement)).

I rather think the goose fat comments were simply from "passion". Passion is fine.

I recommend we extend and embrace and welcome Stella into the expat.com community. Sure, Stella has a unique view. But different views can but benefit all of us from getting into a rut.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Stella says she's Hungarian but her (or his) English is too good as well. That's why there's a suspicion of trolling us  over goose fat

I thought the same.

At first....

But... Stella has moderated the recent comments. That is not at all a "trollish" behavior (real trolls would double down and go and on about their first statement -- I know... I have played with real trolls at other sites (out of personal amusement)).

I rather think the goose fat comments were simply from "passion". Passion is fine.

I recommend we extend and embrace and welcome Stella into the expat.com community. Sure, Stella has a unique view. But different views can but benefit all of us from getting into a rut.

Yes, of course more the merrier but so long as she's a real contributor. 

If she is a troll, she's a different type - relatively subtle unlike some others.   

I hope she'll post again if she's legit.

Simple way around this is to ask the Admin staff, to check her IP address. Which I have done so.

fluffy2560 wrote:

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Stella says she's Hungarian but her (or his) English is too good as well. That's why there's a suspicion of trolling us  over goose fat

I thought the same.

At first....

But... Stella has moderated the recent comments. That is not at all a "trollish" behavior (real trolls would double down and go and on about their first statement -- I know... I have played with real trolls at other sites (out of personal amusement)).

I rather think the goose fat comments were simply from "passion". Passion is fine.

I recommend we extend and embrace and welcome Stella into the expat.com community. Sure, Stella has a unique view. But different views can but benefit all of us from getting into a rut.

Yes, of course more the merrier but so long as she's a real contributor. 

If she is a troll, she's a different type - relatively subtle unlike some others.   

I hope she'll post again if she's legit.

Well she was posting at stange times of the night/morning/day, I know that means nothing. As it all depends on your job and shift patten.

All I find very stange being a memmber since 2012 and now posting on just one subect/thread?? I don't claim to be an expert of Hungary, but why should I as I don't live there. But I do travel monthly, so I see from a different perspective.

Lets see if [they] will post again, in the near future, only time will tell.

SimCityAT wrote:

I don't claim to be an expert of Hungary

Fair enough.

But your avatar says you are an "expert". Can we assume, with your permission, that good enough? As in close enough for horse shoes and hand grenades? 

SimCityAT wrote:

....
Well she was posting at strange times of the night/morning/day, I know that means nothing. As it all depends on your job and shift pattern.
....
Lets see if [they] will post again, in the near future, only time will tell.

Actually I think it does mean something.  It could give a clue about where she was posting from.    She could be in a completely different timezone which fits with a 9-5 job elsewhere.  Someone could analyse the posting times to try and estimate the location.

But in any case, she could easily fake where she was from. The IP address per country is not definitive.   It's easy to randomise by using the TOR browser and just creating new circuits or just using a VPN to somewhere else and that'll spoof locale.

Stella got busted and has now left the building 😂

SimCityAT wrote:

Stella got busted and has now left the building 😂

I wish (s)he'd come back and confess as to why she or he did it.  We can always forgive if we hear something useful/amusing/interesting. 

I don't see why people would waste their time trolling.  If you're going to have a hobby, then why not do something else like restoring furniture or in my case, working on repairing my hobby car*. 

I inhabit Quora as well (it's a bit quirky, like the old Readers Digest) and there are some insane trolling questions on there.  I do not know what the attraction is.  Maybe it's the challenge of being sussed out.

It's all beermunch ("parodying" latest LBC advert for something or other unmemorable). 

* I'm interested to hear in perhaps another thread about what people do for their hobbies in Hungary - the stranger the better. Nothing ordinary like tennis or cricket but something oddball like collecting stuffed frogs, Hungarian ceramics, battle re-enactments or Marxist economics.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I don't see why people would waste their time trolling.

Excellent question. Maybe we should ask the POTUS or BoJo. Because, in a way, trolling got them their jobs.... Which is kind of disturbing. 

But this is off topic. 

All further comments by me will be redirected to Absolutely Anything Else.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I don't see why people would waste their time trolling.

Excellent question. Maybe we should ask the POTUS or BoJo. Because, in a way, trolling got them their jobs.... Which is kind of disturbing. 

But this is off topic. 

All further comments by me will be redirected to Absolutely Anything Else.

I know it's off topic but perhaps you were thinking of Trump's letter to Erdogan.

That's almost troll soup on paper.