Tej

One of the best parts about being in Hungary is trying new and different food. Last week, we ate at a Renaissance Restaurant in Visegrád where we had deer steaks and goose legs.  This was a new experience for me since I rarely eat game meats. We've also had many other great dishes at restaurants in Budapest. I will be sure to share some pictures soon! Since it isn't reasonable for us to eat out for every meal, we've already experienced the differences buying groceries. First of all, you have to bring your own bags or you have to pay for them. Also, since we walk to the store, we can only buy what we can carry. In about the 2 weeks we have been here, I think we've gone to the store at least 4 times.

One of the most interesting things that we have learned is about milk. Milk in Hungarian is tej, pronounced like 'tay.' We noticed that the majority of the milk is not refrigerated. This was regular milk, not rice, soy, or almond milk. Some milk is in the refrigerator as well but it is slightly more expensive. We opted to buy the non-refrigerated milk but we weren't sure what the difference was. Dan, my husband, suggested that maybe some options are not pasteurized. Another option, which I experienced in the US once, was that it was non-homogenized. Thankfully, neither of these was the case. We discovered that the milk is ultra-high-temperature pasteurized. That means that is heated at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time than regular pasteurization. When this process is used, the milk can last for longer periods of time (6 months or so) on the shelf without refrigeration. I had never heard of this before. I used the milk we bought in some cereal this morning and it worked great. Here are some pictures of the container.