Everyday Food

I've been so busy this past week that I'm behind on my blog posts! Today I wanted to share some information about the food we eat every day.  At home, my personal routine might involve a granola bar in the morning, a sandwich for lunch, and warm meal for supper.  Since we've been in Budapest, we have tried new foods in various restaurants. Perhaps the most interesting is what we've learned to make at home.  The grocery stores do have many options but it is impossible to cook in the same way.

For breakfast we have usually been eating cereal or BelVita breakfast biscuits. For the last two weeks without gas, we have been eating a lot of sandwiches.  Our sandwiches begin with these really good rolls. In every grocery store, there are bins of various rolls. We get these plain white ones that are bigger than a typical American hamburger bun. Depending on the store, each roll costs between 15-25 forints. That's 6-10 cents. Needless to say, we buy rolls at the store every time we go. The meat and cheese choices are nothing like in the US. We buy sliced cheese in these packets which include maybe 6 slices. It doesn't take long for us to go through them.  I haven't taken the time to translate all of the names of the cheeses but cheddar is not an option.  Most all cheeses are a white or very light yellow color. For meat, we use salami. Every time. Besides salami the only other typical choice is bologna.  Some salami is a little more spicy than others but they all have a similar taste.  I like it.  So our typical sandwich is salami and cheese on a roll. Occasionally we put pickles on the sandwiches as well.

Our other main staple is soup. At the store, we can buy soup packets in various flavors.  All you have to do is add 1 liter of water and heat it. It's easy and we like it.  Dan and I like to doctor the soups.  We cut up carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and onion and add them to the soup.  Sometimes we add rice or extra noodles. Each time is a different and we can often get 4-6 meals out of each soup we make.

Besides soup and sandwiches we have made salami and vegetables or pasta.  One of the interesting flavors we have had in our pasta is the meat.  At the grocery store, ground beef is rare. Instead have used ground pork and ground turkey in our pasta sauce. It tastes good but it's new flavor for sure.

We still have several months to try new foods here in Hungary but I hope this gives you an idea of what we eat every day.