Grandma Zsuzsa's Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup (Now in Purple!)

I made soup this week. It was the most beautiful purple I have ever seen in a soup. Most people at this point in my story go "uck" inside when I say purple. But I'm serious folks! Purple soup is AWESOME. Just think of all the flavinoids! The...what's the word...riboflavins! I'm a biologist, I should know what I'm talking about! (But I don't...) Anyway, red cabbage is the trick. But seriously, I made chicken soup, and it wasn't gross! It was delicious! And PURPLE!

Alright, so here's a post about food. I opened with the purple soup, and I will follow that with csokis svajci kifli - that is to say, Swiss croissant with chocolate. I didn't know the Swiss had their own special croissants. Maybe they don't. But the cute little bakery between my street and the metro stop says otherwise. This little pastry has become a favorite for me - just picture it: a run-of-the-mill croissant transformed into a light, flaky vessel filled with pudding-y chocolate, each sublime end dipped in a milkier, silkier chocolate and left to cool. Ahhh. I will pay the 200 forints just for the chocolate-dipped ends alone. Not that 200 forints is a bad deal. It's a great deal. Even better: around 5 o'clock each day the bakery has everything on sale, trying to move the last of the day's inventory - so you can get 2 svajci kifli for the price of one. WOW. So I may be pre-diabetic...and this isn't making things better for me. But I accept the challenge. Fortunately, I brought Coach Kosmoski's Apartment Workout with me to Budapest. (It's hanging neatly on my bulletin board, waiting to be implemented).

Let's see, what other foods to tell you about...of course, the city is littered with torok etteremek - "Turkish restaurants" - i.e. places selling delicious falafel, gyros, baklava, et cetera. There are at least two delicious hummus bars that I know of. Once I didn't know what I was ordering, and basically I received an enormous plate of hummus, and 2 pitas. It was delicious. And then it was really gross. I mean, there's only so much hummus I can eat in one sitting. There's a wonderful falafel bar (like a salad bar, but with falafel!) somewhere near the Opera. I did have one of those signature Hungarian dishes, gulyasleves (incidently pronounced "Goo-yash" rather than goulash) the first weekend I arrived here. I haven't eaten it since, but we found a cookbook with Hungarian recipes in our neighbor's apartment, so I am going to try making it myself. If my purple soup experience is any indication, it will be FABULOUS. Hahaha. I am being a little ironical here - my roommate from BBSI, summer 2007 knows better than to trust me with the cooking. I do all right - good enough to eat at least - but if I get creative...Let's just say it's a slippery slope...(Yes, katie, I am thinking of the mystery stir-fry pasta sauce extravaganza).

Um...so guess what. I've made myself hungry. Time to eat again! Maybe some bread and jam. Good ol' carbs, always helpin' me out.
Take care friends! Sometime soon I will try to tell you about a few Hungarian drinks, or italok. When alcohol is cheaper than water, you know you're in Europe!