Nagycsarnok

Yesterday my Hungarian language class took a trip to Nagycsarnok (Great Market Hall). It's this huge building with three levels full of vendors selling everything from fruits, veggies, famous Hungarian stuffed cabbage and lángos, anything pickeled you could ever desire, meats and cheeses, to Chinese spices. It was absolutely incredible. I likened it to the Farmer's Market (it's much more of an international market) that I have near home, but Nagycsarnok (nawdg-char-knock) was so much more!

When you walk in you are faced with the large central aisle. It's wide and well lit with many impressive meat and cheese counters near the front. As you walk down it there are many aisles that lead off to the smaller left and right aisles. A little tip my language teacher shared with us is that the left side is considered the Eastern European side. Things might not be as well displayed and look as impressive, but prices are cheaper. The more American right side is lined with more impressive displays that my teacher likened to window shopping that attract the wandering and clueless customer. Be aware, you'll pay more for this. Further down the central aisle are some fruit vendors (there are vastly more on the side aisles) and then, my personal favorite, the free range chicken and poultry counter. I was very impressed that they sell free range chickens.

Near the fruit stands you pass stairwells on either side of the central aisle. These lead upstairs to an entirely different category of vendors. Upstairs you can find clothes, typical tourist souvenirs, and some "fast food" counters. Our teacher directed us towards a lángos (long-oh-sh) stand. Lángos is a typical Hungarian food that consists of fried dough in a large, flat round (similar to a kind of light, fried pancake) and is topped with a variety of toppings from cheese and sour cream to jelly or nutella. I decided to try the kind with sour cream and cheese (my teacher recommended it). It was very good. I'm anxious to try one with a sweeter topping.

After getting our lángos we headed down to the basement where they have a regular grocery store and a Chinese market. The Chinese market was amazing. They had an entire wall of spices and some American items such as crunchy peanut butter! The peanut butter was even in a plastic jar. Everywhere else I can only get peanut butter and nutella in glass jars. I was also able to find Arborio rice for a recipe my mom sent me. Down in the basement you can find a variety of pickled things in jars as well as lots of different types of fresh seafood and fish.

After showing us the different parts of the market, my teacher dismissed us and let us shop for ourselves. I was lucky I had a friend of mine with me who took the Hungarian language program that was offered. She had a much larger vocabulary than I do and had already been to the market before. We scoured the cheaper left side in search of fruits and veggies. I ended up with some great tomatoes, beans, apples, bananas, and green onions. I managed to communicate (with some help from Jenny) to the vendors what I wanted. I would either pathetically attempt to pronounce the word on the sign by the item and indicate both verbally and with my fingers how many of that item I wanted or just pick it up and hand it to them to weigh. In some instances the vendors seemed to have just as much trouble understanding me as I them. A friendly reminder: they use the metric system in Europe, so brush up on your grams, decagrams, and kilos.

After about 2 1/2 hours of being in the market (I could have spent hours more just wandering around and looking at everything) I headed back home on the tram/metro with my book bag bursting with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses. As soon as I figure out how to light my gas oven I'm going to cook like a mad woman!