American REACTS to Hungarian Food, Culture, Language, Lifestyle, History

when I arrived in Hungary is my first

week I had gotten to try all kinds of

different types of food I served in a

city called Anita jaza and the old

ladies there we called nannies they

could cook like no other and who did

they just wanted to feed us all the time

and that's really rare so I got to eat

right off the get-go I got to eat a lot

of different types of food and I think

the best Hungarian food I ever had was

fruit soup and you think a fruit soup

and it's kind of like fruit soup that

doesn't really work right and that's

what that's the exact same thing I

thought too fruit soup that doesn't

really go together it's not like peanut

butter and jelly you know it's not like

chips and salsa it's fruit and soup and

so this nanny just gave it to us and she

was like hey you know here it is it

looked delicious he was like a pink

purple color it just was glowing and I

was like wow this is what fruit soup is

do you like it hot or cold I was like oh

I could try it hot and she looked at me

she's like no I think I think you like

it cold all right so she gave it to me

and my first bite I just fell in love

absolutely just drop down to the ground

and just almost started worshiping the

soup is so good and it's really easy to

make I mean go online look it up but

it's delicious it's really good and

that's that's something that's very very

unique to hungry is the fruit soup so if

you go to hungry try the fruit soup it's

really good you won't be let down yeah

bad foods there's sausage they have

different tons of different kinds of

sausage there they have a horse sausage

they have Pig sausage chicken sausage

all kinds but there's one particular

sausage that I just despised I just

hated I don't know it was really really

bad first of all it looks black it's

like a black sausage they call it work

off that's the name for it and it was

served to me from a gypsy family in

gypsies cooked really really good food

by the way so I mean this isn't this is

just something all Hungarian see this

isn't just gypsies and I just tried it I

thought it was the most disgusting thing

and you ask anybody that knows me I I am

very brave when it comes to food I can

eat anything but this fork of stuff I

just couldn't

I could not shove it down my throat so

what it is it's blood sausage and so I

mean they take every single part of the

pig I guess it's what sausages anyways

but they it's just oh just the way that

they cook it and like put it together

you like when you eat it you can you

know like let's start picking little

pieces of bones out of your teeth

because it's just gross but they love it

and that's something that's really

really unique to hungry as well as a

horde guy so if you want to try

something you can be try that a lot of

Hungarians love it but me know like no

thanks I didn't I didn't really like it

very much but it was I mean it was very

unique so you know try it you have to

try it it's not a Hungarian experience

and unless you try it

there was another dish that they served

called Austria and what it was is that

what they do is they put they put fat

into a bowl and then they throw like

parts of a pig or I don't know just like

any type of meat in it and then they put

it in the freezer they eat it in

wintertime they put in the freezer and

after a certain amount of time they take

it out and they just serve it to

everybody and of course they season it

you know they put like pepper salt and

stuff in the fat and everything but that

stuff is just it's just really really

bad it's I wish I could I could have

brought pictures because there are

pictures of me eating it and there's a

before and after picture I looked really

happy that I finally had you know core

Choya in my hands like wow this is legit

Hungarian this is good stuff and then

the next picture just my face was like

this like oh I had yeah it was really

really bad

so the horchata and the hookah I think

those are two of the most disgusting

yeah it's awesome Hungarian food I mean

I could talked about the food for days

hungarians are really proud of their

kitchen and they're really proud about

you know their cuisine and things that

they have they really like stuffed

cabbage to try stuffed cabbage it's

really really good hey foo took apple

stock if you're Hungarian you're

watching this and you heard those two

words you're probably nodding your head

like oh yeah baby that stuff's good

delicious it's still it's it's great I

mean Hungarian most of the everything

mostly everything in Mount Gary

cuisine is awesome so you I mean you

won't be disappointed and coming coming

from a Mexican culture we have really

really good food and we're really really

proud of our food and the way we cook it

the Hungarians I mean they're we're like

right here and Hungarians are like

they're like up here

yeah they cook really good food you

won't be disappointed and they cook a

lot of it in Greece they use a lot of

oil and things like that but they still

manage to keep you know pretty good they

still manage to stay in shape so I mean

us Americans we deep-fry everything and

grease and stuff like that and you know

all of us are a lot of a lot of us are

like kind of overweight and we're really

really hungry but everywhere else was

closed we didn't have any food in our

apartment and we're just starving we

hadn't eaten all day and we're looking

around for some places to go and we see

this place shining right before us and

it says burger pub and so we decided to

go there

because we're I mean there's no other

place was open it kind of sounds a

little skeptical rights has pop in it

but it's like okay well if they have

burgers and we're gonna get some burgers

so we went inside and I remember just

thinking like okay this can be a typical

Hungarian burger it's gonna be you know

just not very good typically they this

other giant they're probably like this

big and they I mean it's pretty much all

bread and they put like three tiny

little circles of meat in there along

with some tomatoes lettuce and then they

put tons of sauce in it and so when

you're eating you taste a little bit of

me a little bit of tomato a little bit

of lettuce and then just tons of sauce

so that's kind of what I was expecting

but at this point I could have eaten

anything so we went in there and we sat

down and look at the menu it says you

can order like a brutal burger you know

like a vegetarian burger all these did

there's all these different kinds of

burgers so okay like I'll get the brutal

burger let's see how brutal this thing

really is so he brings it out I remember

and it just was beautiful on the plate

like just I'm a fat juicy lookin

American

patty was on there and I had like onions

I had a

I don't know you stick going through so

it looked even better you know that just

like just really looked it looks really

oily and greasy just delicious just like

heaven and so I'm sitting here there's

like music playing in the background and

there's this light shiny behind this

burger that's coming to me slowly and I

just I'm the happiest person in the

world so we both get our burgers we eat

our burgers delicious and we start to

leave and we think the the manager for

the meal it turns out they just opened

like a week before that a week or two

before that and he speaks English he

lived in England for a while usually

Hungarians sometimes they go to England

they come back and they speak really

well and so we're talking to him and he

was like why are you guys are Americans

and we told him that this burger was

even better than some of the burgers

that we've had in America and he flipped

he was so happy about that compliment he

told us that if there's anything any

type of any piece of advice that we

could give him for his restaurant for

the recipe or anything like that then go

ahead I mean he was just willing to take

in anything and so we both out there

looked at each other and thought wow he

could really maybe use a fry sauce

because he had a really good french

fries and so typical fry sauce in the

u.s. right mayonnaise ketchup you have

you know your salsa and there maybe even

some peppers I don't know just whatever

and but the base was the honey the the

mayonnaise the ketchup and the pepper

that's like all we told him and all we

told what we told him some other things

but I don't know if I can disclose those

things right now it's a secret secret

recipe so he told us that he was gonna

try it he was gonna try the French fry

sauce and so we leaved the restaurant

thinking that there's no way in heck

that he's gonna try this and we come

back about two days later to three days

later and to order another burger just

because was so good and he was like guys

guys guys came up to us you wouldn't

believe how awesome this is right what's

going on that's the fries sauce recipe

that you gave me we used it and people

loved it like they're ordering it like

crazy they just they love it a lot

I mean p.m. it's delicious like they

love it like yeah we put a little

Hungarian twist on it we added some pop

because some other things but people

love it and then me and elder Jud looked

at each other like oh my gosh he uses it

now and so we looked at each other holy

cow and I looked at him the store owner

and I was like hey so if I wanted to

order right now what would I call it and

he looked at me he's like hope we

decided to call it Andrew sauce and

that's my first name but it sounds like

you're calling it Andrew sauce if I can

Danny looked at me like wait why is it

why can't it be Alex sauce like I you

know I've put some input in it as well

but he they called it Andrew sauce so

whenever the missionaries went to Burger

pub and wanted the the American fries

sauce they always that asked for Andrew

sauce was pretty cool and it's still

there it's on the menus so it's pretty

big it's like it's a really bold print

too and we became really good friends me

in the store owner so if you ever go to

need a Chaza which is a must-see place

and hungry and you ever go to the burger

pub which you will see it's next to the

knotch templum then you will you will

have my fry sauce it's so the Hungarian

people are awesome people I've never met

people that are so loving so willing to

serve so so willing to give so much of

themselves for you they they definitely

have a way of showing of showing a

different kind of love but you can only

find in Hungary you can't really find it

anywhere else and it's I mean you feel

you definitely feel like you become the

child even at some point they always

invite you over for food they just the

way that they talk about themselves

they're not prideful people at all

they're very very humble people serving

in Hungary is a very very humbling

experience the very very humble people I

think the things I learned from

Hungarians the most though was that we

just need to you know one of the things

is that we just need to laugh at

ourselves whenever we mess up or

whenever we whenever we fail I don't

know just things like that Hungarians

were always able to just laugh at that

and move on for me you know I don't like

failure I don't like losing and stuff so

that was really cool to see just them

get through that especially after all

they'd been through like I said World

War two and things like that

they're just really able to kind of like

brush it off because they've definitely

haven't forgotten about it but they're

able to move on with their lives they're

able to get past it I think that's

something that's really neat about the

Hungarian culture that they have really

strong spirits they're just always

willing to get to know you get to know

new people first they might be kind of

standoffish the really formal when they

first meet you it's not like here in

America where you could just like go up

to man hug their hey how's it going you

know like yeah sweetie like my name is

Andrew you know they would think that

was really weird

you can't do that you know it's really

formal they they really uh they really

think it's weird if you try to if you

just like say hi to them on the street

what the heck I don't know that person

some people like take it really well but

most people are like I don't know you

why are you saying hi to me there's one

day - I said choke alone - it means like

kiss you on the hand it's what we

usually say and how we greet nannies and

she like turned back at me and I

remember we're walking away and she's

kept him saying nefesh metonymy schmidt

um that means I don't know you I don't

know you I don't know you she was like a

broken record she kept up saying it over

and over again she was just so confused

why said heíd were so I mean that was

really funny but the Hungarian people

are just awesome they're great people

they're really smart they fit just about

everything in the books and they're

really proud of it too I mean you just

have to go there to really experience

the people unique people great people

loving people smart people it really

just a different experience there was a

lady in my first area need a child I

keep on you know shoutout to Nia - aza

she would always feed us her name was

Maggie she would always feed us and then

anything that she had left over she was

just gift to us so if she had leftover

sliced meat left which he always made

sandwiches if she had leftover sliced me

she would give it to us bread she would

always give us chocolate sometimes with

alcohol in it but I don't think she

realized his alcohol she would give us

all this stuff and just tell us to take

it home and I literally like cried a

couple of times just because I mean her

life story is just it's it's really sad

and she's always she's still willing to

to give you know that's how most

Hungarians are is they even though

they've gone through so much in their

lives are always they're still willing

to give to give to anybody

and to you know just be happy about it

like that it's not a favor it's

something that they really like doing

they really enjoyed doing tracting we'd

knock on doors

whenever I mean we didn't get let in a

lot but whatever we did get let in

there's always a water offered that they

always asked asked us to sit down make

ourselves comfortable if we wanted water

that make us some water or they would

give us food and almost every sink every

single time actually I don't remember a

single time when they didn't do

something like that for us hungarians

like I said our very very giving the

very service oriented people you see a

lot of the younger people even walking

their grandpas and grandmas on the

street like it's it's the coolest thing

ever to see that you don't really see

that here too often so they're really

they really just have a different way of

showing you their love and so I think

that's one of the biggest things I

learned from hungarians was the love the

service and the respect so living in

hungary is really safe actually there's

really not a lot of crying that happens

and it's for the most part I mean you

could walk pretty much anywhere and

you'd be okay but in my first area

there's a place he knows that see gone

thought up it's a gypsy settlement and I

really wanted to go there because I

really wanted just to meet like I really

wanted to get into the Gypsy culture and

see how they lived and stuff like that

and so we we just decided to go over

there and we didn't even really know

where it was we were just riding our

bikes and kind of exploring everything

and we saw this trail he just took us

down to the settlement and we parked our

bikes probably shouldn't afford to come

here that near that settlement really

dangerous but I mean we did came back

nothing happened but we parked in there

we tied him up and we just went out and

started to try to find people in that in

that area and I remember there's a huge

soccer field a huge dirt soccer field in

the middle and then all around the

soccer field or like almost they almost

look like abandoned buildings abandoned

whole like apartment buildings they

didn't have any doors and you windows

nothing I mean I think people used like

blankets and stuff

to cover up the openings in the windows

and stuff so I mean it was really really

scary how they lived I mean you just

looked at it was like how are these

people living this way there's a lot of

chickens everywhere it was just it was

crazy and so I remember we're walking

and then a ride away immediately like 20

30 kids came up to us and they they were

asking where we were from I had a watch

Don it was like a I think it was just my

Casio watch like are you rich you got

that watch and stuff you guys are from

America you have to be rich and we just

were saying no no like we're not rich

we're just missionary said well why are

you wearing a tie and a white shirt you

know you guys look really nice where you

guys from where you guys are from Jesus

Christ and they just kept on going on

and on and like they didn't really let

us talk and so they were just like

yanking on stuff and uh and we're just

sitting there and they really started to

warm up to us it's really weird because

I mean we didn't we definitely didn't

think that that was gonna happen we

thought that they're gonna try to steal

something or something but no it was

cool and then I remember we're sitting

there talking to him just like about

religion and stuff why we were there

where we came from in the US and things

like that and then they asked me if I

played soccer and I said that I just

looked out one of the kids like you want

to play soccer right now and he looked

at me shook his head and smiled like

this and he wouldn't grabbed a soccer

ball just his torn up beat-up thing

brought it out and we played soccer with

them with the ton of little kids and

then there was their parents came out

like who these kids playing soccer with

like a bunch of guys in white shirts and

we were playing across lighting clothes

and it was a blast the kids started

fighting each other like punching each

other in the face and stuff roughhousing

so we got out of there really quick so

with the language there's a couple

things I wish I would have practiced a

little more and that is the and that you

sounds so for example a really good word

is shoelace shoelace shoelace in camera

can't me give you two examples shoelace

is C fufu zu I still can't even say

right to this day I think

and then the cameras fin cape as a cape

so if you can say you're and you're--you

right then you'll get the language down

pretty quickly I'm at the beginning

you'll get a pretty good head start like

see poof uzu you don't want to say that

because hungarians can definitely tell

the difference in the intonation when

you say you and who it's crazy I mean

you're listening to this right now you

probably can't tell the difference but

they can tell the difference and they're

really picky about it and they will

correct you in the language they're

really nice about that as well

they'll really help you with the

language in a lot of countries you know

they kind of give you a hard time for

trying to learn the language but in

Hungary they really really admire you so

if you go to Hungary and you get your

ear and you down then the people will be

really impressed so that's something

that I wish I would have practiced a

little bit more oh and another one is

zero that's it means green but I mean to

this day I feel like I still can't even

say it right it's like the zoo zoo it

just feels weird

coming out of an American mouth you know

like it's just I don't know strange so

it definitely feels weird you definitely

have to get used to a lot of it just

speak at all you can just give it your

best and it'll come okay so I'm just

gonna introduce myself as if I were a

greeny hodgepodge so-and-so chrétien

you're Tim Eric apple a you Tim America

rule edge knob a zealot eh nah Joan said

etiquette Lenny ich now Jon seda Tech

amar Marg our ethyl mega a modular a

modular am black and but a cat yes

that's pretty much what it is in a

nutshell it's basically what it is so

for an experience missionary it's gonna

be a hordes board your guide on my last

name's guide on so it's a voyage bad guy

to another bad joke yet America all most

most magic Miss America horn up name

varam then I don't set a timer marjoram

barricade na jeong's erratically nee nee

on Saturday Mamaji are a tad

again Chuck Negron salad tomorrow sec

are you recycled hopefully you could

have tell you could tell the difference

so the weather and hungry so I kind of

had this picture in my head of what

hungry look like year round and it was

just blizzard and snow and I thought I

was gonna be tracting and streaking at

the snow and just freezing freezing mice

up freezing my butt off and I thought

that's just how I pictured hungry and I

remember I got there and I got there in

the summertime I got there I got there

in July that's when it was okay no

summer time and it was really really hot

I was not expecting that flying in

Dongri I saw these green trees and

everything I expected to see you know

everything just dead and white and gray

and stuff but no it definitely wasn't

like that it was beautiful in the

summertime it was really humid

especially in Budapest because you have

the Danube that just runs through right

there and so there's a lot of the

moisture that comes from that gets in

the air gets really hot when you're

eating in Budapest I'm gonna some Rose

beautiful it's really hot it was

beautiful there's a lot of sunflower

fields everywhere in Hungary so if

you're on the trades and stuff you look

out left to your right you just see tons

of like sunflower fields and that was

really beautiful to see in the summer

time the winter time though was actually

really cold so I was wrong about it

being year-round but I wasn't wrong

about the winter time it really is that

cold I remember actually fell on my film

I bought a couple times walking through

the snow just slipping and felt like

four or five times in one day

I remember it was really it was really

just like gloomy and there's really dark

I think the fall is the prettiest time

you know all the colored leaves and all

the buildings beautiful buildings

European architecture it's just it was

really really pretty okay so a good way

to describe the Hungarian economy

it's like Third Reich about 30 years

behind us middle-class so I mean that

that's the average that's there that's

like the average person there are a lot

of buildings that were built by the

Russians when they were when they

occupied Hungary during World War two

and a lot of Hungarians live inside of

them especially

aired if you go to like the outer cities

in towns around Budapest you'll find a

lot of that and their panel apartments

it's just it's really sad to see people

living in that cuz I mean they're really

really I lived in one heard and so I got

to experience firsthand and it was just

really it was really tough

we had no a/c the carpet was just it was

pretty bad our faucet didn't work

there's almost everything in the

apartment basically wasn't working and

so a lot of people live in those and

you'll just see building after building

after building after building of

apartments and you just say wow I think

in one building I tracted there was like

200 rooms there so there's a lot of

those a lot of people live in those a

lot of people are working more than one

job but I mean they're the hardest

working people I've ever seen here you

don't really see old people walking

around all the time you know they're

always in you know in a retirement home

or you know just knitting or something I

don't know whatever they do and hungry

you see them around everywhere the old

ladies are walking they could have like

the worst you know case of they could

have the worst case of scoliosis but

they're just walking and going grocery

shopping and just doing things like that

and it's really impressive to see they

love the outdoors they love talking to

people do people love talking and I mean

that they're the most lively people some

of the most lively people I've ever met

once you crack that she'll they do have

a shell around and that's kind of it's

like no why are you talking to me but

when you can actually start making them

feel comfortable around you and when

they do feel comfortable everything from

there just they just they can't get

enough for you so that was that was the

cool thing about Hungarians is is they

just once you you know once you break

that shell once you get to know them

they trust you then it's like they never

want you to leave and that was really

cool there's a lot of beautiful houses

in Hungary they look a lot different

they don't really have the you know how

your typical you know American home is

its front yard back yard and that's it

Hungarians they have a huge fence around

where they live and they their houses

doesn't really have like a front to it

it does I do I guess they're but you'll

see a lot of the houses

affront to and the doors are actually a

lot different I had a door in my first

apartment it kind of looked like a couch

I had like little buttons and stuff and

they don't really have door knobs as

much as we have here they're just kind

of it's like you put your key and unlock

the door then you pull that at the

little handle that's there so that's

another thing that's different about

hungry and on the streets and stuff and

a lot of the condos and things like that

we would have to knock on people's

windows because their door would be on

the complete other side of the house in

their backyard so the front door was

like a gate and you could ring the

doorbell but in order for them to come

out they'd have to go out the back and

they'd come around and open the gate and

so you can imagine how frustrated some

people got during the wintertime like

who's knocking on my door at six o'clock

at night so missionaries you know that's

definitely the last thing that they like

here a lot of people travel by train

they call them by lamarche or vu not you

can take we took a lot of buses so the

produce is a lot more organic than here

in the US it goes bad a lot faster the

housing is a lot cheaper than the US I

knew some Americans I just moved a

hungry for the housing it's really

really cheap living but the food is

about the same if not more expensive so

it's even harder for Hungarians I think

minimum wage there is I think about are

the dollar it's like four ninety five or

something like that I don't know

something really really low no that's a

good job I think I don't know it's it's

somewhere around there four dollars

three dollars so a lot of them have

about three jobs and they have to pay

for things

I mean besides our living everything's

just as it just as costly as everything

here in the US and like I said if not

more expensive if you want to get a you

know a Nike shirt there cost like 40

bucks for just like a Nike t-shirt

because you know it's shipped all the

way from the US and they put it in you

know two hungry and stuff so it costs a

little bit more clothing is definitely a

lot more expensive there so there's two

kinds of Catholics there was good a

cuddly couch that's Greek Catholic and

there's little my custody couch that's

Roman Catholic and there was mmm get a

couch without for math bouche evangelist

reformist there's a couple of Jews there

I think on the pêche side

so it was it was just you had a huge

variety of things but I'd say the

biggest the biggest religion there was

with Catholicism it's it's a cultural

thing as well it's not really

necessarily just a religious thing we

would talk to a lot of people that that

were Catholic but they didn't they said

they didn't believe in God like I'm

Catholic but I don't believe in God

we're like oh well you know Catholics

believe in God so why don't you believe

in God it wasn't the older people were

the more traditional Catholics they were

the really strong Catholics and I mean

you had World War two you know what

happened with Hungary and stuff like

that the war either made it made him or

broke them and so you have these old

people that were really strong and then

these other old people that have just

completely given up on life I didn't

really see a gray area was all the it

was always either one or the other and

it was really sad to see I remember one

time I was talking to a lady an old lady

on the street and all the woman and she

looked super sad so I tried to talk to

her and she she didn't she just didn't

really want to talk to me so I kept on

being persistent like missionaries like

missionaries should be and I just really

wanted to help her because she looked

really sad and I was like well you know

do you believe in God or do you believe

in a life after this life and she said

no I don't believe in God and asked her

why and she looked at me dead in the

eyes and she she told me that when the

Russians were here they gassed her

father right in front of her and she

looked me dead in the eyes after she

told me that and she said now you tell

me that there is a God now you told me

that there existed a God after that

after somebody can see something like

that happened to their very own father

and so that was really hard for me I

mean I mean you know what am what can I

say I mean all you can say is I'm sorry

and I'm sorry that happened to you but

God does exist and he's there for you he

loves you he wants you to be happy he

doesn't want to see you like this that's

exactly what I told her but she just she

just she lost a lot of hope you could

tell in her life and it was like that

for a lot of people that we talked to on

the streets that we tracked it into

another example there was a guy an old

man I think he said he was not about 93

years old we tracked it into him and he

opens a door

and I mean he just kind of looked he

didn't really looked super happy he

didn't look super sad was just kind of

in the middle

you know he's medium happy and and we're

talking about like okay well we just had

the strongest feeling that we should

talk to him about the plan of salvation

and so we started talking about the plan

of salvation and he starts he starts to

cry and he says that we can't help him

because he just doesn't believe in that

there's no way he can ever believe and

we asked him why he said his son had

just died two days before we tracked it

on his door and he started the ball I've

never seen an old man cry like that in

my life so I was really I was really

tough for me and my companion to see you

know it's really hard you could just see

the pain in his eyes I mean you think

about your not being able to see

somebody after this life you know you're

your dead grandmother your dead mom your

dead dad it's just it's heartbreaking

and to think that he thought that there

was no way out of his pain of out of his

misery that's just that tormented me

inside you know I think that torments

all missionaries inside is that you know

that this gospel can help them you know

that this that people need to know about

this plants they know where they're

going where they came from so there's

hope but he just had no hope he did not

believe in anything he thought literally

thought that that was the end and I mean

on earth there's really not nothin else

worse that you can experience for me you

know you're thinking that this is this

is it this is it's over after this you

know everybody wants to see their loved

ones again so there is that kind of

grief and sorrow and hungry because of

the war

you know because of just a lot of things

that they that they went through as a

country they got betrayed often they'd

just been through a lot they're very

patriotic they're very strong people but

they're real they're very real you know

they're not gonna hide their grief

behind a smile you know they're gonna

really let you know how they feel and

that was a great part of it is is that

we could just we could just talk to

people about whatever if you ask

somebody but the cool thing about

Hungary is if you ask somebody how

they're doing you

which bod then they tell you everything

you know they all my back hurts my head

hurts my daughter just had a baby last

night I have five grandchildren life is

great

I just got a new job it's awesome they

go into every single thing that they had

experience that week you know but if you

ask somebody here in America how they're

doing they just say how are you back

there's really no uh no huge response

it's more of like a greeting here but in

Hungary it's like it's really you're

showing them that you really really want

to know how they're doing you're telling

them that you want to know it's not just

hey how's it going you know and so

that's what I really liked it made

missionary work really easy