Kocsonyafesztivál

We all know that communities can throw together a wonderful festival under ANY theme: dandelion, pumpkin, garlic, tulip; anything is possible, right? What results is a great weekend of food, drink, live music, many local vendors, and in this case, meat jelly. Meat Jelly! Yes, as in the mass of quivering, clear meat gel that you get when cooking meats that contain a lot of gelatin. In Hungary the pork jelly is a delicacy, especially around the time of Christmas, or after families have had their traditional pig-killing day. So, let's call it the "Aspic Festival".

On Saturday we took a two hour train ride to Miskolc with our friend and Cindy's colleague from EDYN, Anne. Fellow TeachOverseas colleague and Miskolc teacher, Annie, met us at the station and provided tickets so we could get on the tram into the heart of Miskolc and the festivities. We were joined by our other TeachOverseas friends from Miskolc and Sárospatak: Maria, Peggy, and Erin. Much of the day was spent walking up and down the streets checking out the stalls of the hundreds of vendors displaying and selling their crafts. We also sampled some of the many food and drink offerings: roasted sausages, chicken and turkey breasts, potato and onion dishes, ham hocks, all fried in huge skillets of bubbling oil; toasted chestnuts, cinnamon and sugar-coated almonds and peanuts; smoked meats, cheeses, various flavored palinka and wine, and the ever-present hot spiced wine. And, the souvenir of the day, the other symbol of this festival: the frog.

The story goes like this: Once upon a time a frog jumped into a bowl of cooling meat jelly in the cellar of a Miskolc restaurant, and an unsuspecting waitress served the aspic to her guests, complete with the blinking frog! A great basis for a festival.

We saw many of the vendors selling one-pound tubs of meat jelly, and apparently there are over forty varieties. We saw chicken-wing, onion, vegetable, beef, and pork kocsonya, and of course, many people eating tub-fulls with bread. Did we try it? No, thank you. (We had previously tried it last Christmas when a student of Jack's gifted us with this special treat!)

There were races--what festival is complete without some sort of race?--of waiters and waitresses carrying coffee cups (filled with meat jelly?), and a lot of outdoor stages with a variety of musical entertainment.

It was a wonderful venue for just spending time with fellow Hungary ESIers...catching up and enjoying their community with them. It was great to see so many of Annie and Marie's students greeting them on the street; we even got to see some of them performing in a special dance exhibition at the festival.

Thanks for a great time Annie, Maria, Erin and Peggy!