The Wandering Magyar

The food basket known by the name of Hungaricum is one of the most straightforward advertising messages: sausage, onion and a pitcher accompany Hungarian flavours. However, in an age of healthy eating we cannot be successful with offering a treat like that: Hungarian winter salami (which is of Italian origin) contains too much fat. In the pitcher, we could put wine, beer or palinka, but French and Italian wines cannot be beaten and all the Hungarian breweries are owned by Dutch or German companies. Which leaves us with palinka that simply cannot gain popularity beyond the borders of Central Europe. Taking a closer look at modern product innovation, we find only a low number of products. Organic farming methods are not catching on in Hungary; the dairy sector is dominated by the French- and German-speaking countries. Probably all Hungarian food producers could list their own prestigious and delicious products which also reflect Hungarian taste. Bet let us be honest with ourselves: novelties by Hungarian food producers from earlier decades finally paved the way for the mass-import of Chinese food products. For instance in Europe, more sourish fruit juices are popular, and the cheap Chinese apple juice that conquered the world is sweet. Hungarian apple growers were able to export their sourer apples. But from 2008, Brussels gave green light to the use of additives with fruit juices to make them sourer; consequently, demand for Hungarian apple fell, this year growers started the season with an industrial price of 4 cents per kilogram…Before marketing Hungary, we need to ask ourselves the question: Is a Hungarian today different than 100 years ago? If the answer is no, it means that we fancy the same flavours as a century ago and we can keep on offering our sausage, onion and the pitcher. If we insist on our traditions, let us dig up a few of the old recipes and remember, that the Italian, French or Chinese food industry also rely on their ancient traditions.