B2 · Upper Intermediate
14 min
food and cuisineeuropean historypolitics and democracyculture and identity
Paprika and Power: Hungary at the Table
El pimentón y el poder: Hungría en la mesa
Péter Magyar is sworn in as Hungary's prime minister, ending Viktor Orbán's sixteen-year grip on power. Fletcher and Octavio use that moment to explore something most journalists miss: Hungarian cuisine, one of Europe's richest and most misunderstood, and what it reveals about centuries of conquest, survival, and identity.
Péter Magyar jura su cargo como primer ministro de Hungría, poniendo fin a dieciséis años de Viktor Orbán. Fletcher y Octavio usan ese momento histórico para explorar algo que pocos periodistas mencionan: la cocina húngara, una de las más ricas y más incomprendidas de Europa, y lo que revela sobre siglos de conquista, resistencia e identidad.
6 essential B2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pimentón | paprika / smoked or sweet ground pepper | El pimentón es el ingrediente que define la cocina húngara y también la española. |
| denominación de origen | protected designation of origin (PDO) | El pimentón de Kalocsa tiene denominación de origen protegida de la Unión Europea. |
| contundente | hearty, substantial (used of food or arguments) | La cocina húngara es contundente porque fue diseñada para personas que trabajaban en el campo con frío. |
| artesanal | artisanal, handcrafted | La tradición culinaria húngara era muy artesanal antes de la colectivización soviética. |
| crema agria | sour cream | El pollo con paprika se sirve siempre con crema agria para suavizar el sabor. |
| retroceso democrático | democratic backsliding | Los críticos describieron los años de Orbán como un periodo de retroceso democrático en Europa Central. |
Yesterday a man named Péter Magyar walked into the Hungarian parliament and was sworn in as prime minister, ending sixteen years of Viktor Orbán.
And my first thought, genuinely, was: I wonder what they served at the reception.
Es una pregunta completamente absurda, Fletcher, y sin embargo tiene sentido.
It's a completely absurd question, Fletcher, and yet it makes sense.
Porque en Hungría, la comida y la política llevan siglos mezcladas de una manera que no ocurre en muchos otros países.
Because in Hungary, food and politics have been mixed together for centuries in a way that doesn't happen in many other countries.
Tell me what I'm missing.
Because my mental image of Hungarian food is basically goulash, and I have a feeling that's roughly as accurate as saying American food is basically a hot dog.
Bueno, el gulash existe, claro.
Sure, goulash exists.
Pero es como si yo dijera que la cocina española es básicamente paella.
But it's like me saying Spanish cuisine is basically paella.
Es un punto de partida, no un destino.
It's a starting point, not a destination.
Alright, back up.
Give me the landscape.
What is Hungarian cuisine, actually?
Para entender la comida húngara tienes que entender que Hungría ha sido, durante siglos, un cruce de caminos.
To understand Hungarian food you have to understand that Hungary has been, for centuries, a crossroads.
Los romanos estuvieron allí.
The Romans were there.
Los otomanos la ocuparon durante ciento cincuenta años.
The Ottomans occupied it for a hundred and fifty years.
Luego vino el Imperio austrohúngaro.
Then came the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Cada uno de esos imperios dejó algo en la cocina.
Each of those empires left something behind in the cuisine.
A hundred and fifty years of Ottoman rule.
That's not a footnote, that's a chapter.
What did that actually leave on the plate?
Pues dejó el pimiento.
Well, it left the pepper.
Y el pimiento lo cambió todo.
And the pepper changed everything.
Los otomanos llevaron la planta desde América, a través de sus rutas comerciales, hasta los Balcanes y Hungría.
The Ottomans brought the plant from the Americas, through their trade routes, to the Balkans and Hungary.
Los húngaros lo convirtieron en pimentón, en lo que ellos llaman paprika.
The Hungarians turned it into paprika.
Y desde ese momento, la cocina húngara nunca volvió a ser la misma.
And from that moment, Hungarian cuisine was never the same again.
So the thing that defines Hungarian cooking, this deeply Central European flavor, came from the Americas via the Ottoman Empire.
The irony there is almost too neat.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y hay algo más interesante todavía.
And there's something even more interesting.
Durante mucho tiempo, la paprika era considerada comida de pobres, de campesinos.
For a long time, paprika was considered food for the poor, for peasants.
La nobleza húngara prefería especias más caras, más exóticas.
The Hungarian nobility preferred more expensive, more exotic spices.
Fue el pueblo llano quien adoptó el pimiento y lo hizo suyo.
It was ordinary people who adopted the pepper and made it their own.
That's a pattern I've seen in a dozen countries.
The food the elite rejected becomes the thing the whole world wants two centuries later.
Claro.
Right.
Y el gulash es el ejemplo perfecto.
And goulash is the perfect example.
La palabra viene de "gulyás", que en húngaro significa "pastor de vacas".
The word comes from "gulyás", which in Hungarian means "cowherd".
Era literalmente la comida que los vaqueros preparaban en las llanuras, en la puszta, con lo que tenían: carne, cebollas, pimentón, agua.
It was literally the food that cowboys prepared on the plains, the puszta, with what they had: meat, onions, paprika, water.
The puszta.
I wrote a piece years ago about the Hungarian plains and I remember thinking they looked more like the American Midwest than anything I expected from Central Europe.
Esa llanura, esa inmensidad, define el carácter húngaro de una manera que es difícil de explicar si no la has visto.
That plain, that vastness, defines the Hungarian character in a way that's difficult to explain if you haven't seen it.
Y define también su cocina: abundante, contundente, hecha para personas que trabajan fuera todo el día con frío.
And it also defines their cuisine: abundant, hearty, made for people who work outside all day in the cold.
Now, the Habsburg angle.
Because that's the other enormous presence in Hungarian history, and I assume Vienna and Budapest ended up sharing more than a government.
Compartieron casi todo, pero con tensión constante.
They shared almost everything, but with constant tension.
Los húngaros resistieron la influencia austriaca incluso en la cocina.
Hungarians resisted Austrian influence even in the kitchen.
Por ejemplo, el schnitzel vienés y el húngaro son casi idénticos, pero si le dices a un húngaro que su plato viene de Viena, se va a enfadar mucho.
For example, Viennese schnitzel and Hungarian schnitzel are almost identical, but if you tell a Hungarian that their dish comes from Vienna, they get very angry.
That sounds like a conversation I should not start at a Budapest dinner party.
No, definitivamente no.
No, definitely not.
Pero lo que sí puedes mencionar sin peligro es el Café Gerbeaud, en la Plaza Vörösmarty, en el centro de Budapest.
But what you can safely mention is Café Gerbeaud, on Vörösmarty Square in central Budapest.
Es uno de los cafés más antiguos y elegantes de Europa.
It's one of the oldest and most elegant cafes in Europe.
El estilo vienés del café, el kaffeehaus, echó raíces profundas en Budapest, y eso sí lo aceptan con orgullo.
The Viennese coffeehouse style, the kaffeehaus, took deep root in Budapest, and that they do accept with pride.
The coffeehouse culture in Central Europe, it's something that doesn't fully translate.
In Vienna and Budapest these places were where intellectuals actually worked, where newspapers were written, where revolutions got planned over pastry.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y eso conecta directamente con el momento político de hoy.
And that connects directly to today's political moment.
Hay una frase que se usa a veces para describir la Hungría de la Guerra Fría bajo János Kádár: "comunismo gulash".
There's a phrase sometimes used to describe Cold War Hungary under János Kádár: "goulash communism".
Era la idea de que el régimen comunista húngaro era más blando que el soviético, que permitía cierta prosperidad, ciertos placeres, para mantener a la gente tranquila.
The idea was that the Hungarian communist regime was softer than the Soviet one, that it allowed a certain prosperity, certain pleasures, to keep people calm.
Goulash communism.
I've read about this.
Kádár let Hungarians run small private businesses, allowed a bit of Western culture to seep in.
The theory being that a full stomach is a politically passive stomach.
Eso es.
That's right.
Y funcionó, en parte.
And it worked, partly.
Hungría era, dentro del bloque soviético, uno de los países con mayor nivel de vida.
Hungary was, within the Soviet bloc, one of the countries with the highest standard of living.
Podías encontrar cosas en las tiendas húngaras que no existían en Moscú ni en Varsovia.
You could find things in Hungarian shops that didn't exist in Moscow or Warsaw.
Pero ese bienestar tenía un precio político: la aceptación silenciosa del régimen.
But that prosperity had a political price: the silent acceptance of the regime.
And then Orbán comes along and runs, for sixteen years, what critics call a sort of democratic backsliding wrapped in nationalist cultural identity.
Food included, I assume?
Sin duda.
Without a doubt.
Orbán usó la cultura, incluida la gastronomía, como parte de su proyecto de identidad nacional.
Orbán used culture, including gastronomy, as part of his national identity project.
El concepto de "lo húngaro auténtico" fue politizado, igual que ocurrió en otros países.
The concept of "authentic Hungarianness" was politicized, just as happened in other countries.
La cocina tradicional se convirtió en un símbolo de resistencia frente a lo que él llamaba la globalización sin raíces.
Traditional cuisine became a symbol of resistance against what he called rootless globalization.
It's a move I've watched in several countries, this weaponizing of the traditional table.
You see it in France with debates about halal food in schools, you see it in Italy with politicians demanding restaurants serve "national dishes." The plate becomes a battlefield.
Y es una trampa, porque la cocina nunca ha sido pura.
And it's a trap, because cuisine has never been pure.
Ya hemos hablado de eso: la paprika llegó de América, los pasteles llegaron de Viena, los fideos probablemente llegaron de más lejos todavía.
We've already talked about that: paprika came from America, pastries came from Vienna, noodles probably came from even further away.
Ninguna cocina nacional es lo que sus defensores más radicales creen que es.
No national cuisine is what its most radical defenders think it is.
Let's talk about Tokaji for a minute, because I think it's underrated as a story.
This is one of the world's great wines and most people outside Europe couldn't point to it on a map.
El Tokaj es fascinante.
Tokaj is fascinating.
Es un vino dulce, producido en el noreste de Hungría, cerca de la frontera con Eslovaquia.
It's a sweet wine, produced in northeastern Hungary, near the Slovak border.
Luis XIV lo llamó "el vino de los reyes y el rey de los vinos".
Louis XIV called it "the wine of kings and the king of wines".
Y tiene una historia de producción de más de cinco siglos.
And it has a production history of more than five centuries.
Fue uno de los primeros vinos del mundo en tener una denominación de origen oficial, antes que muchos vinos franceses.
It was one of the first wines in the world to have an official appellation of origin, before many French wines.
Wait, before French wines?
That's going to irritate some people.
Puede que sí.
Maybe.
El decreto que delimitó la región de Tokaj es de 1737.
The decree that defined the Tokaj region is from 1737.
Y durante el comunismo, la calidad cayó enormemente porque se produjo en masa para exportar a la Unión Soviética.
And during communism, quality fell enormously because it was mass-produced for export to the Soviet Union.
Después de 1989, hubo que reconstruirlo todo.
After 1989, everything had to be rebuilt.
Es casi una metáfora de lo que le pasó al país entero.
It's almost a metaphor for what happened to the whole country.
That communist-era degradation of quality, it's something I heard about repeatedly in countries coming out of the Soviet bloc.
The collective farm, the production quota, the complete disconnection between the person growing the food and any sense of pride in what they made.
Y eso contrasta con la tradición culinaria húngara anterior, que era muy artesanal, muy local.
And that contrasts with the earlier Hungarian culinary tradition, which was very artisanal, very local.
Cada región tenía sus propios embutidos, sus propias variedades de pimiento, sus propias técnicas para preparar el cerdo en invierno.
Each region had its own sausages, its own pepper varieties, its own techniques for preparing pork in winter.
El comunismo uniformizó todo eso de una manera brutal.
Communism uniformized all of that in a brutal way.
So when Péter Magyar stands up today and promises change, part of what Hungarians might actually be hoping to recover is something softer than policy.
A reconnection with things that got hollowed out.
Quizás, aunque hay que tener cuidado con ese tipo de romantismo.
Perhaps, although you have to be careful with that kind of romanticism.
Lo que Hungría necesita más urgentemente son reformas institucionales, independencia judicial, libertad de prensa.
What Hungary needs most urgently are institutional reforms, judicial independence, press freedom.
Pero sí, es verdad que las sociedades que han sufrido autoritarismo a veces expresan su deseo de libertad a través de cosas cotidianas.
But yes, it's true that societies that have suffered authoritarianism sometimes express their desire for freedom through everyday things.
La comida es una de ellas.
Food is one of them.
Press freedom.
Yes.
Point taken and I won't argue it.
But the everyday things matter too.
I've covered enough post-authoritarian transitions to know that people vote for bread, literally and figuratively, as much as for constitutions.
Eso es verdad.
That's true.
Y volviendo a la comida: uno de los grandes productos húngaros que ha vivido un renacimiento en los últimos años es el pimentón de Kalocsa y de Szeged.
And returning to food: one of the great Hungarian products that has experienced a renaissance in recent years is the paprika from Kalocsa and Szeged.
Son las dos grandes ciudades paprikeras.
Those are the two great paprika cities.
La Unión Europea les dio denominación de origen protegida, lo que ha ayudado a los pequeños productores a competir en el mercado internacional.
The European Union gave them protected designation of origin, which has helped small producers compete in the international market.
There's something pleasingly circular about that.
The EU, which Orbán spent years fighting, quietly protecting Hungarian farmers through exactly the kind of regulation he said he hated.
Es una paradoja que a Orbán le resultaba incómoda de explicar.
It's a paradox that Orbán found uncomfortable to explain.
Hungría recibió miles de millones de euros en fondos europeos mientras su gobierno atacaba los valores de la Unión.
Hungary received billions of euros in European funds while his government attacked the Union's values.
Es difícil rechazar la mano que te da de comer, aunque uses otra retórica.
It's hard to bite the hand that feeds you, even when you use other rhetoric.
Alright, last thing before we wrap.
If someone were to sit down tomorrow at a genuinely good Hungarian table, not a tourist restaurant, a real one, what are they eating?
Empieza con una sopa.
You start with a soup.
Los húngaros son muy serios con sus sopas, especialmente en invierno.
Hungarians are very serious about their soups, especially in winter.
Puede ser un caldo de ternera con fideos, o una sopa de cereza agria, que parece extraña pero es deliciosa.
It might be a veal broth with noodles, or a sour cherry soup, which sounds strange but is delicious.
Luego viene el plato principal: pollo con paprika y crema agria, que se llama "paprikás csirke", con albóndigas de masa tierna para absorber la salsa.
Then comes the main course: chicken with paprika and sour cream, called "paprikás csirke", with soft dumpling-like pasta to absorb the sauce.
Y de postre, "rétes", que es un hojaldre finísimo relleno de cerezas o queso o manzana.
And for dessert, "rétes", an incredibly thin pastry filled with cherries or cheese or apple.
Sour cherry soup.
I want to be open-minded about that and I'm finding it difficult.
Fletcher, tú pusiste hielo en un Rioja reserva la primera vez que te invité a cenar en Madrid.
Fletcher, you put ice in a Rioja reserva the first time I invited you to dinner in Madrid.
No tienes credibilidad para juzgar nada en términos de gusto.
You have no credibility to judge anything in terms of taste.
That was a very warm apartment.
Before we go, I want to ask you about something I noticed earlier.
You used the phrase "es difícil de explicar" and then later "es difícil de entender." I've heard Spanish speakers swap between that construction and just "es difícil explicar" without the "de".
What's actually going on there?
Ah, muy buena observación.
Ah, very good observation.
La regla es más sencilla de lo que parece.
The rule is simpler than it seems.
Cuando el sujeto de la frase es el propio infinitivo, no usas "de".
When the subject of the sentence is the infinitive itself, you don't use "de".
Por ejemplo: "es difícil aprender húngaro", donde "aprender húngaro" es el sujeto.
For example: "it's difficult to learn Hungarian", where "learning Hungarian" is the subject.
Pero cuando hay un sujeto diferente, sí usas "de": "el húngaro es difícil de aprender".
But when there's a different subject, you do use "de": "Hungarian is difficult to learn".
Ahí el sujeto es "el húngaro", y el infinitivo funciona como complemento.
There the subject is "Hungarian", and the infinitive functions as a complement.
So "es difícil entender la política húngara" versus "la política húngara es difícil de entender." Same idea, different structure, different preposition.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y los dos son correctos.
And both are correct.
En la conversación informal se mezclan a veces, pero si quieres sonar natural y preciso en español, vale la pena distinguirlos.
In informal conversation they sometimes get mixed up, but if you want to sound natural and precise in Spanish, it's worth distinguishing them.
Es el tipo de detalle que separa a alguien que habla bien de alguien que habla muy bien.
It's the kind of detail that separates someone who speaks well from someone who speaks very well.
Noted.
Much like the difference between a good gulash and a great one, I suppose.
The fundamentals are the same, the details are everything.
Octavio, thanks.
Next time I'm in Budapest I will eat the sour cherry soup.
Y sin hielo, por favor.
And without ice, please.