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Chicken Paprikas – Hungary

When I was a little girl, my dad used to do Indian Guides with my brothers and as a consolation prize once a year we would go on a day or weekend trip. One time, we went up to Boston and ate at this fabulous Hungarian called Cafe Budapest. I can still see their pretty table settings and taste the amazing cream of mushroom soup. It was my first time being in a very fancy restaurant. One of my dad’s favorite dish was Chicken Paprikas. Years later, I moved to NYC and would often frequent the old world Cafe Moka on 2nd avenue. It had old tile floors, elegant mirrors on the walls but from a time past. It was a little run down, but homey all the same. You could get a full 3 course meal for just over $4. While they had a long menu, the waitress who was had probably been there since the day it opened would walk over and basically tell you what you were having. One day, I was at a friends house, who happens to be hungarian and mentioned that I was planning to make Chicken Paprikas for my dad and asked if she had a good recipe. She explained how her dad makes it, and it is a big event and how the traditional way is to make it outside in a cauldron. She was going to try to ask him for the recipe. I was thrilled. Got the recipe along with some verbal notes and made it. It is awesome. To go with it, I also made the traditional egg noodle that you find there – spatzle, that you make on a giant cutting board and use a spatula or the back of a knife to drop the batter into boiling water. Definitely one of my favorite dishes. Scott likes it too, but prefers to have it without the sour cream. Eva, of course, loves it with the sour cream. We always have spatzle to go along with it. You can buy it in the store in the international food aisle, but if you have some time, you can make it. It is kind of fun to make. You make the batter which is like thick pancake batter. Then you spread it out super thin on a cutting board and with the back of a long knife or with a long spatula you push off little lines of the batter into boiling water. When it floats to the top, it is ready.

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