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Budapest Business Journal | january 27 – february 9, 2017
Socialite
Vegetarian Hungary
David Holzer explores the challenges of being a vegetarian in largely carnivorous Hungary, and finds life is gradually becoming easier for those who chose to “pass” on the meat.
for running from Budapest to Moscow and was often in the media for swimming across the Danube and the Tisza in the winter. Think about that while you munch your falafel. Schirilla wrote a number of books that referenced vegetarianism, including “Vegetarianbook”. Sadly, this remarkable man died in 1999.
Alive and Well
DAVID HOLZER
I’ve been vegetarian off and on for most of my adult life. My Hungarian partner has followed the way of the vegetable since the early 1980s. When I moved to Szeged to be with her I bowed to the power of the vegetable all over again. Apart from the occasional bucket of Szeged fish soup, of course. Putting willpower to one side, it has not been difficult to be vegetarian in England for many years. Supermarkets carry complete ranges of veggie ready meals. Thanks to the legacy of the British Empire, we’ve become comfortable flinging all manner of weird and wonderful Chinese, Indian, West Indian and Who-knows-wherian spices and sauces into the bastardized ethnic specialties we make at home. Not so in Hungary. My partner was regarded as close to insane when she went vegetarian. Even now she’s in the minority in Szeged, where we live. Up until recently, a meal out for her has involved some sort of deep-fried cheese or a towering mound of nuked vegetables. Usually cooked in meat fat. And this in a country where fresh local Hungarian produce is cheap and plentiful. When we took our first trips to the UK and Sweden together, my partner was in ecstasy at the range of veggie options on offer. Heaven for her was working her way through a salad the size of her head or a swimming pool of soup served by eightfoot tall people who strode up to our table chirping “Hi, Hi!” with frighteningly good health and good cheer. In recent months, though, things have been looking up for us in Hungary on the vegetarian front. But, before I explain why, a brief history of vegetarianism in Hungary.
The Roots of Hungarian Vegetarianism There must have always been Hungarian mavericks who refused to eat wild boar because they simply didn’t want to. But the recorded history of vegetarianism in Hungary begins with the establishment of the Hungarian Vegetarian Association, later the Hungarian Vegetarian Society
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(HVS) – a vitally important distinction – in 1883. This is about what I expected. I’d assumed that the influence of Germany and Austria on Hungary, along with the country’s own intellectual richness, would have naturally led to enlightened people embracing vegetarianism. At this time in Germany, vegetarianism – along with nudism, embracing esoteric belief systems, worshipping the goddess and many aspects of today’s New Age – became fashionable. Some of these ingredients would go on to inform rather more mass movements. Hitler was vegetarian. But we won’t go there. The HVS was set up to educate the Hungarian population as to the benefits of vegetarianism and improve its general health. What may have been the first ever Hungarian veggie restaurant, The Reform, opened in Vámház körút in 1911. There was a vegetarian menu at the Thalysia in Király utca. HVS members received a discount at the grand Joseph Archduke Hotel if they ate vegetarian. For the vacationing veggie there was always the “meatless dietetic holiday” at Balatonföldvár set up by a Dr. István Rusznyák. Hungary also had vegetarian magazines. Natural Lifestyle was the official publication of the HVS. A magazine called Lifereform was published in Szentendre between 1932 and 1938.
Enlightened Various enlightened Hungarians also championed the vegetarian and natural lifestyle. Béla Bicsérdy preached the benefits of raw food up until his death in the early 1950s and wrote a
book called “The Book of Art of Life and Macrobiotics”. A particularly intriguing figure is Dr. Gyula Bucsányi, a naturopath, who was ahead of his time in arguing that conditions like arteriosclerosis and diabetes could be treated with a change of diet. Bucsányi was also a great believer in sun worship, or heliopathy. But the clue to why vegetarianism died out around the mid-part of the 20th century lies in the various Hungarian communities that promoted vegetarianism as part of a rather more ambitious agenda. These included the Gödöllő art center, which sprang up in 1901, and especially the “vegetar community” at Izbég near Szentendre. Established in 1930, this had 90 members by 1935, which is not bad. Hungarian socialism saw communities such as these as a threat because the values of openness and tolerance they promoted were anathema to a system based on control and repression. Anything that promoted a natural lifestyle, including vegetarianism, was suppressed. In the early 1950s the HVS was shut down. The end of socialism in Hungary in 1989 ushered in an explosion of interest in all things alternative or New Age, including vegetarianism. For instance, in the late 1990s the Ahimsa Hungarian Vegetarian Society of Veszprém was created. It publishes The Vegetarian. Certain individuals also did their bit to promote vegetarianism. The extraordinary György Schirilla, born with a congenital illness, became a teenage vegan while training as a sportsman. Schirilla was influential in promoting the triathlon in Hungary. He was also famous
Today, vegetarianism is alive and well in Hungary, or at least in Budapest and certain outposts. While it has to be said that Hungarian cuisine remains resolutely meaty, it’s become easier for vegetarians to eat well in Hungary. Even in Szeged, the home of the famous Pick salami factory, there are a couple of decent vegetarian restaurants. Incidentally, the Pick factory boasts a museum of salami. I haven’t yet found the courage to visit. But when we come up to Budapest, we are not far off being spoilt for choice. Thanks, I guess, to the backpackers and other international nomads who fall in love with the city and decide to stay a while. In the seventh district, centered on Király utca, there’s now a great choice of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. If you’re like me, though, you may be a little bored by menus essentially the same as those you’ll find in any hipster ghetto anywhere in the world. (While, of course, feeling both blessed and grateful, Namasté.) I’m on a mission to find places that offer Bambi-free versions of the Hungarian cuisine I’ve fallen in love with. Kőleves vendéglő at 41 Kazinczy utca is on my own Budapest restaurant bucket list. It’s apparently housed in what was a kosher meat factory, which may or may not say something profound about the changing nature of eating habits in this country. At Kőleves vendéglő, apparently, you can eat butternut squash, spinach and feta streusel in tomato sauce which sounds to live, rather than, die for. If you are vegetarian, vegan or just curious, you should definitely check out the Hungarian-Vegetarian Walk offered by award-winning organization Taste Hungary. The tour begins at Budapest’s Central Market Hall where your guide, a local food journalist, whets your appetite by explaining how Hungarian cuisine uses the local and seasonal ingredients. From there you’re taken on a tour of vegetarian and vegan restaurants that ends in lunch at a restaurant that serves veggie versions of favorites like gulyás or goulash and stuffed cabbage. Sadly, I can’t tell you where this is, because I haven’t taken the tour…. yet. Find out more about the HungarianVegetarian Walk at www.tastehungary.com
2017. 01. 25. 22:02