Food.

The teacher of my Hungarian class told us about Túró Rudi, a candy unique to Hungary. It is a chocolate bar filled with cheese curds. Intrigued, I bought some, and enjoyed it immensely. I would bring some with me when I come home in December, but I'm pretty sure they have to be refrigerated.

One day, the ice-cream shop by my apartment was selling Túro-Rúdi–flavored ice cream. I love ice cream, and I love Túro Rúdi, so surely I would love this flavor. But I didn't. I am glad that I tried it though: it was an interesting taste experience, and now I know that I shouldn't put cheese items in my ice cream.

I really like the ice-cream shop by my apartment. They always have the basic flavors, like chocolate, but I'm pretty sure they switch up the other flavors that they offer. There were a few days when they had a Tiramisu ice cream; I got that once and it was amazing. And the ice cream is pretty cheap, too—only 140 forint per scoop.

At this point I should explain Hungary's money system. The currency is called the forint. The exchange rate is approximately 200 forint to 1 dollar. As a result, I'm a millionaire in forints. There are coins worth 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 forint (there are no 1-forint coins). There are bills worth 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000 and 20000 forint. A medium-price meal in Budapest tends to be about 1000 forint. However, note that this is only about five dollars! Also note that the ice-cream cone costs the equivalent of 0.70 dollar, which is ridiculously cheap in the United States. This is my motivation for the ice-cream exchange rate—but more on that another day.

The chicken here is really good. This is fortunate, since chicken is my favorite animal to eat. One time I got chicken with a paprika sauce. Another time I got chicken with a cheese sauce. Both were excellent. The cheesy chicken in particular gave me that distinct mix of feelings that arises from eating something incredibly delicious but also really unhealthy. It was a satisfied contentedness, mixed with guilt and regret, mixed with astonishment and wonder. If "feeling the fat clogging one's arteries" is an emotion, then add that to the mix as well. I'm not sure if this unique emotional state has a name. Let's call it foojitty.

I also felt quite foojitious when I got a palacsinta (crêpe, basically) filled with cheese and topped with cheese and sour cream. I got it at Nagyi Palacsintázója (English: Granny's Pancakes), which I mentioned in my first post. The banana–nutella palacsinta that I got there was the best breakfast food I've ever had. It's really cheap, too: depending on the kind of palacsinta, it costs 200 to 400 forint apiece.

Budapest has a lot of gyro restaurants. I get the feeling that gyros in Hungary are the cultural equivalent of Mexican food in America. Just like America, Budapest has a lot of Chinese-food places, including fast-food ones. In fact, my first meal in Budapest was at a Chinese buffet. The other day, I went to a Thai-food restaurant and ordered something that ended up being pasta with turkey and garlic, Italian-style. So I've eaten Italian food from a Thai restaurant in Hungary. I'm so multicultural.