Hungarian Thanksgiving In A Box

Given that I was in my homesick phase of living abroad, I was V to E happy when my friend Susan offered to host Thanksgiving dinner at her apartment.

I offered to bring desserts and hit up Tesco on Monday night. Learning from previous experience, I opted to print out pictures of the "unusual" ingredients I needed rather than play charades to try to mime baking powder. I had mixed results - shortening and nutmeg are not sold in Hungary, but I did finally locate the brown sugar.

I picked up the remaining ingredients at Whole Foods when I visited Alexis had a b-school interview in London the next day. However, Gatwick security did not agree that my pumpkin puree was a solid and unfortunately confiscated all three cans at the airport.


I had a lot of fun cooking / baking the next night. I originally thought this was squash but it tasted like a giant sweet potato.


Who needs shortening when you can use the metric system equivalent of 3 cups of butter?


Catered by The Marriott, Thanksgiving dinner literally arrived in a box. This was a huge improvement over Susan's first Thanksgiving in the 'Pest when she bought a six-inch turkey sub from Subway, disassembled the sandwich and ate the turkey with a side of frozen veggies.


Susan assembled a motley ex-pat crew of a German, a Brit, another American, and an Australian-Hungarian.


Dinner was delicious and, more importantly, a lot of fun. However, I was taken aback by post-dinner comments about how full everyone was. I was full too; but this is THANKSGIVING, people. At home Mama Bochicchio goes all out for Thanksgiving every year. This is a woman who shops at BJs for three people, so you can only imagine the quantity of food she prepares for a full-on family gathering. Combined with being an incredible cook, my mom prepares enough food for 40 (there are at most ten), and everything is too delicious not to try. My sister Krista literally has an annual routine to maximize Thanksgiving consumption, waking up early to have a sizeable breakfast to "stretch out her stomach" before going back to sleep.


Thanks for a great night, Susan!