Where could you find the best Paprika, the best Palinka, the best and most original Tokaj, the best variety of szalami, the best hungarian clothing and traditionnal 'couture'???
Certainly not where you see it.
Hungary is made of hidden places and activities, and it seems they cherish this feature of their material culture.
I don't even know the name of the main market in Budapest, but first of all it's a beautiful place to be in, and does charm you by its colorful displays of national ingredients, its Gypsy violinists in the restaurant on the upper floor, and all the 'made in hungary' myth.
"Made in Hungary?" Well it certainly exists, but not in a shop where puppets of traditional women's clothing blend in with a strong man's Juventus shirt (the same year the club spent in Serie B, Italy's second division in Football, after they had been implicated in a financual fraud). It is enough for the German and French tourists around (The kind of retired groups who travel around the world together with the record-breaking feature of not switching from their mother-language even once). Enough for me to buy some paprika for home, and to enjoy the sight - until I find a "Sarkozy" tee-shirt from the brand "Hungarian move".
To realise ever more that the material culture of the country is quite unique, and I'm therefore not surprised that they nearly always compare food or drink products from other countries to their own! I consider this fair: it's 'standing up for themselves', in a way everyone defends the minority they come from. I do, and hungary in itself is full of minorities. Who isn't one, apart from the people who officially declare they are not... (sic)
It's just a normal market day...
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