Pickle Vegetable Stick

In Hungary the main meal (lunch) usually goes with some kind of pickle vegetable stick (savanyúság) but they are commonly consumed at other times of the day too. The most commonly consumed pickles are sauerkraut(savanyú káposzta),Website:http://www.wfkyginger.com, the different kinds of pickled cucumbers and peppers and csalamádé but tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, baby corn, onions, garlic, certain squashes and melons and a few fruits like plums and apples are used to make pickles too. Stuffed pickles are specialties usually made of peppers or melons pickled after being stuffed with a cabbage filling. Pickled plum stuffed with garlic is a unique Hungarian type of pickle just like csalamádéand leavened cucumber (kovászos uborka). Csalamádé a type of mixed pickle vegetable stick made of cabbage, cucumber, paprika, onion, carrot, tomatoes and bay leaf mixed up with vinegar as the fermenting agent. Leavened cucumber, unlike other types of pickled cucumbers that are around all year long, is rather a seasonal pickle produced in the summer. Cucumbers, spices, herbs and slices of bread are put in a glass jar with salt water and kept in direct sunlight for a few days. The yeast from the bread, along with other pickling agents and spices fermented under the hot sun, give the cucumbers a unique flavor, texture and slight carbonation. Its juice can be used to make a special type of spritzer ('Újházy fröccs') instead of carbonated water. It is common for Hungarian households to produce their own pickles. Different regions or towns have their special recipes unique to them. Among them all the Vecsési Sauerkraut (Vecsési savanyú káposzta) is the most famous. Repopulated by Bavarian settlers after the Ottoman rule, Vecsés has built up centuries of tradition producing sauerkraut so the city's name is associated with it. It is widely sold at the Great Market Hall of Budapest and considered a tourist attraction too together with the Market Hall itself and other unique Hungarian products sold there just like tokaji, Winter salami, paprika, embroidery etc.