sugar, spice, everything nice

who knew? fact o' the week: hungarians are obsessed with paprika.

they seriously put it in everything. paprika is to hungary as nutmeg is to belgium. my goulyash last night was so thoroughly papriked that it actually had paprika sludge at the bottom.

my sister and her husband have an ongoing dispute about whether paprika actually does anything, other than making the tops of deviled eggs look pretty. but it DOES! it's not hot-spicy, it just gives a nice warm flavor to goulyash. and mushroom soup. and chicken. and everything else.

in fact, they are so in love with paprika that it is a crime to import it, lest some inferior paprika from an unapproved source CONTAMINATE their pure supply. whoa.

also, this is the first place that actually give me enough sugar packets with my espresso. i love my espresso, but it needs a certain amount of flavored syrup and steamed milk to make it an enjoyable experience. apparently Torani is hard to come by, in these parts, because every place is like, "oh, flavors? um, we have...one...bottle...here it is! coconut!" blech. so i stick to plain drinks. with enough sugar packets.