By Michael Roddy
BAJA, Hungary (Reuters) – It’s almost 6 p.m. and people are
getting hungry as Mayor Peter Szell steps onto a stage in the
vast central square of this gracious southern Hungarian town on
the Danube.
Szell welcomes the thousands of people crowded into the
square, says a few words in memory of Jozsef Sobri, a recently
deceased local resident famed for his fish soup, and finally
comes to the key phrase: “Light your fires!”
With that, the central square of Baja goes up in smoke —
literally — as some 2,000 wood fires are lighted
simultaneously, heralding the start of the 10th annual Baja
fish soup festival.
Within minutes, 2,000 caldrons of carp, assorted river
fish, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, lots of water and
indeterminable quantities of red wine have begun to boil,
filling the smoky air with a delicious spicy-fishy perfume.
Hungary is famed throughout the world for its fiery, meaty
goulash, but this nation of food fanatics has a lot of other
arrows in its quiver, one of which is its hearty fish soup.
“The most important thing about this festival is that you
get the original and traditional fish soup that was invented by
the people living in Baja,” said Balazs Kovacs, 19, a business
school student in Budapest and Baja native who returned home
with friends for the festival.
“You get the pure taste of it, something you couldn’t get
cooking with gas, only with traditional wood. Usually smoke is
something disturbing but in this case it’s something you
enjoy.”
Enjoy they do, as tens of thousands flocked to Baja on a
warm July weekend to savor a festive fish soup served at long
tables beside steaming caldrons in the open air.
“In Budapest there are too many restaurants where you can
get a wiener schnitzel just like back home in Germany,” said
Roland Gerber, who moved recently to Hungary to work for a car
distributorship.
“This (the fish festival) is something really original,
this is what the local people enjoy, it’s not just for
tourists.”
Begun in 1996 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Baja’s
founding by cooking 300 caldrons of soup in the main square,
the festival has become one of Hungary’s big regional events.
The Guinness Book of Records cites Baja for the largest
number of pots of fish soup made with the same recipe. This
year some 30,000 people — in a town of 38,000 — sat down for
soup.
“The slogan the first year was a 300-year-old town, 300
caldrons of fish soup,” said Gabor Szentivanyi, Hungary’s
ambassador to the Netherlands, a Baja native and one of the
instigators of the plan to put the town on the tourist map.
Four years later, it was so popular the slogan was revised
to “2,000 caldrons for the year 2,000” and it keeps growing.
“Having a table has become so precious that people raise
this issue in divorce settlements — who inherits the dog, who
gets the children and who gets the table,” Szentivanyi said.
Along with the heady smell of soup, to which the inevitable
paprika is added toward the end of cooking, a good atmosphere
prevails as young and old, strangers and friends, bankers and
laborers mix, talk, eat, drink, listen to live music and enjoy
an elaborate fireworks display.
Some tables run ad hoc competitions for the best soup.
“I’ve put some extra garlic in mine,” Marta Laszlofalvi
confided, out of earshot of her partner Zoltan Szaniszlo, who
was preparing a separate kettle for a company outing.
UNWRITTEN RULE
Tables spill over from the square into adjoining streets,
churchyards, into family homes and onto an island across the
Sugovica river, a Danube tributary. There is enough food to
feed an army, and everyone is welcome.
“A number of restaurants offer the fish soup … but there
is an unwritten rule here that if you just wander around and
make a friendship, make contact, and you would like to taste
the soup, they will invite you,” Szentivanyi said.
The festival provides a much needed economic boost for an
area of Hungary the government admits is underdeveloped.
“Unemployment is high here, especially since the textile
factories closed down,” one older woman said.
Baja has a long history as a Danube port and a traditional
melting pot of Serbs, Croats, Germans and Hungarians, but its
proximity to former Yugoslavia, the nexus of Balkan turbulence,
and lack of good infrastructure have hurt.
Hungary’s Socialist-led government says it is building new
motorways to open up a neglected area and is trying to draw
attention to its potential for nature and wine tourism.
“Hungary is far more than Budapest, Hungary is about
healing waters, about wines, about great logistical centers,”
said Economy and Transport Minister Janos Koka.
Koka was one of several prominent politicians in
attendance, but even for them it wasn’t necessarily politics as
usual.
Ibolya David, a Baja native and head of the center-right
Magyar Democratic Forum, said she was there to meet old friends
and cook a soup, not to talk politics.
“We are here like in a big family and every decent person
loves fish soup,” she said.
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