Yes, five of us had a tasty Hungarian meal at my place. And yes, we did go to a karaoke bar afterward.
We arrived there at about 9:00 pm just before the actual karaoke activities began. I signed up to sing the Partridge Family's 1970's hit I Think I Love You.
Guess who was the first one called to sing?
Yes, I sang it. I had fun doing it.
But here's a word of advice:
If you're going to sing a retro hit, and if you know you're going to sing it in a downtown bar in Chicago on a Friday night, be sure to sing it at least after 11 pm when there's a crowd that has consumed lots of alcohol.
We had a wonderful time. I accidentally deleted all the photographic evidence of my Hungarian meal, but it was awfully tasty.
I remember eating paprikas csirke (chicken paprikash) at an elderly woman's house who had immigrated to the States in 1954. Sure, hers was authentic, but sort of in a bland Post-WWII-Pre-Communist type of paprikash mode.
Mine was still authentic in that it didn't use any tomatoes nor any over-use of sour cream; but rather a nice way of highlighting chicken and Hungarian paprika. (Hint: you MUST stir the Hungarian paprika just right in the hot oil - - not overcook it or under-cook it, but just right.) The Hungarians are awfully particular about their paprika (ground, dried red pepper). It seems that they have a remarkable sense in that they can instantly spot the difference in paprikas.
At any rate, I think that my friends got to experience a pretty appealing taste of Hungarian cuisine. It's got lots of flavors, it's got that "heavy Eastern European" thing going on, but with something very unique. And I'm glad I got to show it off to my friends.
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And just for fun, check out this video of me singing I Think I Love You. (By the way, David Cassidy never sang that bass line "I don't know what I'm up against. . ." - - that was a "stunt singer" that did that in the recording and in all his concerts.)
I finally managed to upload a video from my little camera onto the You-Tube Thingy.
If you'd like to see a middled-aged guy having an awfully good time singing a cheesy song, then
click here.
Frankly, I think if all of our political leaders did this sort of thing, this world might be a much better place.
Okay, that was hysterical and yes, I stayed thru the very end. When we were teenagers we used to change the words from "I think I love you" to "I think I'm pregnant" ~ It's pretty funny and kinda fits the rest of the song.
ReplyDeleteYou had my mouth watering at your dinner. We used to "take care of" an elderly hungarian woman and she used to cook for us once in a while and it was WONDERFUL.
How ignorant am I? I thought paprika was paprika, and an American barbecue was, well, a barbecue.Fascinating and complicated stuff! And I loved the song by the way - funny, cute and happy kind of funny.I got a giggle out of it.
ReplyDeleteThat night was sooo fun! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, darlin', I just want to pinch your cheeks and kiss you up. That was adorable.
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