In Hungary people usually have three meals a day.

Breakfast can be simple, often called

continental, or a substantial one with cold cuts, bacon, sausages, eggs, cheese, and nowadays
fruit juice and cereals. Lunch is the main meal, eaten between 12 and 2pm. It consists of three
courses. Soup introduces the meal, which is followed by the main course, usually some meat
dish with stewed vegetable, or meat with some garnish and salad made from fresh vegetables
or pickles. The meal ends with dessert and / or fruit. Another type of lunch consists of a
substantial soup followed by pasta, either salty or sweet, and fruit.
Evening meals, served between 7 and 8pm show a greater variety. Families who do not have
their midday meals at home, eat dinner in the evening with the soup often left out. Others
have one-course meals, still others eat cold cuts and cheese. Hungarian meals are
unimaginable without fresh white bread.
The use of roux or a sour cream and flour mixture to thicken dishes is a distinctive feature of
Hungarian cookery. Pork is the most popular meat, then comes fowl, primarily chicken.
Smoking is the traditional method of preserving food. Smoked sausage and bacon are
frequently served at the table.
The use of lard is also distinctive. Every dish, even most pasta and pastry, is traditionally
made with lard or fried in lard. However, in the majority of cases, people have started to
substitute lard with oil. Fresh bread spread with chilled lard, sprinkled with salt and paprika
and garnished with fresh green pepper, tomato, spring onion is one of our gastronomic
delights.