Food, glorious food

A plate of hundreds and thousands (is that what you call them too?) is bound to make any child's day and it certainly made mine... I love, love, love new and interesting things to eat.  It really takes the edge off a holiday for me if I'm not enthralled by every meal. It's one of the reasons we went back and back to Italy and only once to Poland! 

I ate my way around Europe but didn't make it to Hungary and so never saw these... apparently they're sold on almost every corner.  They're originally Transylvanian and called Kürtőskalács or stove or chimney cake. 

We found them at a lovely market in the countryside less than an hour from Auckland but about a million miles from Budapest!

What a treat to try something absolutely new, delicious and too hard to make at home.

The yeasty sweet spiced dough is rolled out and looped around a wooden stick - brushed with oil, rolled in sugar and baked in a hot, hot, hot open oven or traditionally over hot coals until the outside is crisp and the sugar has caramelised.

Then it's rolled while it's hot in your choice of more sugar, nuts, cinnamon, chocolate sprinkles or hundreds and thousands. 

Piping hot, sweet, doughy and quite delish...

The rest of the market was fabulous too - more on that tomorrow.