Santa Klaus’s name is Mikulás in Hungary, and of course Mikulas is Saint Nicholas, and his day is December 6. So today it is gift giving day in Hungary, mostly candy and nuts and red apples… as the song goes… in Hungarian.

When people come to me to have their food list muscletested, they rarely think that the food list will ask them to go back a couple of generations to a time when eating was different: you had to buy ice to have an icebox… You gave away half of your venison, or it would rot on you. You stored up goodwill for other times by sharing when it was plenty.

I am old enough to remember those times.
Read the rest of the article