Living in an international environment can cause funny gastronomical conflicts during food preparation. Here is an everyday dinner fight from the home of Anikó Mészáros.
Of course it’s an amazing thing to learn more about each other’s culture and it’s great to try new tastes– but what happens when that new dish is actually just a bad made copy of your mother’s recipe?
That day it was all about preparing chicken. Chicken fried in breadcrumbs, to be exact. It’s a very popular dish all over the world, I guess. In Italy it’s called cotoletta, while in the countries neighbouring Hungary it’s more known as Wiener Schnitzel – in my crazy extravagant mother tongue rántott csirke, but try pronouncing it! No surprise that nobody else speaks this language and even Hungarian people use the German name sometimes. We refer to the same delicious slice of fried chicken, anyway.
Since I’m in Lund, I’ve fallen in love with chicken. It’s relatively cheap (compare it to beef, God!) and very cooperative: you can make anything of it, from Chinese food to… anything. Frying it in breadcrumbs is one of the best choices!
Generally it’s really easy to prepare. Cut the chicken into nice slices. You have to turn them around in different layers: flour, scrambled eggs and finally breadcrumbs. Fry it in sunflower oil and voilà you have Wiener Schnitzel.
There is just one important thing to conisider: make sure there is no one around having another idea on how to prepare it. Otherwise you will end up in a conversation like this:
– Are you making cotoletta?
– Yes, but in the Hungarian way.
– Cool. But you don’t need flour.
– But I’m making it the Hungarian way.
– Ok. But use butter, not oil.
– Do you want to cook the dinner??
– No, no…
– …
– But don’t use flour!
If you want to prove you know it better, cook when you’re alone in the kitchen. Once it’s ready and on the table, there will be no criticism…
