Hunglish.orgLángos, a common nosh in Hungary, begs two questions: What is it? And who enjoys eating a whole serving?
written by Scott Savoie
Lángos is fried bread with oil and garlic pasted on; often sour cream and cheese are added on to make it sort of a white pizza.
The exact equivalent does not exist in other places. I remember we had something called „elephant ears,” which was fried dough with powdered sugar, I believe. These would be served up along with cotton candy and other food novelties at fairs and carnivals.
Lángos is most often enjoyed in the sweltering heat of summer along the shores of Balaton, or as a late-night snack after a debaucherous evening of binge drinking.
Either way, it is hardly a light snack.
Sure the first couple of bites are delicious, but there seems to be diminishing returns on the dining pleasure involved.
The dough seems to continue expanding inside the digestive tract. The old grease that the bread has been frying in starts to recongeal around your aortic valves … And if you listen carefully you can hear your arteries closing up.
The last few bites of lángos rarely provide as much joy as the first few. Typically, there is a feeling of „it’s a shame to let it go to waste with all those starving kids in Africa.”
Since just one lángos could feed an African village for a week, it’s best not to let any go to waste.