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"Gastronomy"
At the 13th BoP labor we tested lettuces, red and green lollos, butterhead, romaine letuces and chichory with the help of Tamás Koltai (GreenFortune). The lettuces were bought from an open market, a hypermarket, a supermarket and we also had one bio lettuce. The test took place again at the kitchen of KIOSK.
The results: we tasted bitter and terribly bitter salads, some tasted like chemicals, but we also had some pleasant, sweet and slightly tart-tasting ones. Of course the perception of bitterness is the question of personal taste and type, but what makes a salad (sometimes extremely) bitter?
We started exploring this month’s new topic: (dried) beans and lentils for passing winter time. We meet with these foods at the chamber shelf commonly in pre packed form. We know particulary less about the lentil plant itself and the processing method. We will present these methods in a new series and discuss weaknesses in applied procedures.
We made our most extensive research and analysis of supply and availability ever, thanks to our voluneers. This months’ lab will be done with Eszter Fűszeres, the results will be available via Prezi as usual.
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Helsinki based urban ecologist Ferenc Vilisics and artist Niina Ala-Fossi got in touch with us a few weeks ago. They got inspired by our Based On Pig’s activities and together with some friends decided to start food research ventures in similar manner. Their diverse group is based on friendship, people come from different countries and work/study at the University of Helsinki.
We tested 8 types of acacia and 7 different blossom honey mix. We measured their water content and compared their taste.
We have chosen those two types, because they are the most common on the market (in Hungary). The acacia is one of the most natural honey, so often people, who do not like the strong honey taste, or kids pretend to like it. The blossom honey mixture is made out of different types of flowers and sometimes we can feel that some flowers taste more intense in the mixture than others. For example we spotted some linden in one of tested products.
One of the quality indicator with honeys is the water content. Usually we measure it with hand-held refractometer, which is an often used equipment of a beekeeper. Csilla brought her measurer so we could work with it. Putting one drop on the device’s tray we could see the result. (The refractometer defines the sugar content by calculating with the refractive index of the dollop and it is also used for fruits and wine.)
A good quality honey contains no more than 19% water. In case of a higher water-content it starts to rot, at 22-23% it starts to ferment. Out of the tested products only one had 21%, that was very fluid, had scratchy taste, and felt diluted. We have found one fermented honey as well but it’s water content was normal. So possibly it was fermented before the packaging but its water content was artificially modified (unfortunately this is one style of falsification). It is important not to eat a honey which tastes ferment or alcoholic because it must be rotten.
Good Bye carp! Our first topic in 2013 is honey.
Honey; delicious and extraordinarily healthy, though most of us can easily
judge it by misbelieves. We usually doubt the quality and the source of the product, the origination.
We are about to reveal some facts about our precious Hungarian honey.
We will talk about: the ‘real’ honey, crystallization (or else saccharification),
false honey making techniques, the plastic ‘honey-bear’ container phenomena, urban beekeeping and much more …

We have been testing again with Gyuri Lőrincz. The no.9 lab test was carp. This time his colleague, László Koncz was also helping us to reveal basic comprehensive information on three carps from different sources of distribution and breeding .
Fish were coming from the following sources: fishmonger, open market, hypermarket.
This was definitely a more phisical, raw experience than testing vegetables, eggs or our first lab, testing pork.
The fresh carp has no or moderate smell, snappy scales you can not remove easily, it’s meat is watery, springy. Pay attention not to choose injured fish on which you can see marks of fight. As we know the big, fat fishes have more chitterlings as perfect sign of big portions of offals.
You can find our observations in the Prezi below, and here you can find some extra tips in case you would like to buy carp – all of these were reconfirmed by our chefs.
Lumen Zöldség és Közösségi Szolgáltató (Lumen Greengrocery&Community Space) opened in September 2012 and accordingly it is selling fruits and vegetables, herbs, other cooking ingredients and delicacies. However, this is not an average shop. Lumen Photography Foundation‘s programs had been previously running at Lumen café. The greengrocery accomodates their newly established Lumen Drawer program that is to present various art projects rotating every few months. But that’s not all. Beyond the store’s opening hours it functions as a community space which is enhanced by a special furniture that can be flexibly adjusted to the prevailing needs, be it gastronomic presentations, workshops, discussions, film screenings, etc.
We are pleased to take on their request and start a Based on Pig program on this background and foreground. In the recent weeks, we visited the store several times and talked to Zsuzsa Uliczki, greengrocer and together with Judit Gottfried cultural program manager we have worked out the BoP board concept which is going to be the backbone of our co-operation. The content of the board will change monthly and will always be around one vegetable/fruit. We’re willing to pass through the essence of our researches in the form of drawings and brief descriptions for customers and passersby.
From now on you can meet us not only in the online space but in the city as well!
We make homemade Ischler and Linzer cookies with homemade iced teas for Restaurant Day Budapest! We usually tend to mix these cookies, don’t we? They seem to be eternal…classical and retro, behated and beloved at the same time. We believe what you may remember as terrible, mass-manufactured product of school buffets can magically become heavenly sweets by our hands.
Come and try it! The cookies come along with club soda and different types of homemade ice teas with freshly collected herbs and fruits.
Location:
OS Kantine – Weiner Leó utca 5., 1065 Budapest
