Solet (Cholent)

Now you will think that my life revolves around food. That's not entirely true but at my age there are not too many earthly pleasures that are still available. However food is one of them. And while I am vigorously trying to stay healthy I do occasionally immerse myself in the pleasures of eating.

There is a Hungarian/Jewish/Yiddish bean staple that goes by the name solet in Hungarian or cholent in Yiddish (I think). This is a primarily baked bean with a whole lot of think added to it. I think the kosher version had goose legs or other meat and eggs placed in the pot and when the whole think was prepared it was slow cooked overnight.

I remember my Mother used to have me take the pot down to the neighborhood baker who then placed the pot in his oven where it stayed until next day. By then it was baked all through and ready to eat.

I really love this thing. I could live on this probably forever or at least for days. The beauty of it is that every household make it differently and mostly they are all good.

The really good ones have pork in it. They are probably Jewish pigs that grew up in Jewish households. The ones with pork really taste good.

A friend who makes "world class" solet made me some and right now I have two great portions in my freezer waiting to be eaten.

Today we had some business to do in Manhattan and after that we went to the one and only Hungarian eatery in the City. On their menu they had this solet. And theirs is with pork. Naturally that simplified my food selection since they had two of my favorites: goulash soup and the already heralded SOLET.

Man, I was in seventh heaven! It was a good thing that we parked about two blocks away and that way we walked off the calories (I hope).

There is a well known kosher restaurant in Budapest that has a fairly extensive solet menu. Until going there I never realized that this food comes in so many varieties. On my next trip there visiting this restaurant is a must!

I love this food so much that if I would have to chose between very attractive young lady giving me a lap dance or the solet, I am pretty sure the solet would win!