The Gift of Goulash

The Army boys devoured about 20 servings of Goulash!

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Goulash

“Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.”

Guy Fieri

Goulash is a dish that can feed a crowd.

A dish that has many varieties that can please any hungry crowd. 

The crowd can be large, small, or just a few.

Goulash is a quite filling stew.  

Goulash is hearty, warm, and comforting to eat.

Goulash can bring back the comfort of home for those longing for consolation.

When life is fraught with aggravation.

Goulash can provide fellowship, kinship, and a friendly meal.

Nourishment, sustenance, subsistence and fare.

Goulash is a gift that was crafted with great care.

If we can learn anything from goulash, the lesson would be: to be soothing, to be filling, and full of great life.  To have many ingredients, interactions, and recipes for life. To offer a humble meal, an ancient meal, as we navigate through our life. 

Goulash.  This is a dish that dates back to the 9th century in Hungary.  This dish was prepared by shepherds who would spend several months on the plains herding sheep.  They would prepare the goulash in a large cauldron that was hung from a large post over an open fire.  There are at least 7 varieties of Goulash in Hungary alone.  The dish spread to many countries all over the world.  There are American varieties, Canadian varieties, Austrian, Ethiopian, Italian varieties just to name a few.  Goulash has stood the test of time.  What can we learn from goulash?  Well, I would argue many things.  First, common ancestry.  Timeless dishes were created with the idea of kinship, feeding a crowd, fostering a friendly meal.  Second, simplicity.  In this age of digital everything, sometimes uncomplicated, is ideal.  Third, it is interchangeable.  Goulash now has many diverse ways to be prepared yet the name has stayed the same.  Goulash is still a stew of some sort.  Recently, my husband and I literally fed about nine Army boys.  At first we entertained ordering pizza because of the sheer size of our crowd.  After talking with my husband, we decided that a nice home cooked meal would be a gift for our boys.  This got me thinking about the longevity of this dish.  How many folks have gathered around a big pot of goulash and embraced the simplicity, the heartiness, the succor that Goulash provides? Let us hope that as time soldiers on we can both encounter folks who embrace the blessing of goulash and we can be a blessing of goulash to those around us.  

*Source Wikipedia, Rachel Laudan, Smithsonian Magazine