Shopping is different here but enjoyable when you get used to it. Shops keep to what they are supposed to sell and whereas we can pick up a packet of baby food at the local corner shop in England here you will only find it in the chemist. It is only the hypermarkets/supermarkets that sell everything.

In Budapest you can find some of the same familiar shops that we have in England such as Marks & Spencer’s, Debenhams, Pizza Hut, & MacDonald’s. Also there are several large shopping malls across the city and more being built all the time.

Hypermarkets are built in retail parks on the outskirts of towns and cities the same as they are in England and there are several different ones, Tesco being one of the largest. England is a ‘supermarket’ country and we don't expect to go to places like Tesco to buy items such as fridges, freezers & TV’s. But, when the large shopping chains polled the people in this country to see which type of store would be most suitable the conclusion was that the American format, one shop for everything, hypermarket style shop would be appropriate so it was first introduced here 10 years ago.

The other main hypermarkets are Auchan, Cora and Interspar. Penny Market is a supermarket found in many towns and Lidl is building the first of many new stores. Most large towns have their share of good hyper/supermarkets and more are being built all the time. Hungary has been allocated funds by the European Union, which it is joining in May 2004, for more hypermarkets and supermarkets. Only a third of the food shopping is carried out in them now whereas in the West 80% of food shopping is done in them. Also, new names are appearing all the time as more investment is being made in the country.

As for the food itself, well, because soup is a very important part of a meal, a large selection of fresh vegetables is sold mainly for that purpose. They also sell a lot of salad vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, huge radishes and cucumbers etc., which are eaten with cold meats and cheeses. In season fruit and vegetables are really cheap. Last autumn tomatoes & pointed peppers were around 20-30 pence a kilo so everybody was buying large quantities to freeze or bottle.

Because of the large ex-pat population in Budapest most of the hypermarkets around the city have an imported food section and stock English style tea, salad cream, Branston pickle, cream crackers, baked beans etc. They are quite expensive but I have not really missed anything from England except I began to have cravings for Cheddar cheese – something I didn’t really eat much of when I could get it all the time. The Hungarian cheese is mild and creamy, similar to Edam, with a mild flavour which is fantastic for eating with salads but and not really strong enough in flavour for cooking although the Hungarians do use it and manage to make delicious scones etc with it.

One day, I went to Tesco and they were selling ¾ kilo slabs of Cheddar cheese for around £2. I was delighted and bought several slabs of it and we enjoyed dishes cooked with it and lots of cheese salads. But, unfortunately, it was a special consignment and if I want to by some on a regular basis it is 4.500 forint a kilo now which is around £12 so and I don’t think I will be buying much of that.

The hypermarkets sell a lot of chilled food such as preserved meats, hams, smoked sausages etc. They are served for breakfast, supper and snacks with salad vegetables and fresh crusty bread. You can’t find a lot of canned food, but they do have glass jars of things like peas, beans, fruit and pickles and an amazing amount of dried food such as soups, sauces, pastas, noodles and rice. Lots of bottled water and soft drinks and Coca-Cola is cheaper than milk.

Another thing that is unusual is the fact that freshwater fish, such as carp and bream are kept in tanks in the shops and sold live to the public. When a fish is sold it is put into a plastic bag and the customer takes it home and deals with it.

I can’t get what in England we call double or single cream, just whipping cream or sour cream. One day I wanted to make a tiramisu and the recipe called for double cream so I used whipping cream instead. I whipped it into stiff peaks but as soon as I stirred in the rest of the ingredients it turned to liquid again. By that time panic was setting in as I was expecting people for a barbeque the next day and all I had to give them was a sloppy mess. I put it in the fridge, had dinner then it suddenly came to me to set it with gelatine. I tipped it all out, mixed the gelatine with it, crossed my fingers and left it in the fridge overnight. It was perfect and the bonus was it was much lower in fat than it would have been if I had used full fat double cream. Everybody ate it and said it was good so I will have a go at adapting more recipes.

Although there is a hypermarket and supermarket culture here now house wives still shop for fresh food each day. Fruit and vegetables are sold in a much riper condition than they are in England because they expect to use them immediately. Because everything in season is so cheap I tended to buy far too much at one time when I first came here and had to throw lots away – I have learnt to shop the Hungarian way now.