New World Carb Crop Conquers Hungary?

On Wednesday we rented our Fiat Panda and drove the 200 hundred kilometers between Budapest and Pecs', which is in the south of the country near the Croatian border. We knew this was agricultural countryside and were interested to get a look at their farms.



We expected to see Old World crops such as grapes, olives, etc. Instead we encountered mile after mile (er, kilometer) of CORN. It was literally the only crop they were growing. It was like Iowa except with centuries old farmhouses. And quaint villages, and Magyar peasants. And nobody spoke English. Actually it wasn't really like Iowa, but there was a lot of corn!



This was perplexing because they don't eat corn here. Not once have we seen a corn dish on a menu. We inquired about this subject to Frank from Arizona, our new Hungarian-American friend. His cousin lives here. He says they use the corn to feed all of the pigs. This makes sense, because if there is one thing that has been on every menu here it is pork.


Corn --> Greasy delicious slice of pig on a plate.