I'm happy, too, with the old song and dance, provided that goes double for the food.
Shown below: a sandwich featuring a very juicy, flavorful pork cutlet called pecsenye (peh-Chen-yeh, $6); a sweet cheese palacsinta (pah-lah-Chin-tah) in the making, and as served, with its apricot-jam partner (two for $5); szilvas gombocok (Sil-vash Gom-boatz-oak, two for $3), dessert dumplings with plum filling; and a rolled poppy-seed pastry, also available in walnut (portion, $5).
Though this last item was identified throughout the festival as kalacs (Kaw-lotch), a Hungarian reader maintained that it should be called bejgli (Bay-glee). It's possible that bejgli is the more traditional name and that kalacs comes from the mingling of several Eastern European cultures, over several generations, in northern New Jersey. I'm of Slovak descent myself, born in this part of the state, and growing up I knew these pastries as koláč.
Also shown, at bottom: the old song and dance at after-dinner speed.
New Brunswick Hungarian Festival
Somerset St., New Brunswick, New Jersey
June (the 36th annual festival was held June 4, 2011)
