Bodor Ferenc: Coffee-Houses - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)

Mandula (almond)

There is a Danube-bend atmosphere about the hill-sides of Budafok around these parts, except that everything is a little shabbier. Lately, though, the boutique-fever of the valley has begun to make itself felt in the higher regions as well. The Mandula is ripening into just such a neo-mediterranean hillside fruit. At the counter men in track suits down one Pilsener after the other, shooing kids clamouring for ice-cream. National Championship thoughts hover in the air, mostly concerning chances of elimination. The wall-tiles prompt women dropping in to pick up husbands to go on washing-powder shopping-sprees and to take long foam baths. In the afternoons the door of the cabinet fixed to the wall opens and the much loved radio station begins to broadcast. In the back premises are objects indicative of technical progress: a jumble of wall-sockets, pipes, freezers. Beside the television an ancient price-list offers a long-forgotten selection of wares: cognac, Hubertus, Bambi and Utas. A notice pinned up beside the telepone cautions: PLEASE DO NOT PICK (JP THE RINGING TELEPHONE!

9/A KERESZT UTCA, XXII.

Unikum from the MANDULA

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