a last post about budapest, for a sort of photo diary of the food we ate on the 5 days we’ve spent there.
first thing we ate in budapest was…
… a bowl of spaghetti bolognese our hosts had cooked and left on the stove for us! seriously, how sweet is that? we were tired, it was late… it tasted divine! :)
after warming up our bellies, we couldn’t resist going out for dessert – we found a stall in a shopping center nearby, with chocolate covered ice-cream, and had to try it. this one was cinnamon, one of my favourite flavours!
the next days it was time to try hungarian fare. we started at the central market, with lángos…
… which is basically fried bread dough, covered in all kinds of toppings. a delicious greasy mess!
the blue rose restaurant was recommended by our hosts. we had…
…goulash soup, grilled pork with spicy potatoes, grilled veal in budapest style and somlói galuska! we’d seen it before when researching hungary, described as one of those must-tries, a trifle on steroids… colour us intrigued! it consists of flavoured layers of sponge cake, held together by pastry cream, and soaked in rum syrup, covered in walnuts, raisins and whipped cream… sounds crazy! alas, we’re not much for the whole sweets-soaked-in-alcohol thing, so it was nice, but not a show-stopper.
a couple of funny things we found on random supermarket trips…
…cute milk cartons, budapest chocolate, and pálpusztai!
pálpusztai is a soft cow’s milk cheese made with the same bacteria that give humans their body odor… boy, was it smelly!
our hosts also left us a couple of local delicacies in the fridge, which we had fun tasting. túró rudi is supposed to be “the” hungarian chocolate bar of choice: sweet cottage cheese covered in chocolate… mmm… it tasted… interesting! the paprika-turkey sausage was great though :)
during our mornings, we raided the local bakeries for breakfast and tried plenty the pastries!
leves (soup in hungarian) was a fantastic foodspotting find:
i know what you’re thinking… soup?! but soup is one of my favourite things ever – nothing soothes the soul on a cold day like wrapping your hands around a bowl of this stuff. these guys had the concept down to a science: a tiny shop with a great selection of soups and toppings, neat packaging, and a couple of standing tables outside. perfect!
“pink soup” reminded me of the swedish nypon soppa! it’s always a bit strange to eat something cold and fruity as a soup, but it was good! this one was cherry flavoured.
we also tried an italian place that our hosts heartily recommended, and sure enough, the pizza and lasagna were impeccable…
…but the pièce de résistance was the…
… deep-fried camembert! :D i’m aware of how disgusting deep-fried-anything sounds, but cheese… it was made for this! any country with fried cheese is a winner in my book :)
someone had recommended that we try some of the traditional hungarian sweets (like dobos) at gerbeaud house, budapest’s finest café/patisserie, so, like good tourists, we did.
they were… ok – and terribly expensive. i can appreciate all the hard work that went into making those tiny elegant bits of cake, but honestly… i think these are not our kind of sweets. gerbeaud was more habsburg fancy and less yumminess. oh well. like they say, been there, done that.
on the last day, after mailing a big batch of postcards and walking around in the cold for hours carrying our backpacks, we decided to stop at a cosy café for a last meal. turns out, this particular café was a great choice! not only did it have delicious food…
… but the lemon dessert was lovely too!
and i think that pretty much covers it – it was a good trip! :)
