Meet up with my guide, Nora, there will be two others on the tour, unfortunately they are at the meeting point for Taste Hungary (Viator's fault). We meet them enroute, we are only a little behind schedule. First stop a parlour for a couple of shots. First up is Uniucm. Which is made up of at least 40 kinds of herbs and a minimum of 37.5% alcohol. Next was a blueberry liqueur (can't remember the exact name, Nora will be emailing me the details of the tour later, nice not to be bothered taking notes, but miss having all the info). The parlour also serves beer and wine, but no cocktails. Very popular with the university crowd in the area.
A short walk takes us to market hall #1, there are 12 market halls in Budapest. In this hall (can't speak for the rest) at least 90% of the produce is from Hungary. Here we sample some Hungarian salami.
One is made with spicy paprika, one with sweet paprika, one plain and the other on the tray is...wait for it...horse. Figured if I could try black bear last year... Not that common, more of a delicacy. It was okay, no need to have it again though.
Walked around the market. Interesting display on all the mushrooms growning in Hungary, the display shows which are edible, poisonous and toxic. it is a common activity for families in the country to go pick mushrooms together.
Next up was the paprika aisle. Sweet, spicy or smokey you can get it here! Paprika consumption in Hungary is approximately 0.5kg/person per year (about 4 times higher than the European average).
Next stop, cheese.
This cheese is brought in from the Transylvania region of Romania (which until the First World War was part of Hungary). All very good. On the small plate is a favorite childrens' candy bar. Cottage cheese coated in chocolate, brought to Hungary by the Russians. According to the guide, possibly the only good thing coming from communistism. Tasty, not at all what I expected - I don't like cottage cheese.
Next to a coffee house for goulash. Cafe Centrale. They have renovated the house as best they could to the way it looked before communism, it's very nice. This coffee house was popluar with writers and poets. In the 19th century there were 100 coffee house in Budapest, there are five historic coffee houses today. The white wine and goulash were both very tasty. The goulash was made with grey cattle, an ancient breed of dometic cattle indigenuous to Hungary. Hungary produces about 80% white wine and only 20% red, from the 22 wine regions. On the way out we stop by the pastry counter as Nora explained about the tradional Hungarian cakes. They all look very good - maybe later in the week.
Great time for a bit of a longer walk to our next stop in the Jewish district.
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| Hungary beats England in football in 1953 |
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| Grey Cattle |
Kohely (which apparently means hangover soup). Here we have lamb stew, pasta with cottage cheese and sour cream, and lángos. Lángos are a fried puffy bread. Accompanied with a red wine, bull's blood. So called because the Hungarians let it run down there faces and the Turks thought they must have drank bull's blood.
On to our last two stops: cookies and coffee.
Can you believe this is the plate they brought out for 3 people!
They packaged up most for us to bring home!
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I LOVE THAT STATUE!!! And the food - had to laugh that you started the tour with shots...first thing in the morning. My kind of tour. All looks delicious - OK, maybe not the horse!! The cheese plate - yum...and chocolate covered cottage cheese, wow. That was a plate of cookies to finish...they all look good.
ReplyDeleteHave to ask - the salami tasting? Any different that the prosciutto/parm ham tasting in Italy? Is it the same in Hungary with the salami being number one like in Italy or is it just salami?
Any room for gelato at the end of the day???