The Castle Home: Budapest for the Foodie

Hungarians are serious about food, whether it's pastries, confectioneries, savories or wine and we did our best to sample as much as we could. My favorite deli, Zingerman's, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just featured Hungarian food with perfect descriptions from pogácsa to Esterházy Torta on their website.

Our first lesson... cukrászda means confectionery/pastry shop. Hungarian pastries are yeasty, more like savory breads and American biscuits (to Europeans, biscuits = cookies). Cakes, tortes... sweet things are considered confectioneries. Crepes and strudels are usually served at restaurants.

one of my favorites - pogácsa - kind of a cheesy hybrid of shortbread and American biscuits. I have happily made one successful batch at home!

confectioneries

Kürtőskalács are made from sweet, yeast dough... a strip of dough is wrapped around a cylinder then baked over hot coals and rolled in sugar (or crushed almonds, walnuts, etc.). We liked all the versions we tried!

this vendor is located in one of the subway stations

Gundel, old world, traditional and internationally known Hungarian fine dining since 1910... a special setting to celebrate Heidi's birthday. Gundel did the catering for the Hungarian contingent at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City.

dressed for dinner


amuse-bouche

flambeing strawberries for dessert

one of Gundel's signature dishes - walnut crepes with chocolate sauce

Fun new wine bar in Pest for post dinner drinks... ETAP Deli & Night, Kiraly Utca 43-45, Budapest

After a night out at one of Budapest's well-known restaurants we started Saturday morning with an amazing breakfast buffet at the equally famous and historical New York Café. The 'most beautiful cafe in the world' opened October 23, 1894, a commission of the New York Insurance Company. The interior is described as Italian renaissance and baroque with historical eclecticism... in marble, bronze, silk and velvet. Historical rumor states that on opening day a famous writer, Ferenc Molnár, threw the keys to the Café into the Danube so it would have to stay open 24/7. In it's first life the Café was the hangout for all literary types, things wound down during WWI, the Café closed during WWII and became a warehouse eventually reopening in 1954 under the name Hungaria. From 2001-2006 the Italian Boscolo Group restored the New York Café to it original elegance.

New York Palace (attached hotel)

'El Ashmodai' - the ancient figure of coffee and meditation (seems very yin and yang to me!)

Popular Hungarian candy.... Túró Rudi, a bar of sweeten curd (cottage cheese but not like American cottage cheese) covered with a thin chocolate coating.

We spent Saturday afternoon on a Sweet Budapest Walking Tour with our lovely 25 year old guide who introduced us to traditional Hungarian confectioneries at several well known, historical coffee houses. Our first stop was the Párizsi Nagyáruház, Budapest's first department store in 1910, now a bookstore on the ground floor and a cafe on the first floor in what's called Lotz Hall, filled with paintings by Károly Lotz.

Lotz Hall - opulent coffee house

Eszterházy Torte (walnut) - whipped Eszterházy pastry filled with light vanilla cream

Művész Kávéház - coffee house

this old coffee house was used as an office and stables during WWII

traditional Hungarian charcuterie plate

whipped cream topped with chestnut paste... chestnut paste was used during WWII when sugar was scarce, tastes like bubble gum to me!

another traditional, well known Hungarian confectionery - family owned and operated... business began with marzipan roses

sampling the dessert wine

Hungarikum = special, unique, typical things to Hungary. Saturday night dinner at family owned and operated Hungarikum Bisztró where the food is simple, authentic, wonderful and dinner with wine and pálinka cost $23 each! Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy, which we drank while we learned how to say cheers in Hungarian... egészségedre. Amazingly this is also where I had my one and only bowl of gulyás (goulash) soup, a very traditional Hungarian dish, in Budapest.