Category Archives: Food

Fehértói Halászcsárda

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Today we drove up old 5 Road to Fehértói Halászcsárda for lunch. Fehértói Halászcsárda means White Lake Fish Soup Restaurant. Hungarians LOVE long proper titles for things. There must be several village names that are spelled with more letters than there are residents.

White Lake Fish Soup Restaurant is a roadside csárda on what used to be the main road that led from SE Hungary to the capital. That changed a handful of years ago when the M5 highway was built and most of the business along the road died out. I wrote about it a little over a year ago, if you’re interested.

Sometimes if we want to take an easy weekend drive, we’ll go on the road, passing through the quaint little villages and stopping at little roadside vendors for seasonal veggies and fruit. And every time we exit the Szeged city limits we see the huge crowd of cars at Fehértói Halászcsárda.

The truth is that it’s sort of a miracle that this establishment is still open. Sure, it’s been around since a time when people went to the restaurant in horse and buggy (they have old pictures to prove it!). But because the road is sort of a ghost road now, not that many people pass by the place unless they are afternoon drivers or happen to live in a village along the road without easy access to M5.

There is one really good reason that it remains open and successful: they have great food.

I had the half order of catfish paprikas. It’s a very typical Hungarian fish dish, served with a thick paprika sauce. I can honestly say that the catfish paprika at Fehértói Halászcsárda is probably the best I’ve ever had. Considering that this region is known for catfish-preparing excellence, this is pretty high praise. Györgyi ordered me the house dumplings, which I think were made from corn meal into a dumpling cake with a streak of fresh, sour cheese inside. Light, delicate, perfectly balanced in texture and flavor, not to mention dripping with the slightly spicy paprika sauce, those dumplings were so spot on I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have a generic dumpling again.

Györgyi ordered the trio of grilled fish and grilled veggies. This really isn’t a specialty dish, but she wanted to order something healthy. All foodie travellers should note, however, that in Hungary, as in most countries in this region, grilled doesn’t really mean grilled, but rather sautéed in butter, butter, butter, citrus and spices. Oh well.  She said that the fish was great and despite the butter and oil, the vegetables were perfectly seasoned and delicious.

Our bill, with a diet coke, iced tea, and the standard %10 tip, came to 5,000 HUF or $27.

There are so many other items that we want to try, including the fish soup. A table of Italians next to us ordered some kind of whole, pan-roasted chicken, and on our way out we both stared enviously at a woman who was blissfully eating crepes with berries and cream.

Outside we gawked at the huge fish soup cauldrons. I didn’t ask, but I’m sure that they use this cauldron to make fish soup during festival time.

Even though I was stuffed and had already completed an extensive morning workout, Györgyi made us climb the tower next to the restaurant.  But I’m glad that we did because I could get a great view of the fish farm adjacent to the restaurant. In addition to the restaurant and panzio, the property houses a fresh fish store where you can get all types of fish and fish dishes from the region to go.

The inside dining area is huge and is non-smoking. I can’t think of any other restaurant that is non-smoking in Hungary. And during the warmer weather, the restaurant has a giant outdoor sitting area. It was too windy to sit outside for our lunch, but the big, family-style tables looked very welcoming.

If you’re in the Szeged area, I highly recommend trying this restaurant. There are many fish soup restaurants in Szeged, but this one combines great food with a friendly staff and old-world kitsch decor.

Fehértói Halászcsárda
Budapesti út 41
6728, Szeged
+ 36 62 555-960
www.fehertoihalaszcsarda.hu

The Serbian Market

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Subotica, Serbia is just across the Hungarian border and about an hour from Szeged. I’ve been a few times to the actual city, which is quite nice. You can see and read about it here. But a few weekends ago, Györgyi and I, accompanied by our two friends Edi and Gabi, went to Subotica not for touring or photographing, but to shop.

The main attraction of Subotica is really not the city but “the market”. Calling it the market, which everyone does here, doesn’t even do it justice. It’s a massive flea market/food market/knock-off bonanza.

In a lot of EU countries, such as Italy, it is illegal to purchase fake goods. This summer when we were in Florence, we couldn’t avoid all of the signs reminding us that if we did purchase a fake good, we (not the dealer) would be spending several lovely siestas in an Italian prison.  But Serbia ain’t Europe, baby!

As you can see.  You wouldn’t confuse real for fake here anyway. Highlights include the Nike: Express Yourself slogan and the fabulous Guci and Luis Vutton bags. But for $2, who’s counting correct letters?

As usual, the highlight was food-related and it was in the form of the Burek. It’s kind of a cross between a meat pie and a savory Baklava. First of all it was HUGE–layers of phyllo dough stuffed with cheese and ham. The snack was pretty popular throughout the Ottoman Empire and is still really popular today in Serbia. It was sinfully delicious as well.

And even though Gabi almost caused us to get turned around at the Hungarian boarder when she casually insulted the customs agent, I got my passport stamped and we all ended up having a really fun day. So fun, in fact, that we’re already planning a return trip this summer.

Morning Biscuits

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Tomorrow will be the last morning before we join the rest of the world in springing forward one hour. I love the light at 5 a.m. But I’m an early riser so every spring it feels like I’m in on the secret.

I’ve been trying to master gain a sliver of competency in the art of baking, for which I have had reasonable success throughout the winter.  A few weeks ago, I decided to try what I assumed would be brutally difficult: make my own biscuits.

As a non-southern American, making anything from scratch (biscuits, pancakes, brownies, tortillas) all seemed totally impossible before I came to Europe. But small town old Europe has a way of making you get over your little American disabilities. Note too future traveller to these parts: don’t think you’re going to go into the little shop down the street and find vanilla extract. You won’t.  Bring it with you. You also won’t find pre-mixed anything except an array of homemade hooch, which I suppose could be helpful if you’ve committed to making cookies for a party and realize too late the error of your expectations. Don’t worry: people will eat sugar cookies if they’re cleverly presented on a plate.

But my baking skills have profited tremendously from the lack of conveniences. I’ve made just about every dough you can imagine. Long story short: I decided that it was time to conquer biscuits.  I adapted Orangette’s Cream Biscuits, which were adapted from Marion Cunningham’s Cream Biscuits from her book, The Breakfast Book.

The best thing about the recipe is that I had all of the ingredients on hand. Yes, I keep heavy cream nearby. Don’t look at me like that.

Here’s the ingredient list:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. table salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1 to 1 ½ cups heavy cream
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

And here’s the method:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Stir flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.

3. Add 1 cup cream, slowly.

4. Gather the dough together gently as you add the cream, and when it finally holds together, it’s ready to knead.

5. Knead the dough on a floured surface for no more than a minute.

6. Pat it (don’t roll it) down until it is approximately 1/2 inch thick.

7. Cut it into 12 circles with a biscuit cutter. If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, just cut it into 12 squares.

8. Space them 2-inches apart on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Don’t wait on these babies to sit around all day before eating them.  Take the out of the oven when they’re golden brown, let them cool so that you don’t burn your mouth, slather them with butter or jam or both! and eat. Your stomach will thank you. And so will your baking self-confidence.

 

Döner Kebabs in Szeged, Hungary

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Döner kebabs are a Turkish specialty, usually made of lamb, and cooked on a spit. According to Wikipedia “Döner kebabs are not very popular in Hungary,” which of course is one more in millions of reasons to never EVER trust Wikipedia. In fact, Döner kebabs are very, very popular in Hungary. In Budapest, the kebabs are made and served by Turkish immigrants. They know how to grill meat and make bread and, trust me on this, do unspeakable dessert-related things with filo dough and honey.

Because it is inexplicably and cruelly snowing today, I had to recall last Friday, when Gyorgyi and I enjoyed a delicious Döner kebab in a pita on our sun-coated deck.

There is a fantastic kebab joint on Oskola utca. They don’t have a website. The shop doesn’t even show up on Google Maps. But you’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the long line, which is virtually unheard of in any restaurant in Hungary. They have a line because the food is great.  They serve about five things: Döner kebabs (lamb or chicken) in a pita, wrap or plate. The kebabs are served with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, purple cabbage and optional yogurt and spicy paprika sauce. They also have turkish-style pizza and a pita with grilled veggies.

And as you may have noticed from the pics, ALL members of the family are Döner fans

Döner Kebab
Oskolo utca
(across from Dóm Cukrászda)


Halloween Party

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I know. Halloween was over a week ago and I have been really slacking when it comes to updating my site. But in the last month, we ended a 5 week late-summer holiday extravaganza, moved two apartments, started a new business, AND had time to throw a little halloween party/housewarming. The party was great fun. I made chili and cornbread muffins, in addition to some sweet treats–brownies and zombie cake pops. There was a lot of laughing, drinking and Activity playing, which is like Hungarian charades. It was a really nice night and  both Györgyi and I felt happy to be around friends.

Fall has been gorgeous here and we are loving our new place. I hope to write more soon, but we are both super busy with writing and new clients and projects. But I’ll try to do a little bit better this month!

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Tuscany

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In the middle of the month we hopped on a plane and flew over to Tuscany to enjoy a bit of the sweet life. That sentence made it seem like we walked out of our doors in Budapest and were in Florence in two shakes, but the truth is that we had what probably all of us would consider the worst check-in experience of any flight EVER. Two days prior to our departure was the final of the Budapest triathalon, so we were in ONE line at the airport that was filtering every plane going to Frankfurt at 7 in the morning and beyond. TEN FLIGHTS. Domestic and international flights, impatient business types, and BIKES!!  Did you know you could check your professional bicycle on a plane? Me either.  But you can!

We cut a few lines, missed a few flights, but by the time we got on the plane headed to Firenze we were popping Xanex like butterscotch drops and happy as clams. And what awaited us during the four days in Florence and Tuscany is something that was just remarkable.

I was in Italy already once when I was 17. Some things have changed and it was certainly more crowded with September tourists. But the light, THE LIGHT. The Tuscan light must have been what the great writers and thinkiers imagined when they pictured eternity, what inspired the the angelic duomos and sculptures. As Dame Judy Dench says in TEA WITH MUSSOLINI:

Florence isn’t just shiny cars and ice creams as little boys think. It’s the human form divine. The body beautiful. And you – yes, you – could be part of that world. To make, to create. To live as those old artists did… is to share a part in the divine plan.

Click on the picture below to see my Flickr slideshow of Florence, San Gimignano and Siena.

 

 

Eger

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Just east of the Mátra mountains is the lovely little town of Eger. While it is recognized for its castle and baths, our main purpose for visiting Eger was to go to St. Andrea winery for a tour and tasting. The region is well known for its wines, but is particularly famous for its “Bulls Blood” red wines. In 1552, 80,000 Turks were advancing toward Eger. Just 2,000 Hungarians, led by Dobó István and including women and children successfully defended the Eger castle. The story goes that during the battle, the Hungarians were drinking the Eger red wine for strength, but all the Turks could see was that the Hungarians had dripping red beards, stained swords and faces. The Turks thought that the Hungarians were drinking bulls blood and were so shocked and scared that the mighty magyars were able to defeat them.

St. Andrea winery is located outside of Eger on a beautiful hillside. We were all very impressed with not only the incredible wines, but with the philosophy of the owners and winemakers. Our guide, Tamás, spoke about how they are searching for the truth in the process, or as he said “the way”. And that more important than selling a million bottles of wine, they want to make a great wine that people appreciate. The tasting was wonderful in addition to the wine, cheese and bread with oil and balsamic vinegar. Inspired by his wife and muse, Andrea, Dr. György Lőrincz’s wines are (like the name of one of his white wine’s suggests) blessings in bottles.

And finally, after the wine tasting, we went back to Eger for dinner right next to the castle at a great restaurant called Imola. The restaurant was recommended by St. Andrea herself, and the food was wonderful. We ordered ham and cheese plates, gulyas soup, beef cheek, stuffed peppers, trout, veal stew and duck. And we were so stuffed from the wine and food that we couldn’t even order desert. So despite the trickling rain and cool weather, it was a beautiful September 1st in Eger.

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Náncsi Néni

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On Tuesday night we went to Náncsi Néni, which is a Hungarian restaurant in Budapest’s second district. In my previous post I called it a Hungarian kitchen, which is probably more accurate, because the intention is to provide quality, home-cooked Hungarian classic meals the way that grandma used to make. Of course our family is lucky, since we all have Hungarian grandmothers. But if you aren’t as fortunate, you should definitely make the journey out into the Buda hills to try this fantastic restaurant.

My parents have been hearing about the food here for two years, so Náncsi Néni was a good option to take them away from the unfortunate lack of traditional-style Hungarian cooking in the tourist capital.

The table was covered with candles, cloth and fresh herbs: citrom and oregano. Soon after sitting down, we ordered pálinka as a welcoming drink and a few bottles of wine.

The Hortobágyi palacsinta was a big hit.  It’s basically a chicken paprikas stuffed into a crepe.  How’s that for a Hungarian description!

All of the food was amazing. Among the group, we had fois gras, gulyas soup, catfish paprikas, trout, duck, breaded chicken and turkey with various potatoes and veggies. And for desert we passed round two different palacsintas (crepes). One had peaches inside and the other was chocolate with cream.

And even though they thought it was a little “strong” at first, everyone really enjoyed the pálinka. Of course, after the first one, the rest go down quite easily!

The wine highlight of the night was definitely a red “Bull’s Blood” from the incredible St. Andrea winery. It was a 2007 and the wine is called “Blessing”. While everyone seemed to enjoy it, we would be in store for many more of St. Andrea’s wonderful creations the next day during our trip to Eger and a private wine tasting at the winery.

Csuta Cukrászda

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On Saturday, Gy and I went to Csákvár, a 45-minute drive northwest of Budapest. The skies were a bit overcast, and the occasional rain drop marred the beautiful contrasts of settling fields and acres upon acres of sunflowers. Csákvár is a small village, population just over 5,000, and is home to an Esterházy castle (Esterházy being a noble family from the Kingdom of Hungary dating back to the Middle Ages).

But we didn’t go to Csákvár for the sunflowers or the castle.  We went for the Cukrászda in the village center. Csuta Cukrászda to be exact, where you will find the 2010 ICE CREAM OF THE YEAR! I feel that should be capitalized.

I foolishly forgot my fancy cam, so I had to take pictures with my iPhone 3Gs, which didn’t do such a bad job.

Csuta Cukrászda is located right in the center of the village. If you are driving there, which I assume anyone reading this blog would be doing, you basically enter the town, drive about 1/2 km down Kossuth u. and you will find it.

The purpose of the trip was to try the ICE CREAM OF THE YEAR!, which I think is as good a reason as any to take a day trip these days. The ice cream name is Házias Vidámság, which means “domestic cheerfulness.” Someone is going to ask, “well what’s in it,” but it was hard to tell.  If I said, “deliciousness,” that wouldn’t really settle the question. But I could definitely taste plum and maybe cinnamon. But I don’t want to guess. Just try it if you go, it will be worth it.

I indulged in a second scoop as well, but I forget the name. I think it was some kind of vanilla and cookie. It was delicious too. As you can see, the scoops are not American sized, which is a good thing. And I think each scoop was around 150 HUF, which right now is just less than 70 cents. Györgyi also had the ICE CREAM OF THE YEAR! in addition to a few others: cantaloupe and a chocolate cake ice cream.

The Cukrászda itself is located in what seems to be a little village house. The interior has 4 or 5 tables, lined with regional art work, a coat and newspaper stand. Above the ice cream and cake selection, trophies for ice cream wins are proudly displayed. In the back, there is a small garden with more tables, and a gym for working out your sugar buzzed kids.

When I went back inside after taking a few pictures, I noticed that Gy had ordered a second round. Pretty classic. Espresso and another chocolate cake scoop in a cone, this time.

For purely journalistic reasons (look what sacrifices I make for you, Internet!), we decided to take home a few of their cakes. It would be wrong to recommend driving that far out of the comfortable city if we didn’t give people the whole picture, right?

Gy had a classic Hungarian cake called Mézes zserbo in addition to a chocolate, punch & sprinkles cake (not official name). I had a chocolate cream and some kind of chocolate ball with fudge in the center. They were all delicate and creamy. You can tell that they are made fresh and with the kind of care taken by someone who is really passionate about what they do.

If you are looking for a quirky afternoon trip, or are in the mood for a great ice cream stop when on your way from Budapest to Vienna or other northwestern Hungarian towns, I highly recommend pulling into Csuta Cukrászda. Spending an afternoon in a small village with one of life’s little pleasures is never a bad use of time, even for you most hardened of city-dwellers.

Csuta Cukrászda
8083 Csákvár, Kossuth u. 20.
(22) 255 398

Summer Rides

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Even though the summer heat has been really brutal the last few weeks (over 100 this weekend in Szeged), Györgyi and I haven’t missed out on a few really nice Friday evening bike rides. A bike is definitely the best way to see the city. In five minutes you can go from the top of the castle to St. Stephen’s Basilica, from Buda to Pest and into all of the secret nooks in between.

I have a feeling that throughout the history of Budapest, the square in front of the basilica probably hasn’t seen that many Marin Co. California beach cruisers like the one Györgyi rides. It looks good here, though.

There is an irresistible fountain next to Szabadság ter (Freedom Square) near the American embassy.

Every time I’ve gone by in in the last few weeks there are kids emerging, soaked, from the fountain innards, or disappearing behind its high wall of water.

It’s another great example of interactive public art in Hungary. And on a hot day, even the most proper people stick a leg or arm in. I road through about halfway during the afternoon. It was deliriously refreshing.

After dinner, we road to Duna Park, which is just a few blocks from our apartment, to have an ice cream sunday. Duna Park is home to the city’s most expensive club sandwich, which naturally and shamefully I adore. It’s also where all of the sunglassed Hungarian celebrities hang out. It’s like the Hungarian Ivy. But all of the starstruck mystique is lost on me because I don’t really know who they are, except for Fenyő Miklós, who lives nearby and is always there in his orthopedic training shoes and who Györgyi describes as the Hungarian Elvis.

Our last stop of the night was at Holduvar, the restaurant/beer garden on Margit Island. We ordered two large Fröccs, (pronounced fruch). It’s a favorite Hungarian summery drink that dates back to the late 19th century when Ányos Jedlik invented soda water.  Yes, a Hungarians invented soda water (and Vitamin C and the hologram and the ball point pen and genius hair and the ability to catch a cold from an open bus window).

Fröccs is a combo of wine and soda water. I have to pause here for a second because I’m guessing my mom probably just passed out hard reading about the sacrilege that is to combine wine and water (except in church).  BUT, it’s actually quite good and a perfect summer drink.

We stayed for just one drink before biking home. And it was enough. By about 11:30 all of the underage American kids had snuck out of their hostels and were piling around the bar in their hammar pants and American Apparel dresses. As soon as the first girl asked the bartender, “Do ya’ll have Sex on the Beach?” in her perfect Georgia accent, we were outta there.  That’s summer in the city. Kind of great all around.