Hungary, Europe (various eateries)

I just returned from a trip to Europe. The countries I visited during this trip were Hungary and Austria. I never thought I'd go to Europe until I was old and had more money to spend, but after visiting Europe twice so far, while also on a small-ish budget, I'm realizing how much I would have missed out on. I love Europe! Their politics, their news, their people (so nice!), their roads, the history, the architecture, the culture, the way people drive, their clothes, their furniture, and especially their FOOD!

Here were some of the things I enjoyed in Hungary.

Train Station food
Various entry points in Budapest
I would never consider a train station to have scrumptious snacks. There were even small produce markets in certain stations. It was always nice to have a little snack before hopping on the train en route to some interesting destination.

I have no idea what this little delight was, but it was good. It tasted something like pie crust, rolled up with some pastry cream inside and dipped in a little chocolate.

This treat was like a cinnamon roll, but rather than cinnamon and sugar rolled up inside, it had fudgy chocolate inside and then coated with more chocolate on the top. The center was the best.

The last place I thought I would really enjoy a croissant was in France. The French do croissants the best! But I have to give Hungary some credit. Their croissants were a close second. Very nice.



Gerloczy Cafe & Restaurant

1052 Budapest, V. Gerloczy Utca 1

www.gerloczy.hu

This place, in the city of Budapest, was recommended by a guide book. It was very good food, but I felt it wasn't Hungary enough. Basically every waiter spoke English, the menu was in English and there were mostly tourists in there. But all in all, it served excellent food.

Pictured below is one whole liter of beer. It was pure comedy for my boyfriend to watch me take a sip from this giant mug. It was bigger than my head! The purple drink was that evening's special named Long Purple Rain. It had vodka, blue curacao, lime, cinnamon syrup and blueberry juice. Very refreshing.

For my entree I enjoyed the Bacon-wrapped Rabbit Leg baked in Beer with Creamy Tagliatelle. The rabbit was cooked perfectly, the pasta was al dente and the flavors were very delicious.

This was the Lamb Shank with a tomato Sauce and Couscous. The lamb was also skillfully prepared; it was very tender. The sauce and couscous were savory and well balanced. This plate was wiped clean with bread. So tasty.

For dessert I enjoyed the Opera Cake, which was a dense, fudgy chocolate cake layered with a light chocolate mousse, and topped with some marzipan. Very delicious.

Muhadri Pekseg (Bakery)
Pecs, (number unknown) Dozsa Gyorgi Utca

Another favorite type of establishment I frequented were various bakeries in any city we visited. This particular bakery, which in my humble opinion, had the best baked goods, was in the smaller city of Pecs, located in the Southern part of Hungary.

This was some sort of pizza. The bread part was very thick, dense and moist, the tomato sauce had sweet paprika in it and the cheese and ham were fantastic. So satisfying. One thing I was pleasantly surprised to find in Hungary was excellent cheese. Even grocery stores had a nice selection of various cheeses. I was happy.

This was also a pizza type of food, but with a thinner crust and with corn as well as ham and that same sweet paprika tomato sauce.



A sweet treat. Pastry crust with an apple compote inside. This was way better than your standard apple pie. The outside was flaky and lightly sugared, while the inside was moist with a very nice apple filling.

This was probably the best croissant I had from any bakery I visited in any city I visited in Hungary. So flaky and buttery and just amazingly scrumptious.

HBH Bajor Sorhaz
3300 Eger  Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Endre St 19
http://www.hbh-eger.hu/
Another guide book recommendation, but this one was an excellent choice. I suppose the city of Eger is not heavily visited by tourists, so there were plenty of locals in the restaurant. The name of the establishment is named after the beer they serve, which the locals just call HBH. I have no idea what it stands for but it was very crisp and refreshing. Pictured below (just a half liter this time).

This dish was the star of the evening. Bavarian-style Beer Roasted Pork Trotter. The trotter is the hip portion of the pig and it was roasted exceptionally well. The meat was moist, the skin on the outside was a bit crisp, and the meat was tender, flavorful and moist. This enormous portion of meat was served on a wooden platter along with roasted potatoes, red cabbage sauerkraut and some veggies.

The Roasted Venison with "Eszterhazy" sauce was also cooked very well. Tender venison, the sauce tasted like it had some orange juice/zest in it and it was a bit sweet with savory nuances. The fried potatoes were also nice and crispy with soft potato chunks inside. Very nice.

Fair Food
Pecs city center
While in Pecs, we just so happened to stumble upon an outdoor festival type of event and decided to join the locals for some local fun.

This beer was called Barna Sor. This was the first and only stout-like dark beer that I encountered in Hungary. It was very meaty with a nice robust flavor profile. I don't think Europeans enjoy hops or dark beers too much as I did not have many beers that were very hoppy or very dark, other than the occasional dunkel. This beer was very enjoyable.

This tasted like a blood and liver sausage. I love blood and liver, so I was enjoying this sausage. It had some other things in there that made the liver flavor less intense, which also enabled my liver-hating boyfriend to actually say this was "pretty good".

Not sure what kind of sausage this was. My guess is that it was some sort of pork and it was delicious. The casing had that nice snap, it didn't have too much fat inside and it was perfectly grilled.

This was some sauerkraut with some non-sour sour cream over the top. I loved how there were chunks of pork in the sauerkraut and the cream actually went very well with it. This also went well with the sausage.

This bread was very fresh, very dense, had a great chew to it and went well with everything above. I wish I could find a festival like this back home.

Eszterhazy Piskota. This was a delightful little cookie that I got from a sweet treats vendor. I ended up getting about five different treats, but this one was my favorite. On the bottom was a butter cookie, similar to a shortbread cookie, but more nutty, toasty and caramelly. In the middle was a piece of dried apricot covered in something similar to marshmallow fluff, but with a nougat-like consistency. The top layer was decorated marzipan. Not too sweet and just the right size.

A very addictive and simple snack is the Langos. This is basically a piece of flattened bread dough, fried until crisp on the outside and then topped with various items. My favorite toppings were sour cream and cheese. This sounds like a horrible combination, but was actually ridiculously tasty. The sour cream in Hungary is not sour; it's even almost a little sweet. The cheese they used at this particular location was similar to a medium sharp white cheddar. So good.

Miscellaneous foods
from various vendors

Hungary is known for their fruit brandy (palinka) and after tasting a few samples, I decided that I could not leave Hungary without taking a few bottles with me. The brandy is distilled and then infused with fruit; one of the most popular flavors is apricot. The initial taste is very mild and clean, followed by a light sweetness and then it finishes with the fruity aroma on the exhale. Palinka is usually enjoyed in these snifter type of glasses after meals as a digestive.

I always eat yogurt wherever I travel. I learned from one of my college professors, who used to travel to the middle east fairly regularly, that when you eat a country's yogurt, you get their bacteria in your stomach, thus enabling you to easily digest their food and prevent "traveler's diarrhea". Whether or not this is scientifically true, I can't be sure. I do know, however, that I've always eaten yogurt in every country I've visited, and I have never had any digestive problems.

I purchased this yogurt at an artisan farmer's market and it was so tasty. Only in the States do we worry about "low-fat" or "non-fat" yogurt. Everywhere else in the world, I've only seen full-fat yogurt, and it is divine. This one had some homemade berry preserve on the bottom, but even the plain yogurt part was sweet and creamy and delicious.

Overall, I enjoyed Hungary very much. The people were very friendly and lucky for us (since the Hungarian language is nothing like any language I've ever encountered), most of them spoke English. After Hungary the boyfriend and I took the train to Austria and enjoyed another week of European eating and drinking. Stay tuned.