Budapest tour 6/6 Eating

 




Chimney Cake is the most popular snack available in the city. The best is grilled on charcoal and eaten hot, with sugar and cinnamon. We tried the one made in a stall in the food street in Jewish quarter. I opted for no filling in the middle in order to enjoy the texture of the cake. It is actually a bread dough, toasted crispy outside and soft inside, delicious when hot.

The other popular snack is Langos, practically a deep fried flat dough. The best is with just a brush of garlic oil. Very fluffy light texture, crispy outside, an easy to pleade snack.

Mazel Tov restaurant in Jewish quarter

The setting is in the ruin of a former building, but unlike Ruin bar, it is renovated with high ceilings glass roofs, in good style.
A good selection of well made sharing plates.

Restaurant Aranysarkany Vendeglo in Szentendre

Quite a few hits, including bone marrow with pickled cabbage, foie gras with orange jelly

 

Hoppa Bistro at Buda side
The most outstanding meal in Budapest, beautifully presented and full of flavour.

 Deryne at Buda side
Another popular restaurant, very good style. Went there for brunch, enjoyed sitting outside in a garden environment. A small brunch menu but all dishes looks delicious, tried Shakshuka and their baklava. The former has very deep rich flavour making me want to get a recipe and making it at home. Their version of baklava has a lot more pistachios, less pastry layers, and no sugary syrup, wonderful!

 

Budapest tour 5/6 Szentendre day trip

A 45 minutes train ride away and an hour ferry back, this is a village along the Danube bank on a slightly hilly area. It was settled a few hundred years ago by refugees from Serbia, Dalmatian and Slovak, building a network of small houses and many churches in a small area reached via winding streets.

As war and commerce changed and the village deserted, artists arrived for the charming location and proximity to Budapest.

It is now a popular spot for tourists and locals to wander around, the village has a very high density of ice cream shops and a few good restaurants. There are a number of small museums showing the work of local artists.

Budapest tour 4/6 Strudel class and Opera

 

 

A popular desert in Eastern Europe is strudel, traditional way is made by stretching flour dough to a large super thin sheet, add ingredients and roll up. Similar method is used to make Turkish snack Baklava.

I have always wished to know how to make this thin pastry. So when I found that a cooking school here teaches this method I joined a cooking class without hesitation.

Secret is strong flour, a little vinegar, a lot of wedging to create gluten, then a good resting (2hpurs) to relax it. Finally using the palms to stretch it thin. The teacher finishes the stretching in no time, a minute or two. Unfortunately with a lot of students in that lesson, I only have a short time to feel the stretching motion. Somehow, it feels easy to achieve, will definitely play with it at home. It is a good way to use very little pastry to prepare a sweet or savoury dish.

 

 
We decided on this trip to Budapest last October, I already planned to watch a performance in order to sit inside the Grand Opera House to experience that atmosphere. It is great to plan and buy tickets well ahead. A great performance with opera singing, a big choir, combined with performance of 3 ballet dancers and light show. The sound effects is beautiful and powerful.

Budapest tour 3/6 Jewish quarter and City Park

Hired a private guide to tour the Jewish quarter, and visited a couple of synagogues. The synagogues are equally sumptuously decorated like others built in that epoque, even the guide feels a bit ashamed of the unneccesary lavish decoration.

 

 During 2nd world war. part of the area was turned into a ghetto to hold Jewish citizens before sending them off to Auschwistz. 

All these happened eventhough the Jews had been trying very hard to blend into the society, speaking Hungarian, designing new synagogue that has a lot of Catholic Church layout, even an Organ, when music was not allowed in Jewish service. Still they were betrayed by fellow Hungarians and over half a million perished.

After the war, some of the grounds of collapsed houses were used to serve food and drinks, a cheap way to make a living. This then became trendy, renamed Ruin Bars, and are now popular drinking destinations for locals and tourists.

A few metro stops away is City Park, site of a small park in the good old days and huge waste land around. The city made an ambitious plan to redevelop the whole area incorporating a lot of trees and themed buildings, all with very eye catching designs.The first two finished just 2 years ago are Etnography Museum and House of Music. 

Etnography Museum is in 2 parts rising like soaring wings, lots of public space inside to sit and relax after watching exhibitions. The large scale model of Budapest as in 1910 attracted a lot of attention.

 

 

The House of Music was designed by a Japanese architect, with tree of life as concept. A voluminous design with lots of lights and colours. There is a fantastic exhibition where visitors need to wear headphone, to listen to sound and accompanying visual effects to explore what we hear throughout the centuries.

Budapest tour 2/6 Parliament and nearby Danube Bank

We have chosen to stay at the Buda side, more quiet and better atmosphere with buildings built on the slope.

It is very pleasant to walk across Szechenyi bridge, admiring gorgeous views. This is the first hanging bridge of that size in that era.

Joined a tour to see the sumptuous inside of the Parliament. So big and beautifully decorated, heavy use of deep red and real gold as decoration.

At the bank of Danube, there is a row of caste iron shoes, with lots of flowers left by visitors, it is the site where a lot of Jews were shot and thrown into the river during the last war.

It is also a good place to see buildings at the top of Castle hill across the river.

Along the bank is Gresham Palace, built in the art nouveau style with curved windows. It is now Four Seasons hotel, the ground floor is worth a walk around with fantastic mosaics tiles and glass domes design.

A short walk away is St Stefan Basilica, with the huge dome that can be seen far away. I joined the walk up the dome, one of my favourite activities, for the panoramic view of the city, and to feel the sheer size of the building.

A short ride away is Great Market Hall, the meat stalls sell a lot of offals, poultry feet, pork and goose fat. Also a lot of salami, my favourite is the one made with Mangalica pig, a snall size woolly pig special in this part of Europe that can stay outside all year round. Upstairs is food court, a useful place to grab a bite, taste some local snacks.

Another short ride away is Szabo Ervin Library. A fantastic villa built by a rich merchant during that golden era, mid 19th century. The building is now used as a library, in the original style.