Budapest – Taste Hungary

This is part six of my trip to Paris and Budapest. For the remainder of the series, please see below.

Paris – Hotel Esprit Saint Germain
Paris – The Marais, Le Bon Marche, Le Comptoir du Relais
Paris – St. Germain, Hermes, L’Avant Comptoir
Budapest – Four Seasons Gresham Palace
Budapest – Andrassy Avenue, Onyx
Budapest – Taste Hungary
Budapest- Christmas Markets, Bock Bistro

During our stay in Budapest, we decided to take a food tour with the very highly reviewed Taste Hungary. We had a great time with our private guide Dora, and learned so much about the city’s cuisine and history. Even Mr. Feather, who is ethnically Hungarian and lived for years in Budapest, said that it was one of the most educational and fun activities we did on our trip. Here are some more details of the day we spent with Taste Hungary!

After a small breakfast (we were warned not to eat too much), we made our way to the Central Market – a large open food market in Budapest – where we would be met by our guide Dora.

I loved the Central Market, and would recommended it as a stop for anybody visiting Budapest. It reminded me a bit of the bazaars in Istanbul, only quite a bit less crowded. It is a massive building – multiple stories with sellers of all kinds of goodies and foods.

Our first stop in Central Market was actually not for food, but drink – actually, an alcoholic shot!

Unicum is a traditional Hungarian alcohol with a very interesting history, which we learned about while sitting with Dora. The shot itself was good, though I have to admit that I really shouldn’t be drinking anything alcoholic before noon, (as I’ll typically be found passed out by 4 PM). Just a small shot though was a nice way to get a jolt and start our tour.

Our next stop within Central Market was one of my favorites – we dropped by a little stand for Langos, or Hungarian fried bread. This was my first time trying one of Mr. Feather’s favorite childhood snacks, and I loved it. It was hot, garlicky, buttery, and comprised largely of carbs, cheese, salt, and seasonings. What’s not to like?

After splitting a langos, we wandered through the aisles admiring the fruit and meats on display.

Dora grabbed a few samples of various slices of cured meats and salamis for us to try.

I love cured meats so unfortunately I ravaged the tray before we had a chance to take a picture! Our next stop however was to try some local Hungarian cheeses, at a stand selling fresh cheeses and raw milk.

Dora had brought her very own cheeseboard, and whipped it out with some selections to try. I actually very much liked the cheeses we tried – I’m not a fan of the super strong, pungent stinky varieties and the ones we sampled were all lighter.

After we had our fill of various cheeses, we walked outside and wound a few blocks around the local neighborhood of Pest. It was a very beautiful, charming neighborhood – similar to Paris – but some of the areas were suffering from lack of care. So sad to see that happening to such lovely architecture.

One of our first stops was a local chocolate shop, Rozsavolgyi Csokalade.  There was an assortment of all kinds of flavors, running from the traditional to the avant garde. My favorites were the earl gray, and the plum!

After a few more bites of chocolates, we wound our way over to our lunch stop – a local restaurant, Belvárosi Disznótoros.

It was a super casual, very local butcher shop turned into quick serve restaurant (everyone ate standing up at counters), and it was also Mr. Feather’s favorite restaurant we went to in Budapest. The food was hot, delicious, and very reasonably priced. We tried a chicken paprikash with some pasta on the side, a “hurka”  (liver soft sausage), and some sauerkraut and red cabbage to accompany it all.

After lunch, we wound back through the neighborhood one more time and stopped by another local sweets shop, located in a small courtyard.

This particular store specialized in hard candy in all kinds of different flavors.

After our candy stop, we went to a local cafe, Auguszt Cukraszda.

Here, we sat down for some tea and pastries. Mr. Feather and I each our own but I liked his more – it was a lovely light marzipan and chocolate layered cake.

After we were fully stuffed with all sorts of cakes and savory treats, we made our way over to our final destination – a local wine cafe, where we tried various Hungarian wines.

All in all, it was an amazing tour and we are so glad that we had the opportunity to spend a day with Dora. I would highly recommend Taste Hungary, to those both new and familiar with Budapest – it was a truly enjoyable day and I honestly wouldn’t mind repeating the exact same itinerary again!

My next post on Hungary will be the last in the series, and will cover some more food (of course), and the Christmas markets. Thank you very much for reading along!