Best of Budapest

[The original article was posted on June 11, 2013]

Let’s start with Leves. (Soup) and Pasta. – both are classic examples in their category, although the latter will only open in March after several other similar pasta places. Leves. led the soup revolution in Budapest while Pasta. followed the pasta tsunami with some delay, but with it the series with a dot after their name now has two places, so that hope remains for new places like Wok. Ceviche. or Hákarl.

Heading north we will bump into Halkakas, which uses Hungarian ingredients in its meals. This is not really a fast food place per se, but it’s still fast enough: in a few minutes’ time you can get food that is light by average Hungarian standards. So that you can then undo the healthiness with a brutal and heavy waffle topped with whipped cream, which is still nonetheless refreshing, contrary to all expectations, and especially so if you buy it at Ferenciek Square.

Let’s now go to Gozsdu Court and its immediate surroundings. First off, there is 2Spaghi, where you can get your Italian pasta from actual Italians without waiting, and you have no chance whatsoever of making yourself understood in Hungarian. This is not a problem, as the food speaks for them. Nearby in Kazinczy Street is my personal favorite, Bors Gasztrobár, where at least once a week I have a marrow sandwich with soup. By the way, you can find Abszolút Pho on the same street, so that Vietnamese cuisine also receives the visit it deserves.

Let’s turn toward the Opera from here, where just next door to it we can find Presto, one of the pioneers of the Italian trend, which despite only opening last fall already looks like an old warrior when compared to most of the pasta places. The pizzas are good, but the pastas made according to their own recipes are even better. To top the whole thing off, get some of the best Hungarian cookies nearby in La Deliziá. If you have never tasted their sweets, you should go there right away. Everything is perfect over there.

But if you long for something more exotic than that, turn back towards Deák Square and drop into the Padthai Wokbar in Október 6. Street (they’ll soon open another restaurant in the Gozsdu as well), where you can let your imagination run wild and mix all the Asian flavors however you like into something that is completely new and perhaps even edible. And if you are already there, pop into Padthai’s twin Burrita, where in slightly sterilized surroundings you can stuff yourself sick with spicy Mexican fare for a decent price.

The northern front lies on the same street, a few meters from Szabadság Square at Soup Culture, where great soups and decent sandwiches wait for you to gorge on them.

Add your favorite places between Kálvin Square and Szabadság Square in a comment below. The eastern boundary of the battle field should be at, let’s say Oktogon, and the western one at Moszkva (Széll Kálmán) Square.

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

You may find the original article here.

It’s really hard to find a place where everything is just right, but TüTü is just that: the test run began last weekend in Újlipótváros, but the concept is already more developed than at partners that have been in the business for years.

The basic idea is very simple: they make drinks from fresh vegetables and fruits, which in the middle of flu season has more drawing power than female pheromones do for males in mating season.

The small store is in a great location. Pozsonyi Street, with Delizia, Édesmindegy and Sarki fűszeres is a perfect venue for TüTü, which is also well designed: it has a logo, a superb name, special bottles sealed with corks, and a forward-looking project. In the spirit of environmental awareness, they invite everyone to bring their own fruit jars for the drinks they want to buy. Less waste and a cooler world fit this little store that builds upon health quite well.

By the way, the atmosphere is even better than the design: during the test run Franciska Jennifer Gráf from Budapest-New York was the center of a one-person-show. The young and charming manager not only knows everything about juices, but she is so cheerful and energetic that she is the best example for this kind of lifestyle.

I was still a bit skeptical though, for before this trial I thought a fruit juicer like this one can be bought for HUF 50-100,000 and that there is no real added value since they are squeezing fruits that can be bought anywhere: whether you squeeze it or not, there’s not much room for maneuvering. I couldn’t have made a bigger mistake.

Here’s what I had:

Green wheatgrass-apple juice:

Chili-vanilla-pumpkin juice:

And finally, pear-apple-basil juice:

All of them were sensational! I was the most worried by the wheatgrass, regardless of how much effort Jennifer put into getting me to try it, saying that it’s almost like coffee in its physiological effect, but less harmful. Fine, but why would I want to drink grass? I need to admit that the drink is really brilliant and after the first sip my skepticism was gone: the juices made here differ from those I would produce at home in that they are drinkable. In fact, they’re good. They know what the perfect ratios are and how to neutralize the strange aftertastes of another ingredient, which is a craft much like cooking.

The pumpkin was also very pleasant, sweet and amusingly spicy because of the chili, and the pear juice was a great drink made from genuinely unsuspicious ingredients. The pumpkin juice was a free sample when I was in TüTü, so I only paid HUF 500 for the above, which is a laughably low price in this category of drinks.

In the afternoon when I felt the flu attacking me again I went back for another sip of flu killer. It was a combo of lemon-orange-grapefruit-ginger hot lemonade. I had no idea that this kind of a drink existed at all, but I drank it anyway, and for the rest of the day, perhaps only as a result of the placebo effect, I felt much better. It was like a glass of organic Neocitran.

TüTü
Budapest, Pozsonyi út 41.
Mon – Sun: 07:00–19:00
06 30 713 1958

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

You may find the original article here.

Apologies to everyone for the low-quality photos that will follow: when I left home I didn’t know dinner would be the theme today, so I had to use the camera on my phone.

This place has a wonderfully simple concept: a new menu every week, with a three-course meal that costs HUF 1650 at lunchtime and HUF 3000 in the evening. Yes, the same three courses. By the way, all the other restaurants do the same thing, but some of them won’t admit to it as openly: some of these places have separate menus for lunch and dinner with the prices showing a similar increase, but they’re afraid to admit that you pay more or less for the same quality depending on the time of day. We appreciate nU’s honesty.

The same open approach is shown by the fact that you can watch the cooks as they’re preparing your meal:

And what you get for HUF 1650, or even for HUF 3000, is a bargain. Let me tell you what we had:

Frankfurter soup:

Green pea panna cotta:

Chicken leg confit with sage:

Catalonian cream:

And nearly all the courses were great. Ok, I’m still trying to understand the green pea panna cotta; although the vegetables sprinkled on the pea purée were pleasant on this hot summer night as I sat in the middle of the lively square, it seemed more like something meant to match the mood than real food.

The Frankfurter soup, however, was commendable and the chicken leg was really great: there was an excellent crust on the outside of the meat, but inside it was tender and nicely prepared, served with splendid sauces and well-presented vegetables, meaning that it won me over and I highly recommend it (too bad that since they change their menu every week, there’s virtually no chance of seeing it again in this form).

Catalonian cream is the Spanish version of créme brulée with the only difference being that it has cinnamon and lemon in it. Well, this one had tangerine, but it still worked. Well.

However it is called, nU Bistro serves good food at surprisingly wallet-friendly prices, so we can overlook that they serve their wines lukewarm (good God, of course we can’t), or that it takes some time for the waiters to get to your table when the place is packed. The square’s atmosphere is really pleasant in the evening, the meals are ridiculously cheap considering their quality, and the costs are controllable. So, the final verdict is: recommended.

nU Bisztronómia Fakultáció
Budapest, Teréz körút 55-57., Eiffel tér
Opening hours: 10:00 – 22:00
Tel: 06 20 800 1001

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

You may find the original article here.

The Pándzsáb Tandori is great. I knew it was great before I went to India, since you don’t need to leave Újlipótváros to know that. Lajos Takács, one of the best chefs in Hungary earlier said that he loves Asian cuisine although he has never been to the Far East. There is no connection between the two. The key thing is harmony, which has always been present in Tandori in its doubly hot, nasty way.

This summer I tested the best restaurants in Mumbai, all of the ones that are recommended in European tourist guides as well as those proposed by the locals, and I was infinitely happy when I realized that Pándzsáb Tandori holds its own with them. Let me go even further: the tikka masala served in Pannónia Street could easily have come from Mahatma Gandhi Road, in Kala Ghoda or in Khyber, a restaurant in Mumbai that both foreigners and locals appreciate (the pictures were taken in Khyber).

But sitting down at a table in Pándzsáb is really depressing, even if you have been to all the Indian restaurants in town, which are equally depressing. Even if here at home you don’t have language problems, nor do you need to worry about the other guests giving you poisonous stares when you raise your left hand above the table, because you have not followed the etiquette based on local hygiene habits. An oily odor permeates the air, the neighborhood is run down and the service is all but enthusiastic. Therefore, it’s great news that you don’t even have to set foot in Pándzsáb Tandori; you can order food for delivery, which doesn’t harm the spicy Indian meals, the majority of which are served with a sauce. Most of them are the same as when they were freshly packed.

And the prices are really good. Last time we ordered chicken tikka masala, Madras chicken, several varieties of lentils with two pieces of buttered naan and rice, and paid only HUF 6640 for the entire thing.

It’s good to know that it would take at least two Bud Spencers to finish what is equivalent to three great portions in one, so that we are still below HUF 2500 per head including the tip. This is a great price even though most of the dishes are dominated by the sauce and the meat is often just there for display purposes (the served dish is about one-sixth of what we ordered).

And what you get is perfect. It’s undeniably Indian, dominated by the spices that are much easier to obtain, ship and store than the fresh basic ingredients that are so crucial, for example, for Thai food. That’s why it’s easier to make a decent Indian dish on the other side of the world, and it’s all the more unfortunate that it rarely happens. These guys made it: they are making original, great dishes that are different from those so common in East Central Europe. You’ll like them if you enjoy experimenting with the different cuisines of the world.  

By the way, you can order it plain, medium hot or very hot. The very hot is just barely less hot than the real Indian version, so you should be careful, but it’s still a category you can cope with, so if you’re not afraid, I highly recommend it.

Pándzsáb Tandori
Unimportant info: 1133 Budapest Pannónia utca 3.
Important info: 06 1 270 2974
Opening hours: Mon – Sat: 12:00–23:00
Sun: 12:00–22:00

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

You may find the original article here.

The Central Passage is great most days of the week because if you put on your noise-cancelling earphones and walk along it with your back to Király Street, you can discover what Budapest would look like after being ravaged by zombies.

It is a newly built house that sits empty and abandoned right in the busy heart of the city. Still, nobody walks around there.

However, every Thursday between 1 and 9 pm it comes to life: this is when the first evening market in Budapest operates, which becomes increasingly filled with people as the hours pass by. Around seven in the evening it gets really crowded.

Let me tell you why this market is a good idea:

- most people work during the day, so they don’t have a chance to go to a place where they can buy stuff directly from the producers

- in this neighborhood the only market is the Szimpla piac (Simple Market) which is open only on Sundays

- the Gozsdu Court had also been totally empty before they started organizing the Gouba Market on Sundays. We can see what happened.

I’m not saying that Central will be the new Gozsdu, but it’s true that you can find some really cool stuff at the evening market – sometimes at a terribly high price.

Okay, not all the prices are outrageous, but even if there are some really good quality products in there, in most cases you would be scratching your head for some time before you can decide if it’s worth it. Let me give you an example: you can buy homemade cheese. I bought some. A piece of Voralberger cheese:

Good? Sensational! It’s great that now there are people in Hungary as well who can make something like it. Earlier there was no chance of finding it in our region. But one kilogram costs nearly HUF 13,000! You can get really popular French or Dutch cheeses for this money. Actually, the price of this cheese is so high that you’ll have trouble spending this much on any cheese, but it’s true that its flavor is just as characteristic as that of a first-rate French or Dutch cheese.

But the pepper products by a brand called Magyar Virtus (roughly “Hungarian Feats”) are not expensive at all; you can get a bottle for HUF 950. And most of them are so strong that you will have that bottle for years! I tried Dominátor (Dominator) first. It was so strong that I couldn’t have anything for minutes. I had to skip Mennydörgés (Thunder), which is even stronger, as well as the last resort Attila.

It’s really cool that the market also offers Tarnamenti salamis. These products have won national prizes several times, deservedly, and they are so wonderful, made from mangalica, grey cattle and other home-bred livestock that after tasting them you reevaluate everything you’ve bought before. They used to have liver pâté too, and they promise to reintroduce it here, but the offerings featuring various kinds of Vienna sausages, Hungarian sausages and bacon are already very strong.

These are not cheap at all either, for one kg of bacon costs HUF 3000, the sausage is HUF 5000 per kg and the Vienna sausage HUF 3200 per kg. You should not compare the price of the latter with the horrible soy stuff you can get in the stores, and although the Tarnamenti stuff is expensive, when you taste them at home, you’ll understand why (although you can eat everything right at the market, except for the Vienna sausage).

I found some head cheese at another butcher. I’d never known that I like this kind of stuff, but it looked so nice that I couldn’t help but buy some. At home it turned out to be sensationally disgusting. If I had to explain to a foreign friend what Hungarian gastronomy is like, I would send this picture to him (and would regret not seeing his face when he opens the attachment).

You can also buy vegetables, cookies, cakes, diabetic products and pastes. My secret tip for the cheapest one is the olive paste. This is the best and at HUF 3600 per kg, it’s the most affordable one too.

Take a look, it’s a lot of fun.

Like the article if you like the market and say what should be tried if you have bought something there before.

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

You may find the original article here.