Best of Budapest

A friend recently sent me a message about a good bakery, asking if I’d been there myself. It’s in Buda in Maros Street, where else, but near Széll Kálmán Square, the Mecca of Hungarian bakeries.

I hadn’t seen it yet, but I told him I would go check it out. When I found myself in the area, I popped inside.

It looks nice on the inside:

And their wares are good. The display window contains a giant bowl of gorgeous kifli (a crescent-shaped bread), while behind the counter a bunch of sourdough breads are lined up. Additionally, all sorts of French baked treats are also available. I began to shop and inquire about what they were selling, thus I learned a few things:

1. The breads are from the Marmorstein Bakery. There’s no reason to be ashamed about this, since they’re made by Misi (Mihály Miklós), one of the city’s best bakers, about whom I’ve previously written in the Hungarian blog. He doesn’t have his own store, so he sells his bread to shops. That’s how it works and there’s nothing surprising about it.
2. The kifli are from the László Bakery. The one in District VI’s Rózsa Street is something of a local legend (1063 Budapest, Rózsa utca 103.), precisely for its kifli: the twisting technique is so refined that whether you want to or not, you’ll be unable to resist the visual appeal and scarf them down immediately. The bread itself, unfortunately, is not as impressive, and the taste doesn’t quite fulfill the visual promise. Nonetheless, it was a clever decision on the part of the Buda bakery to buy their window dressing from here.

3. The remaining items such as croissants, chocolate donuts and assorted sweet baked goods are bought from the Délifrance wholesaler. The items arrive frozen and are baked on site. In fact, the chocolate donuts only need to be thawed to be ready for munching.

4. What else could you possibly need? Refreshments, among them some bottles of trendy Vöslauer water, fruit juice, Cserpes yogurt, Cserpes cocoa, milk, sandwiches and coffee. For the last item, you’ll need a good, expensive machine, such as a Marzocco, if you’d like really good quality. And a person of course, who can operate it and teach the other employees.

That’s it. What I described is essentially everything they have on offer. And don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with the way they do things. The bread is good, the kifli better than average, and the pastries and coffees are all alright. The level of quality in Budapest’s bakeries has currently only reached the point where something like this very welcome, and I’d be happy if one opened on every corner.

But if the tempo for the spread of good bakeries continues at the speed that I expect it to, in a few years’ time this store will become average and not extraordinary. Let’s hope that’s the case.

Budai Pékség
Address: Budapest, Maros u. 25, 1122
Opening hours:
Mo – Fr: 7am – 7pm
Sa: 7am – 1pm

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

You may find the original article here.

We have to admit that articles dedicated to breakfast locations have become few and far between around these parts, even though a few really good locations have opened in the past year. So let’s set our sights on remedying the situation. We need to address this shortcoming since we’re planning a big surprise, which will require us to be twice as up-to-date as we’ve been. But we’ll save that for a later post.

So, let’s get started on Zoska. For months, I’ve “avoided” the place, but I finally checked it out two weeks ago to give their breakfast a try. Looking at the menu, it became abundantly clear that the restaurant’s main attraction is its atmosphere, since they don’t really have specialties among the breakfast selection that would make you come here from across the city. They’ve got fried eggs, sandwiches and crunchy wieners on the menu, but no sign of bat wing or marinated snail.

Not as if there’s a problem with that.

The atmosphere truly is excellent, but a reliable source informed me that the only suitable area for longer stays is by the window as the other chairs become uncomfortable after a while. Sitting around inside, you’ll find that Zoska is a friendly and charming breakfast spot where you could easily stay into the evening. And if you should are hankering after something unique, they do have some Catalan bread with tomato, aka Pa amb tomàquet.

The meals do not take quality to extremes, but they are quite tasty. The French toast is not the life-affirming event it is at Café Panini in Újlipótváros, but looking at the table, the dishes and the delightfully presented cutlery, you’ll at once find yourself wanting a bite to eat. And once you get started, you won’t be disappointed.

In the meantime, you’ll enjoy sitting idly near veteran Elektra coffee machines, jars of homemade jams and cuddly shark toys as you drink some of the better coffee in the city.

Zoska is a really likable place, where the selection of wonderful dishes means that you will start your morning in a much better mood than can reasonably be expected.

Zoska
Address: Budapest, Ferenczy István utca 28
Telephone: +36-70-623-9999
Opening Hours:

Mo-Sa: 7am – 7pm

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

You may find the original article here.

I live in Újlipotváros, so that when I say that Szent István Boulevard and the Grand Boulevard in general are in quite a sad state and that none of the shops on the street make even the slightest effort to tempt normal people inside, I’m not talking about some far-flung part of the city, but my own neighborhood.

Obviously, there are some gems in terms of bars and restaurants, but they are the exception, so it’s best advised not to experiment and stick to the ones you know. Consequently, this part of the city is something of a blind spot for me, so I had no idea a new Japanese restaurant had opened almost within spitting distance of where I live.

Clearly this place belongs among those few gems I alluded to above. Following a random sequence of events, I was surprised to find myself sitting inside the restaurant, wolfing down algae, which was so delicious that I would have preferred to just keep on eating it until I was full. But my mouth was awaiting so many other things.

In the meantime, I discovered that Kanpai Izakaya is not without a precursor, for the owners of the sensational Fuji Restaurant opened it with the aim in all likelihood of serving Japanese food to the citizens of Pest at somewhat lower prices, but without compromising on the excellent quality. The only mystery is why they chose this desolate part of the city.

But that’s not my concern, so let’s move along.

In short, we ate a bonus menu, meaning that everything was discounted at half price. What we tried was Umeshu (a Japanese liqueur made from steeping ume fruits in alcohol and sugar), zensai moriaewase (a mixed vegetable starter), miso soup, an asparagus-tuna sushi roll, gyu ponzu oroshi (120g of New Zealand tenderloin steak grilled on an iron plate with ponzu sauce and daikon), wagashi (a homemade yogurt dessert with fresh fruit) and finally a cup of hot Japanese green tea.

Check out the photos to see what amazing things they brought us:

And the truth is that we really did eat fantastically well. My favorite after eating the entire meal was still the algae-shitake mushroom appetizer combo, which is just as fresh and delicious as it is weird sounding. The miso was done as it’s supposed to be. The one thing I perhaps did not find the greatest was the sushi, but I’ll chalk that up as my own fault. I understand that differences exist between sushi prepared in elite restaurants such as Nobu, but I can’t taste them: above a certain level of quality, it’s all the same to me in terms of taste, which is why I never ask for sushi in an expensive Japanese restaurant – here it was part of the meal. But the tenderloin steak with the daikon and salad made everything great in the end.

When the bill arrived, we paid 11,000 Ft for two people, but don’t forget the meal was half price. Taking a gander at the menu reveals that it’s not catastrophically expensive, however. For 6-7000 Ft, you can eat well if you don’t order the most expensive items, which considering the quality, is a perfectly reasonable price.

Kanpai Izakaya
Address: Budapest, Szent István körút 17
Telephone: +3613010373
Opening Hours:

Mo-Th: 11:30am – 11pm
Fr-Sa: 11:30am – 12 midnight
Su: 11:30am – 9pm

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

You may find the original article here.

Whenever a long weekend comes along, we always recommend you make a quick trip outside of Budapest, and on this occasion we’ll show you a place worth checking out in Gödöllő. Gödöllő is in itself a good destination as it’s where you’ll find the Grassalkovich Palace and the Máriabesnyő shrine, to speak of nothing else. If we go another six kilometers, we can also go riding at the Domonyvölgyi stables, or take a swim in the lake located in the valley (Domonyvölgy means Domony Valley). Strictly in that order, of course.

Although you should probably take a look out the window first before heading out for a dip, the weather being as changeable as it is.

Gödöllő has its own Karcsikám  (“My dear Charlie”) style restaurant (by which we mean an old school restaurant that inexplicably still manages to stay open) with a respectable kitchen serving large portions and a cut-no-corners mentality. The location by the main road is terrible, so the terrace is quite noisy, and inside everything smells of oil, but nobody’s perfect. Despite these shortcomings, there’s always a ton of cars parked in front, which is one of the primary calling cards of good places to eat out in the country. It’s hard to find an available spot at 4 in the afternoon, even though no one normally eats anything at that time. 

But, they have ginormous crêpes that every sugar-junkie must try.

It’s not refined, nor elegant. You don’t have to seek out the confluence of Belgian chocolate with Bronte pistachios, because there isn't one. What you will find, however, is a plethora of fillings, including caramel, chocolate, peanuts, coconut, cream, fruit jam, and whatever else you’d like. The names refer to familiar chocolate bars, but there’s no cause for concern: whether or not it is called a Snickers makes no difference to the calorie count of your crêpe if it contains caramel, chocolate and peanuts. The same goes for the Túró Rudi (a Hungarian bar of sweet curd cheese coated in dark chocolate), which contains curd cheese, hazelnut spread, chocolate sauce and diabetes.

And what a surprise for me: each crêpe comes with a cape gooseberry, and the cream has pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. This is rare attention to detail for a restaurant in this category.

By the way, it’s 890 Ft for one serving, after which you won’t be able to even look at anything sweet for quite a while. What we recommend is starting off with a bean soup with pork knuckle, and following it up with a crêpe. The two together are 1780 Ft, but if you go on a Monday or Thursday, everything is half price, so the whole shebang will run you 890 Ft. You can’t go wrong with that!

Sziget Restaurant
Address: 2100 Gödöllő, Szabadság út 139.
Opening Hours:
Mo-Th: 11:30am – 10pm
Fr-Sa: 11:30am – 11pm
Su: 11:30am – 10pm

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

You may find the original article here.

So I was walking along that famous pedestrianized street all the way to the bridge, but then instead of turning around as most people do, I went further. Imagine that: the street kept going. I continued along, although there weren’t as many people and the stores were closed. And then all of a sudden, I came upon a nice church. A small girl ran out of its gates, thrust a flyer into my hand that listed works by Bach, then ran back inside. I followed her, and saw that some people were already sitting inside, and before the altar there was a harpsichord. Donations were collected before the church’s entrance, so I gave them some money and sat down. The early baroque concert was amazing!

When I go abroad, I tend to take a look inside churches, no matter how small they may be. It was this same kind of experience that I was looking for here: some local musicians practicing or a small concert, where no matter how different one city may be from another, Bach is still Bach. I become a tourist who sees what few others do: similarities in place of differences.

The Downtown Saint Michael’s church can be found in Váci Street. Advertisements announcing concerts are frequently placed on its gates, in English too, since this is Váci Street after all. So a Bach concert isn’t exactly a surprise around here, but for those who accidentally wander to this part of the pedestrian street in the evening, just as the show starts, they may find themselves thinking that they’ve found the least populated location inside the Small Boulevard. You will barely find anyone outside – compared to the many folks inside the church at 8 in the evening.

The musicians Benedek Csalog and Dóra Pétery recently launched a multi-part Bach concert series.

The latter plays harpsichord, while the former a baroque flute, so the composer born 301 years ago might be able to spy the pair from one of the corners and hear his music as it was originally performed. The sound produced by the two instruments was fantastic, especially considering that, although I like the harpsichord, I consider the piano an unequivocal forward leap in terms of instrument evolution. 

Benedek Csalog has performed in Leipzig in a concert series featuring eight performances, and the idea for the series here at home was similar, except that it would focus on sonatas. Bach wrote 50 chamber music pieces for the flute, most of which were composed during his stay in Potsdam. After he left Potsdam for Hamburg, he no longer concerned himself with this specific style, although the final flute quartets composed before his death revealed what can be accomplished in the genre.

The second concert will be later this year in the fall. It’s worth acting like a tourist, wandering around there and checking out the advertisement. The recommended donation is only 1000-1500 forints, which is truly pocket change for a wonderful show.

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

You may find the original article here.