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EATING AND DRINKING |
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Even under Communism, Hungary was renowned for its abundance of food:
material proof of the "goulash socialism" that amazed visitors from
Romania and the Soviet Union. Nowadays, there is more choice than ever,
particularly in Budapest, where almost every cuisine in the world is
available.
For foreigners the archetypal Magyar dish is "goulash" - historically
the basis of much Hungarian cooking . The ancient Magyars relished
cauldrons of gulyás (pronounced "gou-yash"), a soup made of potatoes and
whatever meat was available, which was later flavoured with paprika and
beefed up into a variety of stews, modified over the centuries by
various foreign influences. Hungary's Slav neighbours probably
introduced native cooks to yogurt and sour cream - vital ingredients in
many dishes - while the influence of the Turks, Austrians and Germans is
apparent in a variety of sticky pastries and strudels, as well as
recipes featuring sauerkraut or dumplings. Another influence was that of
France, which revolutionized Hungarian cooking in the Middle Ages and
again in the nineteenth century. Today, the influences are
"international", with fast food such as pizzas, hamburgers and kebabs
spreading from the capital to provincial towns, and even signs of
vegetarian food and nouvelle cuisine .
Breakfast, snacks and takeaway food
As a nation of early risers, Hungarians like to have a calorific
breakfast ( reggeli ). Commonly, this includes cheese, eggs or salami
together with bread and jam, and in rural areas is often accompanied by
a shot of pálinka (brandy) to "clear the palate" or "aid digestion".
A whole range of places purvey snacks , notably csemege or delicatessens
, which display a tempting spread of salads, open sandwiches, pickles
and cold meats; in a few, you can eat on the premises. Some delis still
use the system whereby customers order and pay at the cash desk ( kassza
) in return for a receipt to be exchanged at the food counter. If your
Hungarian is minimal, this can throw up a few misunderstandings.
For sit-down nibbles, people patronize either bisztró , which tend to
offer a couple of hot dishes besides the inevitable salami rolls;
snackbár , which are superior versions of the same, with leanings in the
direction of being a patisserie; or büfé . These last are found in
department stores and stations, and are sometimes open around the clock.
The food on offer, though, is often limited to sausages - including
those comprising parts of the lung or liver ( hurka ), and the greasier
version filled with rice ( kolbász ).
On the streets , according to season, vendors preside over tables of
kukorica (corn on the cob) or trays of gesztenye (roasted chestnuts);
while fried-fish ( sült hal ) shops are common in towns near rivers or
lakes. Szendvics (sandwich), hamburger and gofri (waffle) stands are
mushrooming in the larger towns, while Pizza Hut and McDonald's are
spreading ominously across the country. Similarly ubiquitous are Chinese
fast food and Turkish kebab joints, which offer tastier, and cheaper,
alternatives. Another popular munch is lángos : the native, mega-size
equivalent of doughnuts, often sold with a sprinkling of cheese and
soured cream. If they are cooked in oil ( olaj ) instead of fat ( zsir )
then vegetarians can also partake of their delights. Fruit, too, is sold
by street vendors and in markets , where you'll also find various greasy-spoon
cafés forking out hurka and the like. Outdoor markets ( piac ) are
colourful affairs, sometimes with the bizarre sight of rows of poultry
sheltered beneath sunshades. In market halls ( vásárcsarnok ), people
select their fish fresh from glass tanks, and their mushrooms from a
staggering array of gomba , which are displayed alongside toxic fungi in
a "mushroom parade" to enable shoppers to recognize the difference.
No list of snacks is complete without mentioning bread ( kenyér ), which
is so popular that "Hungarians will even eat bread with bread", as the
old saying has it. White bread remains the staple of the nation, but in
many supermarkets, especially in Budapest, you can usually get a range
of brown ( barna ) and rye ( rozs ) breads.
Main meals
Traditionally, Hungarians take their main meal at lunchtime , although
the old tendency for restaurants to have fewer dishes available in the
evenings has now disappeared. However, it is worth remembering that many
places still close early, around 10pm, especially outside the capital.
There's some compensation, though, in the bands of musicians that play
in many restaurants at lunchtime and in the evening, their violin airs
and melodic plonkings of the cimbalom, an essential element of the "scene".
Places used to tourists often have menus in German (and sometimes
English), a language of which most waiters and waitresses have a
smattering. Whilst not common, some tourist-orientated restaurants,
particularly in Budapest, may give you a menu without prices, a sure
sign that they're expensive, or plan to rip you off - get the waiter to
bring you a menu with the prices listed, or leave. Unfortunately,
overcharging is not uncommon, and even fluent Hungarian speakers can get
burned if they don't check the bill carefully.
While some restaurants offer a bargain set menu ( napi menü ) of basic
dishes, the majority of places are strictly ŕ la carte . For a three-course
meal with wine, expect to pay Ł5-10/$7-14 in an average restaurant,
twice that in downtown Budapest. A service charge is rarely included in
the bill and so the staff depend on customers tipping (ten percent of
the total is customary). Be warned that if you say "thank you" as you
hand the money over, this implies that they can keep the change.
Unfortunately, standards of service still leave much to be desired, even
in many Budapest restaurants, with a certain lethargy afflicting many
waiting staff.
Hungarians have a variety of words for their finely distinguished
restaurants . In theory an étterem is a proper restaurant, while a
vendéglo approximates to the Western notion of a bistro, though in
practice the terms are often used interchangeably. The old word for an
inn, csárda , applies to posh places specializing in certain dishes (for
example, a "Fishermen's inn" or halászcsárda ), restaurants alongside
roads or with rustic pretensions, as well as to the humbler rural
establishments that the name originally signified.
When they can afford to be, Hungarians are enthusiastic eaters, so as a
(presumably rich) Westerner you'll be asked if you want a starter (
eloételek ) - generally a soup or salad. Nobody will mind, however, if
you just have one of the dishes offered as the main course ( foételek )
or, alternatively, order just a soup and a starter. Bread is supplied
almost automatically, on the grounds that "a meal without bread is no
meal". Drinks are normally listed on the menu under the heading italok .
Coffee houses and patisseries
Many Hungarians like to kick-start the day with coffee , followed by
further intakes at various intervals throughout the day, usually in the
form of tiny glasses of kávé : super-strong, served black and sweetened
to taste, this is a brew that can double your heart beat. Coffee houses
were once the centres of Budapest's cultural and political life -
hotbeds of gossip where penurious writers got credit and the clientele
dawdled for hours over the free newspapers. Sadly this is no longer the
case, but you'll find plenty of unpretentious kávéház serving the
beverage with milk ( tejeskávé ) or whipped cream ( tejszínhabbal ),
should you request it. Ordering a cappuccino can be a very hit-or-miss
affair as they vary dramatically in quality wherever you go, with the
worst efforts consisting of little more than a regular coffee with a
dollop of whipped cream unattractively slumped on top.
Tea-drinkers are in a minority here, perhaps because Hungarian tea with
milk ( tejes tea ) is so insipid, although tea citrommal (with lemon) is
pleasantly refreshing. However, some delightful teahouses have recently
opened up in several towns, including Sopron and Eger, serving a
terrific range of teas from around the world, as well as all manner of
other beverages.
Most coffee houses have some pastries on offer, although you'll find
much more choice in the patisseries ( cukrászda ), which pander to the
Magyar fondness for sweet things. Pancakes ( palacsinta ) with fillings
- almás (apple), diós (walnuts), fahéjas (cinnamon), mákos (poppy seeds),
mandulás (almonds) or Gundel -style, with nuts, chocolate sauce, cream
and raisins - are very popular, as are strudels ( rétes ) made with
curds and dill ( kapros túrós rétes ), poppy seeds ( mákosrétes ) or
plums ( szilvás rétes ). Even the humble dumpling is transformed into a
somlói galuska , flavoured with vanilla, nuts and chocolate. But the
frontrunners in the rich and sticky stakes have to be chestnut purée
with whipped cream ( gesztenyepüré ); coffee soufflé ( kapucineres
felfújt ); baked apple with vanilla, raisins and cream ( töltött alma );
and the staggering array of cakes . The average cukrászda displays a
dozen or more types, including dobostorta (chocolate cream cake topped
with caramel) and the pineapple-laden ananásztorta .
If you're still not satiated, there's ice cream ( fagylalt ), the opium
of the masses, sold by the scoop ( gombóc ) and priced low enough so
that anyone can afford a cone. The most common flavours are vanília,
csokoládé, puncs (fruit punch), citrom and kávé , though mango,
pistachio and various nutty flavours can be found too - see the fruit
section of the food glossary for the Magyar names. And finally there's
metélt or tészta - a rather unlikely-sounding but quite tasty dessert of
chopped sweet noodles, served cold with poppy seeds or some other
topping.
Drinking
Hungary's climate and diversity of soils are perfect for wine ( bor ),
though cold winters mean that reds are usually on the light side. In the
last few years the wine market has really begun to take off, and, though
good vintages are still cheap by Western standards, prices are rising
steadily. In bars and most restaurants you can either buy it by the
bottle ( üveg ) or the glass ( pohár ). There are twenty wine-growing
regions in the country, of which the best are Villány, Eger, Tokaj,
Szekszárd and the Balaton. They even manage to grow grapes on the sandy
soils around Kecskemét, at the edge of the Great Plain, but the wines
from there are pretty vile. Overall, though, standards are constantly
rising as more vineyards try to win the right to label their bottles
minöségi bor (quality wine), the equivalent of appellation contrôlée .
In recent years, Hungary's wines have improved dramatically, as private
vineyards have recovered their old skills in making and selling their
own wine. Experts predict that demand for good wine will quite soon
begin to outstrip supply.
Wine bars ( borozó ) are ubiquitous and far less pretentious than in the
West: the wine served is often pretty rough stuff, and there's usually a
cluster of interesting characters round the bar. True devotees of the
grape make pilgrimages to the extensive wine cellars ( borospince ) that
honeycomb towns like Tokaj and Eger. By day, people often drink wine
with water or soda water, specifying a fröccs or a yet more diluted
hosszú lépés (literally, a "long step"). Wine can be sweet ( édes ), dry
( száraz ), semi-sweet ( félédes ) or semi-dry ( félszáraz ). Hungarians
enjoy the ritual of toasting , so the first word to get your tongue
around is egészségedre ("EGG-aish-shaig-edreh") - "cheers!" When
toasting more than one other person, it's grammatically correct to
change this to egészségünkre ("cheers to us!"). Hungarians only consider
it appropriate to toast with wine or spirits. A simpler version that
will get you by is szia (see-ya) for one person, and sziasztok (see-ya-stock)
for more people.
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