Luckily for me, the people over at Taste Hungary run a Craft Beer Walk. This 3 hour tour covering 3 bars in the Pest side of the city would be the perfect crash course in Hungarian craft beer.

I met Zsolt, our guide and local beer blogger, and the rest of the group at 6 pm in central Pest. He gave us a quick run down of what the night would entail and then we headed off to our first stop. Instead of starting with one of Hungary’s craft creations, we actually began our tasting with Arany Aszok, one of the country’s mass produced lagers, at a tiny local pub. Why would we waste our time drinking something you can find in every bar and restaurant in Hungary? So we could compare the old brewing tradition with the new.

After a few sips of the macrobrew (which, honestly, was a hell of a lot better than Budwesier or Miller), we moved on to some of the more modern offerings. Our group of four Americans started to get to know each other by chatting about our favorite beers back home and our lives as long term travelers and expats. While the beer on the tour was good, the small size of the group was my favorite aspect. It made it feel more like a night out and less like an organized tour.

Moving on, our second stop was Piritós Pub, a bar that serves beers from Kaltenecker, a craft brewery in nearby Slovakia. With a slightly more established craft beer scene than Hungary, Slovakia’s Kaltenecker is an example of how good Central European craft brewing can be.

Our last stop, Szimpla Cafe, was my favorite of the night. The sister pub to the infamous ruin bar of a similar name, this tiny cafe has the character and ambience of a ruin bar but in a smaller setting. And they serve amazing microbrews! What more could you want?

We grabbed a spot on the small upper level and Zsolt brought us a tray with a variety of Hungary’s best craft brews to try. While there were a couple of seriously good IPAs, my favorite find was the Legenda Olaszházi Bitumen Imperial Stout made with chilis. The richness of the stout perfectly offset the spiciness of the chili. It’s so popular that when I tried to buy a bottle to take home it was completely sold out!

After a discussion about Hungary’s unwillingness to adopt the euro and the future of craft brewing in Hungary, my tour mates and I said goodbye to Zsolt and headed out, slightly buzzed, to explore more of Budapest’s nightlife.

Taste Hungary offers this tour from 6pm on weekdays and anytime on the weekend year round. The cost is 17,000 HUF (US$77) per person.

Disclaimer: Taste Hungary offered me a complimentary tour. As always, all opinions are my own.

Do you like craft beer? Have you ever gone on a beer tasting tour?

A Move Toward Craft Beer in Hungary is a post from: Farsickness

A lot of the food is rich and heavy, but in that good comfort food sort of way. Of course, many dishes contain Hungary’s most famous export- paprika. I’m a huge, huge paprika fan (I even put it in tuna salad) and I eagerly ate every last drip of sauces and soups containing this delicious spice. And Hungary also seems to be a big fan of sour cream. Which, well, is another thing you won’t find me complaining about. The only time I complain about sour cream is when there’s a lack of it. I’m looking at you Korea.

Here’s what I ate in Budapest. Minus the Quarter Pounder with Cheese I ate hungover at a shopping mall. No judgement, please.

Central Market Hall

What I Tried Here: Lángos

The Central (or Great) Market Hall is a 3 floor market selling everything from spices and salami to souvenirs and spirits. On the third floor of this historic covered market built in 1897 is an area selling a variety of prepared Hungarian classics. Though it is crowded with mostly tourists, this is a good place to get your bearings when it comes to Hungarian cuisine and sample a few things.

After a quick pick me up coffee I tried langos, a type of deep fried flat bread that tastes kind of like a savory donut. Langos are usually topped with sour cream and grated cheese, though there were a variety of sweet and savory options on offer at the market. I decided to go with sour cream, cheese, salami, and variety that cost 1,150 Ft (around $5.00). While the combination of sour cream and fried dough sounds like it couldn’t go wrong, it was a little rich for my taste and I felt a serious dairy overload happening. I think I’d try it again, but without the cheese.

1093 Budapest, Vámház körút 1-3. Open Monday 6:00-17:00, Tuesday-Friday 6:00-18:00, and Saturday 6:00-15:00. For more information visit their website.

Kiskakukk Étterem

What I Tried Here: Game

I discovered Kikakukk because it was only a few blocks away from my hostel, always a nice surprise. This restaurant, open since 1913, specializes in game and has an old world feel. I arrived fairly early for dinner, around 6 or 7, without a reservation. Even though the restaurant was still nearly empty, they hesitated to seat me and the service throughout my meal felt rushed and almost rude. I suggest making a reservation, especially for dinner.

I started my meal with the goose soup with matzoh balls, a combination of the restaurant’s speciality and of the heritage of Budapest’s Jewish large population. The goose had nice flavor, but the matzoh ball tasted like it had just come out of the microwave. My main, though, was outstanding. I chose the venison stewed in red wine with flat noodles. Venison has recently become one of my favorite proteins and this was cooked perfectly.The sauce was rich and became nicely creamy with a little bit of the sour cream mixed in.

This place is worth a try if you’re in the area, but make sure you book ahead. And maybe stay away from the soups.

1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 12. Open everyday 12:00-24:00. Reservations recommended. For more information visit their website.

Fülemüle

What I Tried Here: Chicken Paprikas

Chicken paprikas was a dish I knew I had to try. Made by stewing chicken in a creamy paprika sauce and usually served with small egg noodle dumplings, it is a combination of a lot of my favorite things (cream and carbs being the two big ones). While searching for where I could find the best chicken paprikas in Budapest I found Heather’s post which mentioned Fülemüle and I immediately added it to my itinerary for the next day.

I arrived around midday and the place was nearly empty, but it slowly filled up as I ate. The service here was extremely friendly and my chicken paprikas was every bit as delicious as I’d imagined. The sauce was creamy and a bit spicy, full of the distrinctive flavor of paprika, and the chicken, cooked on the bone for optimum flavor, was very tender. This ended up being my favorite dish of the trip and I’d go back to Budapest just to eat it again!

1085 Budapest, Kőfaragó utca 5. Open Monday-Thursday 12:00-22:00 and Friday-Saturday 12:00-23:00. For more information visit their website.

Hungarikum Bistro

What I Tried Here: Goulash (And More!)

This place was on my list months before my trip to Budapest thanks to a post from my trusted foodie friend Jessica. Though I almost missed out on getting to eat here because I waited until the last minute to make a reservation. Lesson learned. Call a day or two ahead to book a table, especially for dinner. I was able to snag a table right at the beginning of the dinner service on the condition that I only stay for an hour. Being alone I knew that wouldn’t be a problem.

Though this place was filled with mostly foreigners, the food was top notch. They offer a 3 course set menu for a very reasonable 3,900 Ft ($17), but because there was one dish I really wanted to try which was not on the set menu I decided to order a la carte. Which only ended up costing me 600 Ft ($2.60) more anyway.

I started with the most famous of Hungarian dishes, goulash. While we’ve turned goulash into more of a stew abroad, in Hungary it is actually served as a soup. Cooked with pieces of beef and served with small egg noodles called csipetke, the goulash was flavorful and surprisingly filling for a thin soup.

For my main I had the dish I had been dreaming about since reading about it on Jessica’s blog- braided loin of pork served with paprika sauce and bacon-sour cabbage dumplings. And once again, it lived up to all expectations. The pork wasn’t dry and the sauce reminded me of chicken paprikas. There really isn’t much to say about the dumplings cooked with bacon and cabbage because dumplings cooked with bacon speak loudly and clearly for themselves.

The chocolate cake I had for dessert was extremely rich and I could only take about two bites before pushing it far away. I begrudgingly threw back my free palinka shot and made it out shortly before my hour was up, happy and full.

1051, Steindl Imre utca 13. Open everyday 11:30-15:00 and 18:00-23:00. Reservations necessary. For more information visit their website. 

Macesz Huszar

What I Tried Here: Jewish Cuisine

Jews have long called Hungary home. The largest synagogue in Europe (second largest in the world) is located in Budapest and before World War II Jews accounted for nearly a quarter of the city’s population. Because of this there is a rich tradition of Jewish cooking in Budapest and I knew I needed to sample some. While Fülemüle is often considered to be one of the best Jewish restaurants in Budapest, I decided to try somewhere new and ended up at Macesz Huszar, a few blocks away from the Great Synagogue.

Almost everything on the menu looked tempting, but I decided to try something new and ordered the cholent. Cholent is a stew containing meat, beans, potatoes, and barley that is usually simmered overnight so that Jews are able to observe the Sabbath by not actually cooking on Saturday. The cholent here is cooked with smoked brisket and served with a goose leg and egg. There was a nice depth of flavor and the brisket gave the whole dish a smokey taste. This hearty dish was the second best food discovery of the trip.

1072 Budapest, Dob utca 26. Open everyday 11:30-24:00. For more information visit their website. 

Do you like Hungarian food? What Hungarian dish looks the best to you? 

The Best Bites in Budapest is a post from: Farsickness

Parliament

Originally two cities occupying either side of the Danube River, Buda and Pest were united in 1873. And being in Budapest is like taking a step back to that time. While parts of the city have more of urban grit, the first things any visitor notices are the grandiose buildings, antique seeming subway cars (Line 1 is a World Heritage Site), and opulent churches and synagogues.

Budapest is a city I immediately fell in love with and over the four days I was there my love for it continued to grow for three reasons. The beauty, the bars, and the baths.

Beauty

Often called ‘The Paris of the East’ because of its stunning architecture, Budapest lives up to its reputation as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

It’s almost as if Budapest wants its beauty to be admired from above as there so many great vantage points, many of which I took advantage of.

On my first morning in Budapest I took a walk to the Citadel which sits atop Gellért Hill, one of the highest spots in the city. What Lonely Planet called a “stroll through the park” turned out to be more of a steep hike and I got caught in a torrential downpour with no umbrella, but neither could ruin the sight of Parliament from a distance or church towers peeking above orange roofs.

Later I walked over to Fisherman’s Bastion, located in the Castle District. The wall, which was guarded by the fisherman’s guild during medieval times, is right across the Danube from Parliament making the prime spot to catch a glimpse of Budapest’s most famous building from above.

Fisherman’s Bastion from below

St. Stephen’s Basilica, opened in 1906, is another place with a great view, though it costs 500 Ft ($2.60) and takes a lot of climbing to get to the top of 96 meter dome. The church took an impressive 50 years to be built and stands the same height as Parliament as nothing in Budapest can be built any taller.

Back on ground level my favorite ways to discover the beauty of Budapest was to just walk. I usually had an end destination in mind, but instead of going underground on the subway or taking a set route I would wander in the right direction finding cute little side streets or stumbling across more famous landmarks I hadn’t expected to see.

Dohány utca Synagogue

The Chain Bridge

On my last night in the city I was walking along the Danube back to my hostel when I noticed the sun starting to dip behind the Buda Hills. I decided I didn’t need to rush back and sat a reveled in the colorful beauty of another day ending in beautiful Budapest.

Bars

One of Budapest’s most famous attractions is its nightlife. Or more specifically, its ruin bars. Ruin bars began in the early 2000s when young people began turning abandoned buildings and courtyards into cheap places to drink. They moved in a bunch of mismatched furniture that was probably headed to the dump, had some local artists paint the walls, and started selling beers. Today these ruin bars are the place for a night out in Budapest.

I paid a visit to Szimpla Kert, Budapest’s first ruin bar, with a group of fellow Americans I met on a craft beer tour earlier that night. Szimpla Kert is made up of a bunch of rooms on multiple floors surrounding a courtyard. It’s huge. There are plants hanging from walls and circular metal staircases and Communist era relics. The beer is cheap and the palinka, a traditional fruit brandy, is flowing.

Don’t be worried that the bars will be too hip or the people trying to be too cool. This isn’t an East London warehouse. Szimpla Kert was filled with everyone from middle aged tourists to young Hungarians having a chill beer.

Baths

Budapest is home to 80 geothermal springs, including Széchenyi Medicinal Bath, the largest medicinal bath in Europe. The water includes sulphate, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, fluoride acid and metaboric acid and is said to help with orthopedic and joint problems. I can’t attest to that, but I know it did help with my incredibly-horrible-too-many-palinka-shots hangover. A win for medicinal baths in my book!

There a bunch of options for admission at Széchenyi, including private cabins and massages, but in my cloudy headed state I went for the cheapest option- a 4,100 Ft ($18) admission ticket that included use of a locker. After scanning in and wandering about for a bit looking for the entrance to the change room, I push opened a door and the first thing I saw was a fat man in a very tiny speedo. Did I accidentally go into the wrong change room? After I see a woman walk by, I realized that these are co-ed change rooms. There’s a first for everything.

Then I went into one of the cubicles to change and realized that both doors, one into the main hallway and one into the change room, just swing open and have no locks. If you don’t want to be walked in on naked by an older Hungarian man, I suggest shelling out the extra 500 Ft for a private cabin. (Some other tips: bring your own towel, a pair of sandals to walk around in, and a plastic bag for your wet things when you’re done. Probably obvious to most but I managed to forget two of the three…)

Awkward changing experiences aside, the baths were lovely.  The bright yellow Neo-baroque buildings, built in 1913, are worth a trip themselves. After admiring them for a while I found an empty spot in the main outdoor pool and then laid there silently in the warm water for the next 2 hours. When you’re hungover and traveling, this is what you want to do.

What looks like the best bit of Budapest to you?

The Beauty, Bars, and Baths of Budapest is a post from: Farsickness