Let's Stop For a Bite

When you're hungry for a bite but don't have time to interpret a three language menu, there are plenty of possibilities beyond the ubiquitous fast-food chains and Gyros places.

OVER THE COUNTER

Behind the Opera, at the front of Hajos utca, you'll notice one of the best Hentesáru (butcher shops) in town on your right. In the daytime, these kind of shops provide true old-school local in-and-out lunches - cheap, fast and tasty. Order a kolbász (sausage), or májas hurka (liver sausage) or véres hurka (blood sausage) and bread and point at one of the pickled salads. Like so:

YOU: Jó napot! [ Good day! ]

BUTCHER (large guy in a white shirt): Jó napot. Parancsoljon! [ Good day, what would you like? ]

Y: Egy kolbászt kérek, káposzta salátával. [ A sausage, please, with cabbage salad. ]

B: Kenyér? [ Bread? ]

Y: Kettőt kérek. És egy kis mustárt, meg tormát is. Mennyi lesz? [ Two (slices), please. And some mustard, and horseradish, too. How much does it come to? ]

B: Hatszázötven lesz. [ That'll be six fifty. ]

Y: Tessék. Köszönöm. [ Here you are. Thank you. ]

B: Egészségedre. [ To your health. ]

Don't forget to order mustard or horseradish. Condiments are luxuries here, and you'll be charged for them, even in fast food chains. Side salads are a must: Alma paprika (a yellow pickled apple pepper) is much milder than a jalapeño and you'll need it to digest the sausage. I love the fresh, white káposzta saláta (cabbage salad), in season now. Csalamádé is similiar, only with carrots and pickles shredded into the mix and sometime a bit spicy (It's also a fun word to say!). Cseresznye paprika ( a little green and red pickled demon of a cherry pepper) is the hot one!

GASTRONOMICAL THEORY

In the butcher's or at food vendor stalls around markets, you might notice some house painters standing around swigging off little bottles of vodka or pálinka with their lunch. They are not social delinquents, nor rogue renovators, they're simply following magyar dietary traditions for good digestion that their parents taught them. A shot of hard alcohol to break up fatty foods keeps them from falling asleep or falling off their ladders. Alcoholism may be a problem the EU would like Hungary to address, but I imagine it will have to include a major overhaul of traditional foods to take in this country.

Let's carry the cardboard squares your food is served on to a stainless chest-high bar on the wall and lean or sit on the high stools to examine your lunch: The bread is white, spongy and full of cals and carbs; the meat is juicy and full of paprika-colored grease; the crisp salad vegetable is soaked in sugar-water and vinegar! These elements on their own could seem dangerous in modern western conceptions of gastronomic health. However, taken together they are not only delicious, they breakdown into instant energy that will keep you warm for a full day of wandering the streets. The meat will be salty, the salad sugary and the bread a palatte clearing companion that is so delicious you'll be tempted to eat it on it's own. Be warned: If you're not willing to go for all three (and hard alcohol is a fourth option), you risk serious indigestion, acid reflux or dozing into your cappuccino the next cafe. You're looking for a happy balanced marriage of extremes.

BTW: Same goes for pastries and cakes. The heavy buttercreams, butter pastries, chocolate and sugars are best taken at leisurely pace, sipping a strong black espresso with a complimentary side of szóda or even while drinking a dry pilseni beer.

FAST BREAK

There are no breakfast places of note here, yet. Breakfast culture just hasn't caught on, though it's made some valiant attempts. In the countryside and for early rising heavy industry workers, there's what's known as a "Pálinkás jó reggelt" (a Pálinka Good Morning) - bread, meat and pálinka.

Pastries are customary morning street fare for city lifestyles. You'll see people on tram, buses and the streets holding a mobile phone by their ear and a paper bag to their mouths.

Try the sweet varieties: túros táska (literally "cheese bag") or mákos rétes (hungarian poppyseed danish). You'll also find kífli (crescent rolls) or horseshoe shaped pastries called bukta filled with díós (walnut) or gesztenyés (chestnut) cream. These make for a great morning snack. The pastry of choice for schoolkids' and English teachers alike is a kakaós csiga (cocoa snail), which is a pastry whorl of cocoa glaze that gets softer and more sugary as you peel away to the heart of it. All of these go great with a kefír or yoghurt cup.

CAMPFIRE FARE

One of my favorite street eats in cold weather is a dinner-plate sized monster of a thing called a lángos (loosely translated as "of the flame"). It basically amounts to fried dough, made like a donut, but its texture is halfway between bread and pizza. When fried and hot, it's crispy on the outside and spongy on the inside. You brush it with garlic 'sauce' and cover it in sour cream and shredded cheese. It's really cheap and really heavy, but when made fresh and crispy, it's scrumptious. I don't know if it was ever made on an open flame, but it surely keeps your furnace burning against a chill. It's usually found near open-air markets when you're lugging a week's groceries around.

PICK ME UP SWEETIE

One of the most famous of hungarian products to remain viable through the transition to hard market capitalism is the Túró Rudi. Túró is a curd cheese used here, perhaps even more than paprika is. Confectioners add sugar and lemon peel then stuff it in pastries. The Túró Rudi is a finger-sized rod of the stuff dipped in chocolate and wrapped in polka dot plastic. You'll find it in one of the fridges in a Non-Stop (convenience store), or in the cheese section of the grocery stores. Allegedly, it was almost banned when Hungary became an EU junior partner because it is all natural - fresh cheese and no real preservatives means it was a health risk (!?). I guess they just didn't realize how fast these things can disappear from the shelves. Now, I've also heard some hard-hearted rumors that it was invented in Russia, but no respectable Hungarian will let you get away with that. Don't leave Hungary without trying one!