Feeling Hungary?
Our globe-trotting gourmet travels to Budapest to get his hands on some authentic goulash and the fine wines the locals like to keep for themselves
TEXT ANDREW CATCHPOLE
Seen from the Danube, the magnificent skyline of the twin cities of Buda and Pest provides a graceful and poignant reminder of the Hungarian capital’s long past as an important centre in the Habsburg Empire. Take a walk through the streets and you seem to pass ornate palaces, imposing monuments, labyrinthine spas, and grand cafés at every turn. Its captivating, rather melancholy beauty, rich history and distinctive culture are all well known. But mention Hungarian food and wine to the average person and you’re likely to conjure up memories of stodgy home-made goulash or a bottle of some cheap white plonk from the lower shelves of their local off-licence. Budapest does still offer plenty in the way of old-fashioned cooking but in recent years the city has made great culinary strides as it seeks to reinvent itself as a vibrant European metropolis, with restaurants and bars catering to every modern taste.
Traditional Hungarian food tends to be rich fare. Lamb and beef, duck and goose (including the local foie gras), salmon, carp and trout are the main staples along with beetroot, cabbage, beans, walnuts, apples and plums. Paprika, a spice that is synonymous with the country’s cooking, lends its bitter-sweet heat to a myriad of soups and stews. I had my first culinary surprise when I ordered goulash at the simple trattoria, Kadar Etkezde, on Klauzal ter. There I discovered that the rich beef stew I’d always thought of as the Hungarian national dish is, strictly speaking, called porkolt by the Hungarians. Authentic goulash – known as gulyas in its home country – is a much thinner, almost soup-like affair, flavoured with beef, potatoes, onions and paprika, and served up with small dumplings on the side.
For a fuller flavour of Hungarian haute cuisine, the top destination must surely be the world-famous Gundel restaurant, which is worth a visit just to marvel at its palatial interiors. Here I dined on classic dishes, including goose liver with apple and spicy sausage, and a hearty bean stew enlivened with warming paprika. It’s an admittedly pricy introduction to French-influenced Magyar cooking but there is also a nod to modernity in the Food & Wine cellar downstairs. This is an excellent place to sample pared-down recipes and the 100-strong wine list will come as a revelation if your experience of Hungarian wine is just a tad limited.
Wine-orientated bars and restaurants with know-ledgeable, friendly (and English-speaking) staff have been springing up around town as Budapest’s gastronomic renaissance takes hold, and these are some of the best places to get a real taste of modern Hungary. The menus are often in English too, which is a real bonus given the utter impenetrability of written Hungarian.
A great, lively yet laid-back bistro is Café Bouchon on Zichy Jeno utca where substantial beef stews, local fish, including the carp-like fogas (or pike-perch) from Lake Balaton, and a long list of excellent local wines, many available by the glass, make for a highly enjoyable meal. Funkier in décor and offering dishes which tweak Hungarian flavours into tastily delicate, east-meets-west, fusion-style combinations, Baraka in the Andrassy Hotel on Andrassy utca also boasts a highly commendable list of the very best in Hungarian wine.
Budapest has a thriving café and bar scene ranging from the glamorous fin de siècle coffee houses such as Central Kavehaz on Karolyi Mihaly utca, where caffeine and cake are order of the day, to hot cocktail bars like Negro on Szent Istvan ter, or the bar in the fabulous art nouveau Four Seasons Hotel on Roosevelt ter. However, if it’s a taste of fine Hungarian wine that you’re after, then it’s well worth asking the locals for advice because many of the best varieties that the country produces are rarely seen beyond its borders.
To buy locally the Budapest Wine Society, with outlets on Batthyany utca and Szent Istvan ter, has a range of over 500 Hungarian wines which are explained by highly knowledgeable staff. It also offers free tastings at the weekend. Similarly, In Vino Veritas on Dohany utca has a huge range of local wines and an English-speaking member of staff will invariably be on hand to help out. My advice is to clear some room in your luggage and bring back some of the better reds and whites, plus a bottle of Tokaji or two, because the quality you get for your outlay is likely to be a pleasant surprise. Otherwise you’ll have to make do with the, often mediocre, Hungarian offerings of the merchants back home.
BUYING IN HUNGARY
Tokaji, the musk-scented, deliciously concentrated tipple favoured by the sweet-toothed Tsars and produced in the north-east of the country can be savoured as a totally decadent aperitif, with rich goose liver or simply as a perfect way to round off a meal. This is one of the world’s truly great wines.
Many of the best whites come from around Lake Balaton, especially the Badacsony and Balatonfured-Csopak regions, where fresh zesty Rizling, Traminer, Irsai Oliver and indigenous Kiralyleanyka are being joined by more familiar international names like Sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay.
Good reds are increasingly being produced around Balaton, but some of the best, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and juicy local varieties, such as Kekfrankos, hail from Villany-Siklos, located near the border with Croatia.
The much-abused Egri Bikaver, or Bull’s Blood of Eger, is worth seeking out for a hearty taste of the richly satisfying style that once made this wine’s international reputation.
BUYING BACK HOME
THE BEST BUYS ON THE SHELVES AT THE MOMENT ARE:
The crisp international style Donatello Pinot Grigio (£4.99, Sainsbury’s).
The sublimely sweet and musky Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos (£17.99 fo 50cl, Majestic)
The cherry-ish Eva’s Vineyard MerlotKekfrankos and Chapel Hill Sauvignon Blanc (£4.07 and £4.45 respectively, from Waitrose Wine Direct, waitrosewine.com)
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