Budapest : Beer & Goulash

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Our first Hungarian dinner comprised of a roast chicken salad and beef stew served with potatoes at Habana Grill located on an adjacent lane to Vaci utca. Next morning at the Nargycsarnok market, we ate lángos which is a face-sized fried dough smeared with sour cream and dill and a fat, spicy pork sausage. One step short of being a local, we didn’t wash all that breakfast grease down with a pint of beer.

Beer, we noticed was a breakfast necessity here. And since the common beer is a pilsner, the locals seemed to up its lack of strength with a shot of liquor added into their beer. It must be healthy to start each day stimulating the body’s blood flow (and definitely a throbbing head for me)!

Perhaps staying in Vaci utca contributed to a slight diminishing interest in food. Every restaurant on the street had a big plague : “Tourist Menu : Goulash Soup and Chicken Breast incl. dessert. 1990 Ft / €8.5”. Despite my hunger and worn out feet, I kept reminding myself snobbishly, “I blog about food, I shall not succumb to this!”

Having spent the day in Castle Hill and falling trap to the exact tourist menu for lunch, we had to escape from the hordes of tourists. We walked into Raday utca, a long block of stylish al fresco restaurants. No tourist menu plagues showing, no goulash promotion – thank you!

Torn between dining in a proper restaurant and watching our budget, prices were the first thing our eyes landed on. Though I would have loved to try the Pan Fried Goose Liver as a starter, I settled for a chicken Caesar salad as the starter and the main. The Better Half was still wearing his Lonely Planet traveler hat so he opted from the Made in Hungary section of the menu and ordered crepes filled with chicken.

An issue for us was when it came to ordering drinks. Our usual dilemma : coke and mineral water – 280Ft, café latte and hot chocolate – 490Ft or beer – 250Ft (at the grocery 0.5l costs only 179Ft / €0.65!). We are clearly in a very different part of the world.