Best Dishes of Hungary
What Food to Try in Hungary and in Budapest – Top-8 dishes of Hungarian national cuisine? Famous receipts, where is the best place to taste meals in 2023?
When traveling to unfamiliar countries, a tourist always strives to taste the national food. In the case of Hungary, getting to know the local cuisine becomes the most important element of the trip.
After all, it is not just original, but also very satisfying. Therefore, a meal in a restaurant or cafe in Budapest, as well as in any other Hungarian city, will allow you to satisfy your hunger with guarantee.
And stock up on the energy. Fully needed to explore the maximum number of attractions!
Traditionally, in Budapest and in Hungary in general, like eating meat and game dishes, rich and hearty soups, a variety of stews. As well as casseroles and pies.
What to Taste in Hungary
Soups occupy a central place in Hungarian cuisine. No meal is complete without them, and local chefs do not get tired of competing in their preparation.
Bograch
is a delicious soup, the recipe of which was borrowed from shepherds at one time. And maybe the first food you should to try in Hungary.
The composition of the dish necessarily includes meat products and a lot of vegetables: sweet peppers, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions. Even in inexpensive cafes in Budapest, you can try bograch with both beef and smoked meats. For example, with pork ribs or sausages.
A distinctive feature of this soup is a chipette, these are small pieces of dough. Knead the dough from eggs and flour, then lightly dry it in the oven or in a frying pan, pinch off small pieces and throw them into the soup.
Halasle
What to eat in Budapest for lovers of fish dishes? Of course, the national halasle soup!
A long time ago, Hungarian fishermen cooked it, and it was simply called “paprika soup in a fisherman’s way.” Despite the simple preparation, it is the pride of Hungarian cuisine, a real culinary masterpiece, in which everything is harmoniously combined: aroma, taste, consistency.
Halasle is prepared only from river fish, which is understandable – Budapest is located at a considerable distance from the sea. The more its types are used, the richer and tastier the broth turns out.
Small fish is fried in pork fat with a large amount of finely chopped onions and paprika. Then tomato juice is added, stewed and passed through a sieve.
Then put large pieces of catfish, pike or carp in the soup and cook until tender. Food is served to the table in pots, always with white bread.
You can eat delicious halasle in a variety of restaurants. For example, in Bajai Halaszcsarda.
The main national Hungarian meat dish is thick
Goulash
Initially, it was a traditional food of shepherds, cooked it on a fire in pots. And, perhaps, the most famous dish that is cooked in Hungary. In any case, the authoritative portal for travelers theculturetrip.com placed it in the first place of its own rating.
The very word “goulash” is translated from Hungarian as “shepherd”. Now, without exaggeration, the dish can be tasted in any restaurant in Budapest.
Cooking goulash is easy: pieces of veal or beef are fried, and then stewed with potatoes, onions and slices of smoked bacon. Mandatory additives: paprika and cumin, due to which the food turns out to be especially tasty and fragrant.
Every year in early September, a Goulash Festival is held in the town of Szolnok near Budapest. The dish is cooked right in the open air in huge cauldrons. There are a lot of people who want to try traditional Hungarian soup, but no one has ever gone hungry yet: there is enough goulash for everyone!
In Budapest, you can treat yourself to excellent goulash at Parisi, 6. Or at the Castro Bistro (Madach Imre ter. 3) or in For Sale Pub (Vamhaz koerut, 2).
Fozelek
Főzelék is an original Hungarian thick vegetable soup. For its preparation, zucchini, spinach, eggplant, pepper, kohlrabi, lentils and cabbage are traditionally used.
All ingredients are cut into small pieces and stewed. Before serving, grated potatoes or flour with sour cream are added to the food.
To give density and special taste in some restaurants in Budapest, a chipette is put in the dish. Fezelek is served most often with boiled or fried eggs, fresh or fried onions. Hungarian stew is often added to it.
Paprikash
The main representative of Hungarian second courses is a hearty chicken paprikash. Its main idea is to use a large amount of paprika.
Paprikash is prepared from chicken breast or legs. Although in the old days they used a whole carcass in order to get the most intense taste. The meat is stewed to such an extent that it is easily separated from the bones: the paprika in the mouth should melt.
This national food is served with a lot of greens and vegetables, as well as tarkhonya (local pasta), dumplings and table white or pink Hungarian wine.
Recently, paprikash is also prepared from other types of meat, and therefore you can order red wine with it. You can appreciate the taste of paprikash in Budapest, for example, in the expensive restaurant Vörös Postakocsi.
Libamai
One of those dishes that you should definitely try in Hungary! The dish is rightfully considered an ornament of the national cuisine – tender and airy goose liver melts in your mouth! Some tourists say that you can go to Budapest at least every year just because of one libamay.
The name of the dish comes from a combination of two Hungarian words: “liba” (goose) and “maj” (liver). The classic cooking option provides for a slight undercooking so that the liver retains its natural pinkish hue. Libamai is served hot (fried) and cold (pate).
Turosh chusa
If you are a gourmet and would like to try an unusual dish of the national cuisine of Hungary, feel free to order turosh chusa! This food will seem unusual to foreigners and it is not easy to find it in another country.
Turos csusza is a noodle served with cottage cheese, sour cream and pork rinds. The taste of the dish is very original and is one of the most popular in the history of Hungarian cuisine.
Noodles are boiled, transferred to a frying pan with fried pork rinds, cottage cheese with sour cream is added and served to the table. Turosh chusa can act as both a second course and a dessert — then it is sprinkled with sugar on top.
Where you can try this rare dish. Try going to the Múzeum Cafe and Restaurant.
Desserts
There is something to eat in Hungary and a tourist with a sweet tooth. Somlói galuska is one of the most popular and favorite local desserts. According to legend, a wonderful recipe was invented in the middle of the XX century by a simple waiter.
Contrary to the not very refined name, the dessert is a real confectionery masterpiece: a sponge cake soaked in rum, whipped cream and orange peel, custard vanilla cream, chocolate, berries, nuts, dried fruits. There are many recipes in Hungary, but each one is very original!
Classic Somlói galuska is served in the form of small lumps taken with a spoon from a large pie from a common plate. To taste the famous dessert in Budapest, take a look at literally any cafe.
Retesh
Retesh is a national holiday roll, a kind of Hungarian version of the Austrian strudel. There is a legend in the country that the secret recipe for this dessert was once hunted by confectioners from Paris itself.
Fillings for the roll can be very different: apples, cottage cheese, poppy seeds, nuts, plums, cherries. The finished dessert is sprinkled with powdered sugar and served hot with tea or coffee.
You can try the best retesh in Budapest right at the Central Market Hall.
Kremesh
In Hungary, they like to finish their meal with a delicious dessert, and kremesh is just such a delicacy. It is prepared in the form of a cake and a cake, but it is almost always served to the table already cut into rectangular pieces.
There are only two layers in the cake. A lot of airy and sweet cream is placed between them, which contrasts pleasantly with the crispy, crumbly crust. Sometimes it is sprinkled with powdered sugar on top or covered with a thin layer of glaze.
You can try the cream in many pastry shops and coffee shops in Budapest. For example, in Pesti Jegbufe.