Author Archives: cbanfalvi

The Appetizer

The heat is back in Budapest, and lately it has been too hot to cook and too hot to walk to the market. But it’s not too hot to crack open a bottle of rosé in the evening, and to eat chilled cherry soup for lunch. Check out my guest posts on the Appetizer blog [...]
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On Menus, Spelling, and Translation

In an entertaining article in the Washington Post last week by Jane Black she discussed how much spelling and grammar mistakes on restaurant menus bother her. Here’s her fantasy: I enter a restaurant, order and sweetly ask the waiter if I can “hold on to the menu” during dinner. Then, using a distinctive purple pen, I [...]
Posted in In Budapest | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Balaton’s Best

We end up going to Lake Balaton at least once a year, sometimes more. But, I have to admit, I am not a big fan of the lake itself. I do love looking at it, preferably from the terrace of a restaurant, with a glass of wine in my hand. But, although I try every [...]
Posted in Hungarian Food, Travel in Hungary, Wine Touring in Hungary | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Mangalica Madness

Since I’ve been living in Budapest I’ve been eating more pork than I ever have before in my life. And the pork here is great. It’s definitely the meat of choice, and meat from the Mangalica pig–a heritage breed that nearly died out during the Communist-era–is the choicest kind of pork. We happened to be [...]
Posted in In Budapest, My Articles | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cute Vintage Sausage Commercial

Robyn Lee over at Serious Eats posted this funny old Hungarian sausage commercial. If you’re really interested, check Lee’s post for the lyrics. And, here’s another for sour cream: –Carolyn
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No, not even one drink…

If you’re out drinking, don’t even think about getting behind the wheel in Hungary. According to the new rules, any amount of alcohol is too much, and your license can be immediately seized if there’s any evidence that you’ve had even a drop. While there’s no reason to drive in Budapest anyway since the public [...]
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Eating Like a Kid

Our two year-old daughter has been eating solids since she was five months old and has gone through many dramatic food phases since then. In the beginning she loved plain yogurt, and sometimes ate two, or even three, at one sitting. And she hated milk. The one time that her aunt tried to feed her [...]
Posted in Life in Hungary | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Hungary as a Top Culinary Tourism Destination

Now is the time for 2008 trend and destination forecasts, and it seems that everyone is putting them out. One interesting one from the relatively new International Culinary Tourism Association cites Hungary (along with neighboring Slovakia) as one of the top “10 Culinary Destinations to watch for 2008″. This is what the list says: Hungary & [...]
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Budapest in Olive Magazine

If you’re in a place where the BBC’s Olive magazine is available, my article “48 Hours in Budapest” was published in the January issue. In Budapest, it’s available with a very high mark-up (2,550 HUF!) at Bestsellers. The article includes food-themed recommendations for  a Budapest weekend. Download the article (pdf file) –Carolyn
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Wild Duck Móra Módra

A few weeks ago while everyone else was eating turkey we ate wild duck. And as you can see in the photo on the left it was truly a wild duck, which someone had actually hunted and shot. The poor thing was even missing a leg. The duck weighed in at just under a kilo [...]
Posted in Cooking at Home, Hungarian Food, Recipes | Tagged , | 1 Comment