Hello. Sziasztok. Thank you for reading our blog. I am Carolyn Bánfalvi, the primary author of this blog. (My husband, Gábor, chimes in occasionally). I am a food and travel writer and culinary tour guide. Originally from Washington DC, I have been living in Budapest since 1999. Since then I have written two culinary guidebooks, Food Wine Budapest and The Food and Wine Lover’s Guide to Hungary: With Budapest Restaurants and Trips to the Wine Country.
Obviously, I love food (and wine.) And Hungary is a great place to live for someone who loves to eat and drink well. Luckily, Gábor and his family have also made it very easy for me to fall in love with Hungarian food. Our two little daughters, like us, love to spend time in the kitchen, and so far are very adventurous eaters.
We spend a lot of time in our kitchen cooking. Though we love to cook Hungarian recipes, we like just as much to explore the cooking of other countries. We do most of our shopping at Budapest’s markets (thankfully, there are many of them, and they are fantastic). Most of what we eat at home is local and seasonal (which is easy to do in Hungary), so most of the recipes which appear here will feature seasonal produce and local products. But they shouldn’t be hard to recreate in other parts of the world.
I write about Budapest for many international publications, which gives us a great excuse to spend time exploring new (and old) restaurants in Budapest and beyond. Together we run Taste Hungary, a culinary tour company, which also keeps us busy exploring the Hungarian countryside, visiting its wine regions, and discovering its artisan food producers.
The writings in this space will cover all of this—Hungarian recipes (both traditional ones and ones which I have tweaked), life in Budapest, Hungarian food and wine, and Hungarian culture. We will also occasionally cover travel to nearby countries.
I hope these writings give those who have never been to Hungary some insight into what life here is like. And for those who are lucky enough to live in Hungary (or travel here), I hope this blog will lead you to places and ideas to help you more fully enjoy life in Hungary.
About the Photography
All of the photographs featured here have been taken by us, unless otherwise noted. All are copyright © Taste Hungary. If you would like to re-publish any of them, please ask first.
About the Recipes
All of the recipes on this blog have been tested or developed in our kitchen. We would love to hear how they worked out for you! If you would like to re-publish any of them, please ask first.
We love comments, and we would be happy to hear from anyone who has a trip to Hungary in the works.