The Many Faces of Körözött, With A Recipe
Served throughout Hungary (as well as in Slovakia, Austria, and Northern Italy), körözött is a simple paprika-spiked cheese dip. It’s typically part of a Hungarian appetizer spread, offered with chunk...
Túró: How to Make Hungary’s Favorite Cheese
In Hungary the most common types of cheese are young and fresh ones. In this category túró is definitely the most popular, accounting for half of all cheese consumed in the country.
Dill Power: The Benefits of Drinking Pickle Juice
You know it’s summer when you see jars of kovászos dill pickles fermenting in sunny window sills. That summery pickle flavor can also come in the form of a drink, concocted with the juice from the pic...
Cherry Soup (Meggyleves): Hungary’s Sweet and Sour Summer Soup, With a Recipe
There's no better way to enjoy the summer's seasonal fruit bounty than in a cold fruit soup. There are lots of variations, but sour cherry soup (meggyleves) is perhaps the most popular. It's a tart so...
A Guide to Hungarian Szalonna
Szalonna is an essential food staple in Hungary. Its recipe is very simple—you add salt, smoke, and time to a piece of pork fat. But there are many different types (depending on the cut of meat, the s...
Zsemle: Hungary’s Multi-purpose Wonder Roll
We hesitate to call zsemle beloved, they are definitely depended upon. More convenient than a kilo or half kilo of your standard Hungarian loaf of bread, not mass produced yet inexpensive enough to be...
Főzelék: The Lighter Side to Hungarian Lunch
Főzelék is a lunchtime staple as much as any gulyás or paprikás. It is the unheralded anchor of any étkezdé’s (lunch canteen) menu. It’s popular with good reason, and taken very seriously.
The Four Types of Pogácsa You Meet in Budapest
Pogácsa, which usually gets a loose translation as ‘scones’ or ‘biscuits,’ are everywhere in Hungary. Pogácsa, or ‘pogi’ for short, also seem to be compulsory for most organized social gatherings.
Dobos Torta
In a country renowned for its beautiful baked goods, the glistening and golden-tinted Dobos torta is arguably Hungary’s most famous layer cake.
Csontvelő: The Decadent Bliss of Hungarian Bone Marrow
A good csontvelő (bone marrow) is worth a trip across town for, worth planning an evening around. You may have to, because it is not the easiest dish to find.
Jókai Bean Soup: Steamy Romance In A Bowl
You can see why Jokai was so taken with the soup. Jókai bableves has a rich, nourishing flavor that intoxicates and demands to be overindulged in. The meal is hearty in the truest sense of the word. W...
Hekk: Hungary’s Favorite Saltwater Fish
Hekk is a curious fish to find in Hungary, as it is a sea fish, and Hungary is a landlocked country. How hekk became so popular locally is still a bit murky. WHat is not disputed is that the most Hung...
On Frog Legs and Regrets on the Streets of Budapest
The thing about frog legs is that you can’t dither. If you are fixing to get frog legs, you shouldn’t hesitate. For one thing, they are a very easy dish to talk yourself out of. For another, even plac...
A Selection of Hungarian Liver Preparations
Is there any commonly eaten food more divisive than liver? Loved and loathed in equal measures, it is also the cheapest cut at the market but the most expensive item on the menu. Banned, fetishized, r...
How to Deliver Túró Rudi to a Friend
Túró Rudi is one of those acquired tastes, but once acquired, impossible to shake.
Taste Hungary 10.0
For Taste Hungary’s 10th birthday, I’ve looked back at some of the key moments of our first decade and some of the things I’m most grateful for … one for each year.
Lángos: Hungary’s Deep Fried Treat
Due to its heaviness, lángos is a meal best eaten when it has been worked for in one way or another. Dough deep fried, brushed with minced garlic and topped with various other fatty delights like smok...
Kakashere Pörkölt (Rooster Testicle Stew)
In a country where meat—be it beef, pork, turkey, or goose—is consumed with gusto, the rooster's family jewels are just another juicy delicacy served in a heady paprika broth.
Erős Pista: Hungary’s Multi-Purpose Paprika Paste
The spicy condiment known as Erős Pista—a thick paprika paste—is so omnipresent in lunch canteens (étkezdék), Hungarian restaurants, and in home kitchens that there is little room for artisanal interl...
The Sweet Gesture of Gesztenyepüré: Hungarian Chestnut Puree
Gesztenyepüré is a beloved Hungarian dessert. While you can get it year round, chestnuts are seasonal, so its flavors resonate most in autumn. There is something of a nostalgic feel to the dessert, at...
Hooked on Halászlé, Spicy Hungarian Fish Soup
Halászlé (fisherman’s soup) is an iconic paprika-spiked Hungarian dish, prepared for centuries by fishermen and their families along the banks of the Danube, Tisza rivers, and Lake Balaton (or whereve...
Be Your Own Trip Advisor: How to Spot A Good Restaurant While Traveling
There is a lot to be said for going offline to walk around and follow your instincts when exploring a new culture’s culinary scene. It’s one of those micro-adventures that make travel so rewarding. Th...
Flódni: The Four Act Pastry
Flódni is a traditional Hungarian Jewish confection. With fillings of poppy, walnut, apple, and plum jam, separated by five layers of sweet pastry, its flavors of tart, bitter, and sweet meld together...
Elegy to Zsiros Kenyér: A Good-bye to Budapest’s Classic Pub Grub
In Budapest, some dishes go out of style, only to be re-introduced years later as more expensive ‘retro’ fare. It also happens that some dishes disappear not to be seen again.
Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage: The Wedding Gift You Didn’t Know You Wanted
More than fortification for the coming party, the midnight cabbage represents a kind refusal to give in.
Chomping at the Bit: a Hungarian Horse Sausage Primer
Though Hungarians’ fondness for horse meat is far from universal among the population, a demand for it persists and horse sausage is still commonly found at market halls around Budapest.
Lecsó as a Verb
Lecsó as a noun is known in flippant company as the Hungarian ratatouille, the dish that's not really a stew, not a soup, not exactly a side dish, but somehow takes characteristics of all these.
Szalonna: Call It Delicious, Just Don’t Call It Bacon
Every now and again a word gets mistranslated, and that mistranslation is picked up on and replicated until it’s been hopelessly absorbed into common usage.
Gulyás: The Ultimate Hungarian Soup (Recipe)
Gulyás is the one Hungarian dish that most people think they know. But their imagination of gulyás rarely resembled the real Hungarian thing.
That’ll Do Pig: The Marvelous Rise of Mangalica
If you haven’t heard of Mangalica, don’t feel left out. The fact that there is any of it at all is a small miracle.
Meggyes Leppény (Sour Cherry Cake) Recipe
My first ever trip to Hungary coincided with cherry season. Ever since, when I think cherries, I crave this cherry cake that Gábor’s mother bakes throughout the summer.
The Hungarian Cold Plate (Hidegtál)
A Hungarian cold plate (“hidegtál”) is a classic way to showcase the wide variety of charcuterie which butcher shops, market stalls, and kitchen pantries are brimming with.
Budapest’s Nagy Vásárcsarnok (Central Market Hall)
With its cavernous interior, the vast three-level Central Market Hall should be a spot of pilgrimage for any food-lover coming to Budapest, where you can spend hours shopping and snacking.
Hungarian Paprika: The Essential Red Spice
If there is one ingredient that Hungary is undeniably associated with, it's paprika. It symbolizes Hungarian cuisine and is an essential component of some of the best-known Hungarian dishes.
Old-School Hungarian Sweets
Those who grew up during the Communist era in Hungary will know these Hungarian sweets well (although some may never want to taste again).
Sólet at Rosenstein, A Budapest Experience Worthy of a Pilgrimage
At Rosenstein, solét is a hearty, wonderfully-prepared meal that not only deserves a pilgrimage but also clearly underlines the restaurant's motto: everything is kosher that tastes good.
Taste Hungary’s 100 Essentials List
We've compiled what we think are the most essential (and tastiest) food, drinks, and experiences that just cannot be missed. We hope you can check all of them off!
Birsalma Sajt (Quince Jelly) Recipe
The knobby quince has never been one of the most popular fruits. But come autumn, this humble and rather unattractive fruit is transformed into an anticipated seasonal delicacy.
Kovászos Uborka (Fermented Cucumber) Recipe
In Hungary, this hot stretch of summer in which the city empties and not much happens is known as cucumber season. The markets, of course, are also full of small, bumpy cucumbers.
Paprikás Csirke (Paprika Chicken) Recipe
Paprikás csirke is a staple of home-cooking and at étkezdes (lunch-rooms), yet it is an elegant dish (but much simpler to prepare than its thick, complex, flavorful sauce suggests).
Budapest’s Kórház Utcai Market
Lying low at the foot of the Árpád híd, Kórház utcai Market is a vital and yet lesser-known part of Budapest's ingrained market culture.
Galuska (Dumplings) Recipe
Galuska are the preferred accompaniment for pörkölt and paprikás, and are also often served with eggs and lettuce for a super-simple lunch at the étkezde.
Kocsonya (Meat Jelly/Aspic) Recipe
If your grandmother made this dish for the holidays, you either loved it or hated it. There's pretty much no middle-ground, and there's no denying the lingering memory of this shimmering meat jelly.
Csipetke (Pinched Pasta) Recipe
Though making homemade pasta for a soup might sound very time-consuming, it’s actually quite quick and simple.
Sunday Lunch in Hungary
Sunday lunch is practically a sacred ritual in Hungary. This I learned when I found myself sitting at a table set under towering chestnut trees, eating the kind of meal I usually only ate on holidays....
Pogácsa at Daubner
Homemade, flaky pogácsa is the quintessential Hungarian snack, eaten at all times of the day and on any occasion.For the best, many Budapesters swear by Daubner Cukrászda.
