Food and Beverages in Hungary
July 13, 2008 10:31 AM   Subscribe

Food and Beverages in Hungary is a pretty excellent blog, particularly for anyone who's interested in food, beverages, and/or Hungary.
posted by Wolfdog (19 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
I haven't spent a lot of time on the link provided, but let me tell you what Mewatbomb knows about Hungarian food. There are two words you need to know: maharsporkolt, and sertesrsporkolt. Delicious meaty little home-made noodles smothered in red paprika sauce and meat. Excuse me, but I need to go and have some private time now, yes it is that good.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:53 AM on July 13, 2008


Don't worry about my spelling mistakes, they won't understand a fucking thing you are saying anyways.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:54 AM on July 13, 2008


Sorry to talk so much. Finally found it here. This is what God would eat if she were Hungarian.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:58 AM on July 13, 2008


Meatbomb, (eponys... never mind), that looks great. Had to think about the measurements: "dkg" presumably means "dekagram" which is a not a familiar unit even to that subset of Americans who encounter metric a lot. But 80 of them would be about 1.75 lbs which sounds about right for four people.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:09 AM on July 13, 2008


Mmmm....hungry in Hungary.
posted by ericb at 11:16 AM on July 13, 2008


5 dkg butter, 3 tbs grains, 1 (pocket) vanilla pudding

Grains of what?

I love the creativity of salvaging a busted cake into some unheard of contraption. And meatbomb, our Estonian friend was big on that recipe, too.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:19 AM on July 13, 2008


I can also vouch for Transylvanian-style stuffed cabbage. Oh, to be in Hungary!
posted by orrnyereg at 12:32 PM on July 13, 2008


There used to be a number of high-end Hungarian restaurants in Boston, but they all seem to have dropped off the map. A pity, as Hungarian cuisine is delicious. I'm all hungry just reading the blog...
posted by Slap*Happy at 2:07 PM on July 13, 2008


There used to be a number of high-end Hungarian restaurants in Boston...

Ah yes, memories of Café Budapest.
posted by ericb at 2:22 PM on July 13, 2008


No one makes better maharpörkölt than I do. No one. It took me 18 months of trying nearly every day and I finally cracked it. I swear the truth when I say that old Transylvanian women have cried with joy when they've tasted it. I've done a lot of things in life, but I am perhaps most proud of this.

Hungarian food is the best.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 5:13 PM on July 13, 2008 [2 favorites]


Head over to chew.hu, which describes itself as "the Hungarian Foodblog" with a ton of recipes, restaurant reviews, etc. It seems that Hungarian food is well represented in the blogshere. I would also recommend Culinaria Hungary for all you foodies with a love of Hungarian cuisine. Personally, I tend to stick to pálinka.....
posted by vac2003 at 5:23 PM on July 13, 2008


No one makes better maharpörkölt than I do. No one. It took me 18 months of trying nearly every day and I finally cracked it. I swear the truth when I say that old Transylvanian women have cried with joy when they've tasted it. I've done a lot of things in life, but I am perhaps most proud of this.

Hungarian food is the best.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:13 PM on July 14 [+] [!]


I'm sure what you meant to do after saying this was to tell all of us the way you make it. Right? Right?!

Please???
posted by supercrayon at 5:46 PM on July 13, 2008


Someone told me there's a fantastic Hungarian bakery or coffee shop near me (W. 107th & Broadway in Manhattan--anyone know of it?) Can't wait to check it out.
posted by HotPatatta at 5:53 PM on July 13, 2008


No one makes better maharpörkölt than I do.

I'm with supercrayon, Dee Xtrovert -- YOU MUST TELL US HOW.

That said, my (Hungarian) future mother in law makes the most amazingly kickass little fried meat patty things. They've got pork, onion, breadcrumb and THE TASTE OF THE GODS in them.

And I can understand being proud of your accomplishment, Dee Xtrovert -- a high point in my life was when my (Polish) friend told me my homemade pierogi were "better than the little old ladies' at church." (Church being located in über-Polish Parma, Ohio).

If you like Hungarian food with amazing photos, the book Culinaria Hungary is great, like all others in the Culinaria series. That link is to the reprint edition which is coming out in October -- the old hardback, which I have, is now going for $95+ on Amazon.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:47 PM on July 13, 2008


For the cottage cheese "baskets" where she refers to "3 dkg grains," I think that she means farina/cream of wheat. In several cottage cheese/túró recipes my grandmother makes, she adds "búzadara" to bind the curds together - "búzadara" literally translates to "ground wheat," which I guess is what cream of wheat is.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 6:55 PM on July 13, 2008


You know those little marzipan fruits you can get at candy counters in department stores? How about a marzipan model of the Hungarian parliament building?

This blog is dripping with sweet, sugary awesomeness.
posted by gimonca at 8:28 PM on July 13, 2008


I promise that once I write it out, I will post my recipe on the Projects page. It's a bit hard, because my Székely friend convinced me not to measure anything but to do it by 'feel.' This is generally how girls are taught to cook in Eastern Europe anyhow. And I learned little tricks - lots of them - for how exactly to heat the pans, to additions of things like a particular kind of ground pear (that's right) to the recipe and how to pick the onions and peppers and exactly how the carrots should be cut, and the proper mixture of hot and sweet paprika, and the kind of meat to buy and how to cut it and how to get caraway flavor in there in a secret way and more!

I also make it more Transylvanian-style, which is puliszkával ('with mămăliga', for which I've also got a "special" recipe - it's like polenta), rather than noodles, and I cook it for about six hours, so it really melts in your mouth and has a *deep* flavor.

I made it for an old couple in Csíkszereda and when I was making it, the old man told me if it were half as good as his wife's, then I could be his second wife (! - these old Magyars are pretty flirty), and when he tasted it he almost dropped his spoon and he said (in Hungarian, with real surprise), "Shit, that's better than my wife's!" And later his wife came in and tasted it and paused and said, "Damn . . . now Gabor's going to want to marry you!"

The Culinaria book is great. I've got the hardcover too, and I've found Russian, German, Italian and one other version in Borders for abouot $5 (paperback, but still great - though the Hungarian one is best.)
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:33 PM on July 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


yea! I go to budapest in a few weeks. thanky bigtime
posted by MNDZ at 9:35 PM on July 14, 2008


Well try to get out of "town" and see some nice places like Szeged or Pécs or (even better) get to Transylvania if you've got time. Budapest is a wonderful place, but (sadly) it's not the best place to find real Hungarian cooking.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 1:04 AM on July 15, 2008


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