Saturday, 9 June 2012

Man Vs Food Budapest Style

It was time to tackle the boarders of Europe and drive through three countries in one day.  Another early morning as we bid farewell to Austria with our first stop Bratislava, Slovakia for a lunch stop over and our final destination Budapest, Hungry.  We arrived late in the afternoon and started our visit with a driving tour of the city.  It unfortunately started raining just as we entered the city, so we spent little time out of the bus but ducked out to check out some amazing views overlooking the Danube River.  We also visited an amazing castle and would have loved to have had the chance to look around inside.
After a driving tour of the city, hungry was the word on everyone’s lips.  We were warned that we should not snack through the afternoon, but little did I know we would be walking into what should be a Man Vs Food challenge.  For those of you that have not had the pleasure of watching this amazingly disgusting American TV show, the idea of the show is to take on some kind of food challenge (such as large quantities of food or seriously spicy dishes) around America to see if Man or Food will win.
Before arriving to the restaurant I did a little research (aka I asked my Hungarian tour guide) on some traditional Hungarian cuisine as I again had no idea what type of food to expect.  It turns out that Hungry is the home of many cuisines including Paprika, a spice used in many dishes, stuffed cabbage with ground pork, beef goulash and a deep fried bread called Langos just to name a few.  Arriving to the restaurant we began to read the menu that explains the meals are as big as a plate, this little warning did not do the size justice.  Weiner schnitzels are apparently one of their most common challenges so a large number of people ordered these.  The schnitzels were served on a round chopping board and were literally the shape and size of a large pizza.  Amazingly six (three of which were girls) of the crew managed to finish the whole thing.  I however opted for a traditional dish, stuffed cabbage topped with Hungarian paprika sausage, bacon & sour cream.  I had no clue what to expect and was served a saucepan sized pot that looked to contain a lot of shredded cabbage.  After some digging around, I found two ground pork stuffed cabbage rolls similar to a sausage roll, but the outside is cabbage leaves.  The paprika sausage was delicious, but the scary looking bacon was not at all tasty and not what I would call bacon.  The sour cream really made the dish easier to eat but it was definitely cabbage and paprika overload. It was surprisingly nice for a while but then became too much of the same and I therefore failed the Man Vs Food challenge (as you can see below in the before and after shots!)

It was time to try and digest this mass food overload so we headed to a bar for a few ciders.  The bars are very quirky and have many rooms, nooks and crannies as well as a very relaxed atmosphere.  We were all a little jealous of one group of people playing cards as they sipped on their beverages, an idea we wish we had come up with ourselves and was more acceptable at bars at home.  It was time to head home to get a good night sleep as we were all very excited to get our one and only sleep in for the entire tour.
Budapest is well known for its hot baths and this was our main destination for a relaxing day.  After our sleep in, we walked into the city centre to get ourselves some lunch from the food market before heading off for a long soak and massage.  The markets were two levels with the bottom level mainly comprising of meat markets, paprika stores and fruit and vegie stands.  The meats were amazing to see with paprika sausages and salami hanging everywhere but my main aim for the market was to try out the traditional Langos bread.  The bread is a pizza like base however it is deep fried, making it more like a doughnut consistency.  The bread is traditionally served with sour cream and cheese on the base topped with paprika sausage (yes this stuff is everywhere), spanish onion, capsicum, tomato, cucumber, jalapenos and feta cheese.  The flavour was amazing but this was possibly the hardest thing I have ever eaten as the sour cream makes the middle soggy and it falls apart everywhere.  It was worth the 2200 Hungarian Forint that it cost me (Hungry has a crazy currency!) but I don’t think I will be eating it again unless I am allowed a plate, knife and fork!

Time to head off to the hot baths which was certainly an experience.  There was minimal English speaking people working at the baths and it took us about half an hour to try and hire a towel.  In the end we accepted a free sheet to use as a towel as we were sent from one desk to the next and back again.  A very funny and overwhelming experience but my advice to you is to take your own towel!!  After finally getting into the baths, we rested in the 36®C water for a couple of hours.  I then headed for a 20 minute massage to finish off the visit.  It was wonderfully relaxing and even with our interesting start it was well worth the visit.
We are now on our way out of Hungry to Krakow, Poland where I am hoping, yet not holding my breath, that their traditional cuisine is salad and vegetables as I am in desperate need of some healthy greens! xx

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