Five (Hungarian) things to eat before you die

MAGYARUL
Now, I’m so late with this one. Melissa at the wonderful The Travelers Lunchbox started this huge joint project called „Things to eat before you die” already a month ago. She asked all foodbloggers to name five things that they’ve eaten and think that everyone should eat at least once before they die. Many people were complaining that the most challenging thing was to actually restrict our contributions to FIVE items, that’s really so hard. In the meantime that list has grown to an amazing 1505 food items contributed by almost 300 foodbloggers from all over the world – it contains different items from as simple as a good bread or a good olive oil to more exotic stuff like prahok, the Cambodian fermented fish paste or oysters. Go and check-out that list. I’ve been also tagged by Johanna for this one and as the list could serve also as a kind of global food guide, I’m of course adding items from my own cuisine:HUNGARIAN to it. Here it goes:

1. Hungarian cakes and pastries – Eszterházy cake
This is what we are most famous for. To be honest, I could immediately easily name five of these (and much more) but that would be just too simple. All of our sweets are absolutely fantastic but it’s not always easy to find the very best of it, there is a lot of mediocre food like everywhere. The most known cake is probably Dobos torta, a layered chocolate cake with a crunchy caramel topping, however I personally prefer another one: Eszterházy torta, which is a walnut sponge cake filled with a walnut creme and topped with a sweet icing. By the way the best cakes in Budapest are sold at the patisserie called DAUBNER (it’s located totally outside of the touristy area, it’s a bit time consuming to get there, but really worth the effort. They are doing very well without a website). The second choice would be a strudel with sourcherry filling. Or cottage cheese. Or maybe poppyseed. (For this one I go early in the morning when they are freshly made to a place called SZALAY cukrászda near the Parliament) And I could of course go on with palacsinta (crepes), túrógombóc (cottage cheese dumplings), mákos guba (poppyseed bread&butter pudding), but I’m already cheating.

2. Hungarian goose foie gras –prepared Hungarian style

Did you know that Hungary is the world’s second-greatest foie gras producer (after France of course) and the largest exporter of it? Large part (more then the half in fact) of the French goose liver import comes from Hungary –French companies then spice, process, and cook the foie gras and sell it as a French product. You will find foie gras on Hungarian restaurant menus prepared in the common way –as a paté, pan-seared or roasted, served with brioche, fruits and sweet wines. But if you have the chance, please try it once the other way: In Hungary, we like to fry the goose foie gras (which we can get fresh at the market) in goose fat, which is seasoned with some paprika and garlic, then poured over the foie gras and left to cool. We eat it with fresh white bread, sliced red onions and tomatoes.
PS. Production is not banned in Hungary (and it’s not likely to happen because it’s a tradition and thousands of farmers depend on it), so come to Budapest to have some!

3. A proper Hungarian goulash
I mean the real stuff. Hot and spicy, made with real, good quality Hungarian paprika, white peppers, good tomatoes and pork fat. Preferably cooked at someones home.

4. Pickled cucumbers (kovászos uborka)
In the summer, almost every single family will prepare its own homemade pickled cucumbers (or buy it at the market). Boiling salted water is poured over them, they are seasoned with garlic and dill and a few slices of white bread will help the fermentation process. It’s a seasonal delicacy as hot weather is needed. To be eaten ice cold, crunchy, delicious!

5. Homemade chicken soup cooked with parsley root

I just love chicken soup, if it’s a good one I could eat it every single day. Finding parsley root is difficult in most countries, but if you happen to discover some, buy it. It looks like parnsnips but it’s thinner. A stock prepared with it tastes a lot more different. It gives this special, unique, earthy aroma, which I always miss abroad, so I better always travel with a bunch of it from Hungary.

As I live in Belgium, Brussels at the moment, if I could name a sixth item, right now it would be fresh mussels cooked in white wine with tons of garlic and parsley. I just can’t get enough of them when they are in season.

I’m not tagging anyone but I would be really curious to read the opinion of other Hungarian foodbloggers.

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32 hozzászólás

  1. Apart from the chicken soup, maybe, this reads like a recommendation for Austrian food! we like to claim the esterhazy torte and dobos torte our own, one of the left-overs of the austro-hungarian empire, i guess. same for the gulyas/porkolt.thanks for participating!

  2. En is nagy Daubner függô vagyok, de az Esterházy speciel a < A HREF="www.szamos.hu" REL="nofollow"> Szamosban <> a legjobb szerintem. Kóstoltad? Rita

  3. Lehet, hogy azért, mert még nincs itt a szezonja, de egy jó disznótoros hurkát, kolbászt kár volt kihagyni a bejegyzésből!

  4. Johanna, well, maybe I could rename it as „Monarchy” food, indeed we have a lot of common ones as we often realize.Rita, nem azt még nem kóstoltam, ezek szerint itt az ideje, hogy bepótoljam.Dinsznótoros -az öt az öt, abba sajnos sok minden nem fér bele..speciel a dinsznótoros nekem személyesen nincs benne a top tíz-ben, de ez persze ízlés dolga:)

  5. valóban a szamosban a legjobb az esterházy – bekebelezés előtt érdemes 10 percig szobahőmérsékleten tartani -, s ha ott jársz feltétlen kóstold meg a budai krémest és a rozalindát is!töltött kaposzta, halászlé, s lehet h az 5be nem írnám be a kapros tökfőzeléket koranyári zsenge tökből, de aszem ilyen sem nagyon van másutt s nagyon finom

  6. Nagyon szép hozzájárulás a magyar gasztronómia értékeinek megismertetéséhez. Ez az osztrák-magyar ügy komoly tanulmányozást igényelne, ki mit főzött előbb, melyik konyha hatott a másikra. Még jó, hogy a húslevesre nem tartanak igényt, de mi se a Sacher tortára. Johannát egyébként imádom, az egyik legjobb blogot viszi.

  7. And this is again in English for Johanna: I’m very much surprised that chicken soup is not part of the Austro-Hungarian heritage as much as I’ve been surprised following your (fantastic) blog and discovering dishes that I’ve been brought up with. It would need some serious reading on the background of these dishes before we (I) indignantly claim that curd cheese dumplings (for one) are soooo Hungarian. But I promise I won’t ever claim Sacher torte to be Hungarian. Not that I could either…

  8. Hát pedig elnézve, h pl. itt a németek mi mindent meg nem esznek „wurst” címszó alatt, igazán rájuk férne egy igazi jóféle, tisztességes sült kábász (;

  9. Vadas zsemlegombóccal és jókai bableves.Bár azt nem tudom mikett cserélnék ki rá az ötből 🙂

  10. palacsinta – olyat mint itthon sehol máshol a világon eddig, zöldborósfőzelék – lengyel barátaim imádják, bár eleinte borzadva nézték a fehér szmötyiben úszó kis zöld golyókat, azóta viszont ha jönnek, mindíg ezt kérik, körözött – bár lehet, hogy ez szlovák, lévén eredetileg ugye liptói túró volt a neve, ami valahol eltünt a múlt homályában,vadasmártás-zsemlegombóc rulez,na és persze tojásos lecsóóó.

  11. Kapros-tejszines tökfőzelék forever!And káposztás tészta forever, first plate salty, the second one with sugar!And also, do not forget about greenpea soup with spring vegetables, noodles, seasoned with paprika and persil.When coming to sweet I would add máglyarakás, vargabéles and meggyes piskóta to your list. Viráxál is right, the only creamcake worthy to taste is budai krémes at Szamos.

  12. You made me want to come to Hungary right now! The walnut cake sounds so good. My Mom used to make a walnut poppyseed cake when we were in Russia. I wonder if it’s similar. By the way, I love your pictures. I haven’t been to Chili & Vanilia for a while and I am amazed at what a great photographer you’ve become.Cheers,-Helen

  13. Német ismerősöm , amikor meglátogat általában ezeket kérni , hogy készítsem el neki :1, Mátrai borzacska2, Zserbó3, Almás palacsinta ( az a leheletvékony , almaszeletes )4, Pacalpörkölt5, Csülök pékné módraVégül szeretném megjegyezni hogy nagyon jó az oldal. Imádom olvasgatni. A megvalósítás sem várat sokat magára , ígérem !!Üdv : Anikó

  14. Áh, bocsánat, látom nem fért ki a link, itt van mégegyszer:<>http://innovex.veszprem.hu/sutemeny/cukrasztort/cukrasztort.html<>

  15. Parsley root is not hard to find in basic shops in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherland, Finland, Spain and Portugal. I am also rather sure (though I haven’t checked myself) that it will be easily found in Poland and in Germany. Why do you say it is hard to find? Where is it hard to find?

  16. az anyukam csinalja a legjobb eszterhazy tortat, …ha erdekel valakit. es o magyar es gyorujbarati, szoval oda kell menni nem a szamos cukiba. pamy mom makes the best eszterhazy torta in the world… you know?and she is hungarian from gyorujbarat, if you wanna try you have to go there not to szamos confectionary.bye

  17. I am so hungry now! I found your blog through your interview with Budacast.hu. My family and I were in Budapest this summer and loved the cheese and raisin-filled buns from the bakeries. We could not find Frohlichs where we were hoping to eat flodni. There is a great book called „Kaffeehaus” by Rick Rodgers which traces the history of many famous pastries in Vienna, Budapest and Prague and has many recipes. I baked some very nice pozsony-kipfli (pictured here http://runciblebin.blogspot.com/2007/07/pozsony-kipfli.html). I can’t wait to visit again and try some of the restaurants you mentioned!

  18. http://www.pirosvilla.infoI agree about the foie gras/Libamaj – I just had the privilege of tasting it recently, made just as you have described. At Christmas, I made a very fancy version according to the recipe at Büvösz Szakács—in a terrine with Tokaj wine. It was mind-blowingly good and perhaps the best thing I ever tasted 🙂 It was worth the painstaking effort to prepare it!!! PV.

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  20. En is bosszantonak talalnam, ha Ausztria kisajatitana a magyar eteleket. A Dobos-torta egyertelmuen magyar, hasonloan a igazi jofajta gulyas vagy porkolt is. Neha elkepeszto, milyen eteleket szolgalnak fel kulfoldon es hivjak oket gulyasnak. Mivel senki sem tudja 100 szazelek pontossaggal, ki keszitette az elso Eszterhazy-tortat, nehezen hivhato osztrak sutemenynek. Azt tudjuk csak pontosan, hogy az egyik Eszterhazy ihlette.A listara a Rigo Jancsi, Rakoczi-turos, Somloi galuska, Kolozsvari toltott kaposzta es sok magyar vadetel receptje is felkerulhetne. Kar, hogy 5 helyett nem lehet 50-et irni.

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  22. Nevtelen asked why it is hard to find parsley root,,,what is sold and available so freely in grocery stores in US and Canada is parsnip, not the same root that gives that incredible distinctive flavor to a truly delicious chicken soup.

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