Today’s activity: A food tour of Budapest with our charming local guide, Dorá.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a firm believer that one of the best ways to get to know a country is by experiencing its food and (especially) drinks. Whenever we visit a new-to-us country, I always book an orientation tour on the first day, and a food tour the second day. We’ve had such good luck with food tours on our trips. For our food tour bookings, I have used both Culinary Backstreets (tours are not available everywhere and they are small group tours) and Tours By Locals (private tours). We haven’t had a disappointing tour with either outfit.

Central Market Hall

Dorá took us on the historical tram (the bright yellow tram cars were built during communist times), to the Central Market Hall, where you can buy everything from pickles to pig bladders. While the Market Hall is a major tourist attraction in Budapest, it’s also where locals do their food shopping.

Some highlights from our day:

Lángos

Once inside the market, we made a b-line to Dorá’s favorite Lángos (pronounced Langosh) stall. Lángos is the Hungarian national comfort food – pillows of fried bread dough topped with sour cream and garlic, and shaved Trappist cheese (think: Monterey Jack). This was incredible. Might be one of the best things I have ever eaten. So, so good. I wonder if I could make the bread base in my air-fryer??

Sidebar: Dorá said there is only one rule in Hungary – everything is better with sour cream. I like this rule.

Sausages

Next: sausages. The problem with sausage is you’re never really sure exactly what you’re eating. Dorá has arrangements with particular stalls throughout the market. They were all ready for us with samples of their particular food specialty. At the sausage stall, we tried pork sausage, horse sausage, and cow tongue sausage – because, “in Hungary we eat all parts of the animal”. Deep breath. Ok, let’s do this. The cow tongue was actually pretty tasty. I’d eat it again. Especially if someone just said, here, have some beef sausage. But maybe there’s a way to make it less tongue shaped?

Sidebar: got a little worried about what was going on in this bucket. Asked Dorá what it was, and she told us it was plum jam. Jam? Whew.

Paprika

Paprika is the national spice of Hungary. It’s made from dried varieties of capsicum annuum peppers, which range from sweet and mild to hot and pungent. And it is everywhere and in everything.

Dorá told us that Hungarians package paprika (for tourists) with either a man or a woman on the package to indicate whether the paprika is hot or sweet. The male package is hot (csípós), and the female package is sweet (édes). Not sure if this is clever or cliché.

Sidebar: Do I even want to know what marha pacal is?? I had to ask. It’s a cow stomach. Apparently, it’s eaten in some kind of stew situation – with lots and lots of paprika. I’d have to be damn near starving before I would think to myself, I could really go for some cow stomach right now.

Pickles

Hungarians are crazy for pickles. And they will pickle just about anything. Ken HATES pickles, so I’m taking one for the team at this stop. First strike: this particular delicacy (middle picture below) is pickled plums stuffed with pickled garlic. And if you’re thinking that sounds awful, you’d be right. My God, did they pickle this in nail polish remover?!? Absolutely inedible.

Second strike: the pickled baby watermelon (third pic, about three o’clock, the round pickles). So, so, so bad. Who eats this?!?

Third strike: the little round peppers stuffed with sauerkraut (first pic, about seven o’clock). All I could think was: this is the pickled pepper Peter Piper picked a pail of. I’m not proud of it, but I discreetly spit this into my napkin. I don’t have enough heartburn medicine with me to digest this firebomb.

I did enjoy the pickled cauliflower and the plain, old-fashioned pickles, though.

Streudel

Baked goods are more up Ken’s alley. Hungarian poppy seed strudel (mákos rétes) holds a special place in Hungarian culinary tradition – poppy seeds are supposed to be good luck. Can’t say we were huge fans of the poppy seed strudel. It wasn’t bad, it was just really dense. And I’m going to be inelegantly picking poppy seeds out of my teeth all afternoon. But the apple was yummy.

PÁlinka

Left the market and walked to an old communist era bar called, Ibolya Espresso. It actually had a pretty cool vibe. Kind of a mid-century modern and 80s mash-up. The brown and orange color palette was giving me serious nostalgia. On the agenda here was to try pálinka, one of Hungary’s two national spirits (the other is Unicum). Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy made from any number of different fruits – plums, apricots, cherries, pears, apples, or quince. It’s very strong, and a staple of Hungarian hospitality. We tried quince flavor. Don’t think I’ve ever eaten a quince before, but we drank one today. I liked it. I’d drink it again.

Goulash and More from the Meat Group

I’m so full at this point, I’m considering a reversal (aka, ). But that would be rude. Now we’re headed to a sausage shop, Belvárosi Disznótoros, for goulash (gulyás) and bonus meats: fresh pork & paprika sausage with mustard and fresh horseradish, baked bacon (that was a new one for me), and chicken schnitzel. I only ate one bite of each because I was beyond full. All yum.

Of note: Goulash in Hungary is much more of a thin broth soup than a thick(er) stew, like it is when prepared in the US. The quality of the meat varies pretty widely. But paprika is always the star of the bowl.

Unicum

And now we need a little something to help our digestion, so we stop at Csendes Létterem, one of Budapest’s ruin bars for a shot of Hungary’s other national spirit – Unicum. Ruin bars, most famously found in Budapest’s Jewish Quarter, are eclectic pubs built inside the shells of abandoned buildings. They are usually decorated with mismatched furniture, street art, and other assorted ephemera. Csendes Létterem had a great vibe – I would have happily hung out here longer. Alas, we have more food to eat.

So, Unicum. Not bad, but definitely medicinal. Think Jagermeister, but bitter. More on this when I do my drinks culture report on Hungary.

Cake

Thought we were done with food, but now it’s time for cake. Stopped at Szamos Cafe, a well-known bakery in Budapest, for a slice of Esterházy Torta, a famous Hungarian cake. It’s several layers of walnut meringue and a cognac-spiked vanilla buttercream.

It’s delicious, but I can barely get my fork to my mouth. I’m so full. We sat outside, and if I’m being honest, I fed more than a couple of bites to the pigeons.

Are we finished? Nope.

Wine

Now, it’s wine time. Walked to a super fun wine bar called Vinikli. Curiously, it’s also a bicycle shop. I can’t even tell you what we tasted. Well, I can, but my stomach hurts and I’m dying. I’ll expand on Hungarian wine when I do my drinks culture report for Budapest.

Uncle.

What a great day – Dorá was an absolute delight. But we will not be eating dinner tonight.

Travel date: October 13, 2025