When Kevin first brought up the subject of him going to Budapest with some friends, I encouraged him to go. With the trip being right in the middle of the time period where I would be taking my nursing boards and looking for a job, it didn’t seem possible for me to go. However, as soon as he mentioned that our friend Jen wanted to take a cooking class, I knew that I would be attending this trip, even if it meant flying over for just the weekend. In the end, we wound up having a crew of 4 couples who headed to Budapest. While I tried to get Kevin to take the cooking class with Jen, Debs, Joanna and I , he decided to hang out with Jen and Debs husbands Fred and John instead. Our friend Nate , being newly married, was much more accommodating than the rest of the men, and decided to brave a group of 4 women.
Our morning started with a cab ride to the Great Market on the Pest side (Budapest is separated by the Danube. Buda contains castle hill and Pest contains the economic parts of the city). We arrived at the market in plenty of time to meet our instructor Suzanna. However, we had a little issue paying the driver. Our fare came to 1200 forints *approximately 4 pounds) so we handed over a 10,000 note (which is what the ATM spits out). “No, No, No! Too big” we were told. We managed to get the guy to take the fare in Euro, but it was a little dicey for awhile. To anyone planning on travelling to Budapest – hit “other amount” and put in 9,000 instead of just choosing the amount they offer on the screen. NO ONE wants a 10,000 note.
Our cooking instructor met us at 9 and took us on a tour of the market, starting with the upper level and its prepared food. We saw Langosh (Hungarian Fried Dough that they put weird things on like sour cream), sausages, soups and men drinking Palinka (Schnapps). Next up was the main floor, full of meat and produce. Hungarians, traditionally being a poor nation, do not waste food. Every part of the animal is used. Some of it is unrecognizable, but still they eat it.
You don’t even want to know what this is
On our tour of the meat/produce section, I learned two things.
1) Hungary is one of the largest producers of Foie Gras in the world
2) Paprika means pepper. I’m not sure what I though paprika was made out of, but apparently, its made out of peppers. And Hungarians LOVE paprika.
After a tour of the main floor, it was down to the basement where we found the fish (mostly river fish since the country is landlocked) and pickled items. Hungarians pickle anything. I have a great love affair with pickles – I once at an entire jar of kosher dills in one sitting, so to me, this area was heaven.
After we purchased some paprikas and bread, we headed over to the cooking school to start preparations for our meal. The staff were extremely helpful and pleasant, even if our cooking instructor was a bit of a control freak. She felt the need to check up on my sponge cake making and give the batter one final stir after I had painstakingly folded in the egg whites to perfection. She seemed surprised that the batter looked so nice. I didn’t almost go to culinary school after I got laid off for nothing!
Our menu of the day consisted of :
- Gulyásleves/ Goulash Soup (Pronounced Gouyash)
- Krumplileves/ Creamy Potato Soup
- Paprikáscsirke nokedlivel /Chicken Paprikash with dumplings
- Somlói Galuska/ Hungarian Sponge Cake dessert
- Almás rétes /Apple strudel
* Don’t ask me how to pronounce anything in Hungarian. They have like 800 million letters/combinations of letters that all have a different sound depending on what letter precedes or follows.
The menu itself was fairly easy to prepare. A good deal of Hungarian meals start in the same way – sweat onions, add meat and brown, then add salt, black pepper, caraway seeds, bay leaf and finally red paprika powder. This was the start to the goulash and chicken paprikash. It was also the start to the creamy potato soup, but instead of adding paprika, we added a paprika containing sausage and sautéed until the paprika filled oil came out of the sausage.
After lunch, we had some time to waste as the rest of the men were running behind so we headed over to Fisherman’s Bastion to take a few photos. Located on Castle Hill on the Buda side of the city, it was built around 1900 and contains 7 towers to represent the 7 Magyar tribes that settled in the area around 900 AD. It is named in honor of the fishermen who were responsible for defending this section of the castle walls in the middle ages.
Right next to Fisherman’s Bastion is St. Mattias Church with its beautiful tile roof. They are currently working on the bell tower, so they had the bells removed. It’s amazing how huge they are.
Statue of Stephen I of Hungary, the first official King who lived around 1000AD
We headed back to the hotel to await the men, who were supposed to meet us at 1, but called us at 1 to tell us they had just ordered food at the Belgian Pub. Shocker…
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