Central Europe: Hungary - Things to See/Do in Budapest Part 3

One of the most notable spices in Budapest in my observation is... paprika. So, number one in part 3's list is paprika.

1. Paprika
There are two types on sale - sweet paprika and hot paprika. Édes Anna ("Sweet Anna") is more sweet while the hot paprika is called Erős Pista ("Spicy Steve"). I bought Erős Pista, it wasn't hot for me. As for Édes Anna, I asked a stall owner in Central Market and was told that it wasn't sweet, just not hot. I didn't try this so I can't comment.

2. Goulash
As we mentioned paprika, there's paprika in goulash! The Hungarian goulash is the soupy type instead of stew and I love it.

Appetizer size

Main meal size

3. Langos
This is a type of street food, it's like ham chim peng in giant size, topped with garlic, cheese and sour cream. Our tour guide from free walking tour said usually one would grab a langos on their way before having some drinks. I can't even finish that one we bought!

We asked recommendation from one of the staffs in the hostel and he pointed us to Retro Bufe.

4. Palinka
Palinka is a powerful schnapps made from various fruits, most often from plum (szilvás) or apricots (barack)
I bought the apricot flavour one home and passed it to my colleague. He sculled it down and told me it tasted like pure ethanol... but it is ethanol though... = ="
I had a very small sip, and boy, it was strong... (though don't trust me, my alcohol tolerance is fairly negligible.

5. Unicum
This is Hungarian's bitter liquor made of 40 different herbs. Our walking guide referred to this as medication. According to this, after all, there's a cross on the bottle...
P/S - I didn't try this....

6. Blue Rose
We asked for recommendation of place to eat for good Hungarian food and were directed to this place. We had dinner here twice and very much enjoyed ourselves. The tables were decorated with blue rose in line with the restaurant name.

I had a cup of goulash soup as appetizer (photo number 4), and main of chicken breast with paprika sauce, side of dumplings. Don't ask me why Hungarian dumplings look like that... I was already disappointed.

Next visit for dinner I had grilled perch fillet with green sauce (leek, dill, basil and cuckoo herb sauce) finished with somlo (sponge cake with vanilla cream, rum, walnut, sugar and whipped cream)

7. Szimpla Kert (Szimpla Ruin Bar)
Szimpla bar was the first and one of the best of Budapest's ruin pubs. It was so-called ruin bars because it was set up in some ruin building, with mismatched furnitures. Stalls were set up offering drinks. Unfortunately we were there on a rainy night and some parts in the building were open air, so we were not able to sit under the sky.

Side note: And with that, I started googling for Hungarian food in Melbourne. I am surprise to find one here, looks pretty good but a bit steep. Though I can imagine I would be easily succumbed to it...