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Everyone knows to eat croissants in France, bratwurst in Germany, and all the pasta and gelato in Italy, but what the heck are you supposed to eat in Hungary when you’re hungry!? See what I did there? 🙂
While in Budapest, I was surprised to find how many different (and delicious) local specialties they had!! Everywhere we turned, there were more food stalls, and every Hungarian we met was suggesting some other dish to try!! It was impossible to get to them all, but I’ve rounded up some of my favorites over the few days we were visiting.
LANGOS
Oh Em Gee. Fried bread. Cheese.
I probably don’t need to say anything else, but I will. Obviously, any fried bread with cheese on it is going to be amazing, but this was blow your mind amazing. I got the classic, which has sour cream and shredded cheese. We also got one with powdered sugar, almonds, and a raspberry/honey sauce, which was also to die for, but obviously on the very sweet side.
The langos stalls were all over the place. We got ours from a stall on the second floor of the Great Market Hall. They had about 30 different topping combinations that you could choose from, and if we had the time, I probably would have tried a couple more topping combinations.
Another stall that seemed verrry popular was inside the Karavan street food market next to the first ruin bar ever, Szimpla Kert. The langos here seemed to be a twist on the traditional by turning them into burgers!
PAPRIKA SAUSAGE
Hungarians are BIG fans of Paprika and it was nearly in every single dish, in all levels of hotness. I’m a fan of Bratwurst, so I thought I’d try the Hungarian version and try their Paprika Sausage!
I got this one at the Piknik Pavillion, right by the Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. It was everything I dreamed of and more!! They had freshly made sourkraut (which was a lot less strong than traditional sourkrout), and lots of pickle slices!
After biting into it, it oozed red paprika juices, so definitely not a meal for a white shirt! But it was ohhh so good.
If you want to buy some to take home and make yourself, the Central Market Hall has stall after stall of sausages of all different sizes and spiciness! YUM!
CHIMNEY CAKE
I rarely get a sweet tooth… unless it’s for ice cream, but this chimney cake is totes different!! It’s basically dough, wrapped around a wooden stick, cooked over a fire, then covered in all sorts of sweetness!! It was similar to a churro, but baked over fire instead of being fried.
We got ours with cinnamon and sugar, but you could also get vanilla, coconut, and chocolate chips!! Unravel it, dip it in Nutella, and enjoy!!
BEEF STEW
Hungary is known for their stews and goulash, so we had to try some of course!! We found a little, traditional, Hungarian cafe (Ildikó Konyhája) on the Buda side of Budapest.
The staff was wonderful and recommended the beef stew and dumplings, and BOY did it NOT disappoint! The stew was really flavorful, the beef tender, and the dumplings were the perfect pair! After a cold day walking around the city, it’s a great way to warm up!!
Hungarian food was absolutely delicious and flavorful. It was incredibly filling and definitely caused my jeans to fit just a little bit tighter! I can’t wait to return to Hungary and try some more of their AMAZING food!
