Foodguide
Budapest
Eat & Explore
In Budapest, there is so much delicious food to try. It’s easy to lose track. The food in Budapest, like in the rest of Hungary, is rather heavy and hearty, but also very tasty. A well-known delicacy of the Hungarian specialties is the Langos, which you can get here in Germany mostly at festivals or fairs.
I will show you which Hungarian food you should also try in Budapest.
In Budapest, there is so much delicious food to try. It’s easy to lose track. The food in Budapest, like in the rest of Hungary, is rather heavy and hearty, but also very tasty. A well-known delicacy of the Hungarian specialties is the Langos, which you can get here in Germany mostly at festivals or fairs.
I will show you which Hungarian food you should also try in Budapest.
Hungarian Food in Budapest
The food in Budapest is often rich and on cold days definitely something for the soul. As a visitor to Budapest, you simply cannot starve. There are delicacies and traditional specialties on every corner. Whether fast food like doner kebab or pizza in the small stalls at the roadside and in the trendy districts. Or upscale cuisine in a venerable coffee house in the old Danube metropolis. The restaurants in Budapest leave nothing to be desired.
But Hungarian cuisine is generally rather heavy, often spicy and rich in meat. In addition, as is well known, Hungarians do not skimp on garlic or paprika. As you may already know from my food guide Marrakech or my report about the food on Mallorca, I will show you in this article what the Hungarians eat and which specialties Budapest and Hungarian food offers on your next trip.
If you are still looking for tips on how to get there, accommodation and the like, take a look at my travel tips Budapest.
Culinary tours in Budapest
If you want to get to know the culinary highlights of Budapest in a comfortable way, are looking for more information and background or even want to cook yourself, a guided tour might be the right choice. In Budapest, we unfortunately missed taking part in such a tour, but with Get Your Guide I was able to gain good experience, for example during a cooking course in Marrakech and on tours in Vietnam.
The nice thing about such tours is that you not only experience a lot, but also get to know nice people. I have selected a few culinary tours through Budapest* for you [contains affiliate links]:
Delicious Langós
Langós is a Hungarian specialty, which has already achieved a certain degree of popularity in Germany through the Christmas markets. This is a flat cake made of yeast dough, which is baked in fat. In my opinion, the dough is similar to the Berliners / doughnuts that you know from the Christmas markets.
After baking, the Langós flat cake is often spread with a cream of sour cream and garlic and sprinkled with cheese. You can also use different toppings like Hungarian sausage, bacon or onions. Altogether this is a popular meal in Budapest and Hungary, which you can also get in small pubs and street restaurants.
Hungarian Baumstriezel (Kürtőskalács)
The Hungarian tree striation probably has its origin in Transylvania. Traditionally, it is a sweet yeast dough that is wrapped around a wooden roller and prepared over an open fire. You can decorate the Kürtöskalács with various garnishes, such as chopped nuts or a sugar-cinnamon mixture.
More about the history and the variations of the Kürtöskalács can be found at travel routes Hungary. Famous for its good Striezel is Molnar’s Kurtoskalacs, centrally located in Budapest near the metro station Ferenciek tere.
Hungarian goulash soup (Gulyás)
Gulyás (beef shepherd’s meat) is an ancient dish that was traditionally prepared by shepherds in the cauldron over an open fire. Hungarian goulash is not comparable to our local goulash, but a soup. What we call goulash here is called Pörkölt or Paprikás in Hungary.
There are countless „original recipes“ for the Gulyás. However, the main ingredients are always onions, paprika and beef. The shepherds certainly did not take the most expensive meat at that time.
That is why even today rather cheap meat is used, such as leg slices or simple soup meat for goulash. Since this meat is rather tough, it is braised for a very long time at low heat.
Creamy Paprikás and Pörkölt
What we call goulash in Germany is called Paprika or Pörkölt in Hungary. Now one can assume that there is a lot of paprika in paprika.
In fact, there is even less paprika than in traditional Gulyás. Instead, the paprika contains more sour cream or creme fraiche. It is usually prepared with white meat such as chicken or white fish. You can find my recipe here: Hungarian chicken paprikás.
The Pörkölt differs additionally by a higher proportion of onions and paprika. The sauce is rather creamy and resembles a ragout. Gnocchi with sour cream is usually served as a side dish.
Halászlé (Hungarian Fish Soup)
The Halászlé fish soup is a Hungarian specialty and means translated as „fish(er)broth“. Usually, white fish like carp or pike-perch are used for this soup. However, the recipes vary greatly from region to region due to the types of fish used.
From the less noble parts of the fish, together with onions, peppers and tomatoes, a strong fish stock is cooked and then sifted. The fillet pieces are then added to the stock.
The whole thing is seasoned and boiled up again. Hungarians like to cook this soup with fish roe and fish milk. The finished soup is usually served with white bread.
Hungarian Töltött – Stuffed peppers and cabbage
The Töltött can be prepared in different ways. Be it the cabbage wraps (töltöttkáposzta), the stuffed onions (töltött hagyma) or the variants with paprika (töltött paprika). There are so many varieties for stuffed vegetables. For the töltött paprika, for example, yellow pointed peppers are used.
These are filled with a mixture of minced meat and rice and then slowly braised in a tomato sauce. Of course, everyone has their „original recipe“. You can find mine here: Töltött Paprika.
Cookbooks for Hungarian food
Do you feel like swinging the cooking spoon yourself to cook these and other Hungarian dishes at home? In addition to the Hungarian recipes linked below on my blog, I can also recommend the classic cookbooks that inspire me again and again. For Hungarian cuisine I dared to have a look at the following books:
Conclusion about the Hungarian food in Budapest
I think the delicacies that I have presented to you here will probably not be for everyone. They are rather hearty and quite meaty. But if that doesn’t bother you, you can look forward to a delicious Hungarian specialty in Budapest.
More about Sunday brunch, restaurants and coffee houses in Budapest can be found at Andreas Indigo-Blau. And for the vegetarians and vegans among you, Laura-Lee from Thetravellette has some vegan restaurant tips. So feel free to take a look.
More exciting articles:
- Reisetipps Budapest – A travel guide for the Danube metropolis
- Food in Marrakech – Delicacies from 1001 nights
- What do you eat in Taiwan? – 10 delicacies from Asia
- Food and drink in Vietnam – 12 specialties of Vietnamese cuisine
- Food from Mallorca – Highlights of the Mallorcan kitchen
- Indian food and cooking – from spices to food culture
I hope you have already gotten some appetite. But there are so many other great dishes. What other Hungarian culinary delights do you know? What are your favorite dishes? Feel free to write me a comment.
Hey, we are Pragya and Henrik, the creative minds behind Fernweh Koch. As passionate travelers with a big appetite, we discover the world, always looking for great destinations and delicious food. If you want more information and impressions, please follow us on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Just click on the respective picture below. You can also find Fernweh-Koch at Bloglovin and Flipboard.
+++ Advertising | Affiliate – This article contains affiliate links marked with a *. If you order something over it, you will still pay the normal price. However, I get a small commission from the provider, so I can continue to buy delicious ingredients for my recipes in the future +++
Would you like to remember this article for reading on Pinterest?
Then just click on the picture.
