The Food of Budapest, Hungary

On May 22, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Hungary, Recipes17 Comments

It certainly shouldn’t be surprising that you can find just about any type of cuisine that you would like in a city the size of Budapest. Especially in the tourist areas, you can find restaurants featuring traditional Hungarian dishes, but you are just as likely to find Italian, Asian, Mediterranean, and even Mexican restaurants. It is also not surprising that you can find plenty of American fast food restaurants throughout the city. When it comes to Hungarian food, it is definitely meat and starch (potato/rice) forward and vegetables are almost an afterthought. One of the things that did surprise us were the number of restaurants specializing in burgers that we found everywhere. Not fast food restaurants, but just restaurants that offered many varieties of burgers on their menus.

Beef Tenderloin with Letcho and Fried Potatoes

Goulash soup was probably the most common item that could be found on almost any Hungarian menu, but it is truly a soup and not what most of us think of when we hear the word goulash. You will also find meat stews listed and sometimes it will even be listed as goulash stew. Another common menu item is Chicken Paprikash, which is chicken and cottage cheese noodles covered in a paprika sour cream sauce. Cottage cheese noodles are pretty similar to spätzle. You will find many menu items that feature “letcho”, which is a pepper and tomato stew that can be combined with different proteins or eaten on its own. Another common item that you find as an appetizer is duck liver pate with the local flatbread, very similar to naan.

Needless to say, there are plenty of other choices for Hungarian dishes including boar cheeks with dumplings and lamb soup with duck liver dumplings. There are also Hungarian deserts such as an almond cake, but one of the most famous is probably the chimney cake. We got our chimney cake from a food truck where it was cooked over burning embers. It is then coated with your choice of flavors and we decided on a simple cinnamon sugar. Since burgers were so prevalent, we did decide to get a burger one day and since we like spicy food, we ordered a spicy burger. It turned out to be so spicy that we were barely able to eat it.

With six days in Budapest, we didn’t limit ourselves to just Hungarian food, but also ate some seafood and Italian food as well. In the main tourist areas, you will sometimes find that the restaurants offer a “tourist menu”, which is usually a three course meal focusing on Hungarian dishes. It is probably focused on those tourists that come from the cruise ships that stop in Budapest where the people only have a single day in the city. We found some of the best restaurants tended to be in the Jewish Quarter and we even ate an excellent meal at an Israeli fusion restaurant called Mazel Tov that was recommended to us by several people.

When visiting Budapest, you will certainly have plenty of options of restaurants to choose from. We definitely enjoyed the different meals that we ate and it would be difficult to choose a favorite, but you should certainly try some of the paprika based dishes. All of the restaurants usually had English as well as Hungarian descriptions as well as German sometimes. Many of the tourist restaurants also include picture menus, but we didn’t find those to be necessary. Fortunately we did a lot of walking during our time in Budapest, otherwise all of the heavy meals might have taken their toll on our wastes.

Pastrami Sandwich at the Israeli Fusion Restaurant

Spicy Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Hot

On January 30, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes3 Comments

There are certain places that you travel to where the use of spices is quite abundant. Needless to say, with rare exceptions all food has some sort of spices in it, even if it is just salt and pepper. Some places, though, go way beyond a few common ingredients and use a wide variety of spices in them. We really enjoy eating foods that have a variety of spices and have a sense of being exotic. Clearly it isn’t for everyone and we also enjoy foods that are spicy in the sense of heat as well. Since we try to recreate dishes from places that we travel, here are a few of the spicy dishes that we have previously prepared, in no particular order.

Asian Roasted Duck – Not as complicated as it sounds and truly delicious.
Asian Duck
Spicy Chicken Curry – Definitional a traditional favorite.
Spicy Chicken Curry
Indian Butter Chicken – Cooking it in a slow-cooker makes it tender and flavorful.
Indian Butter Chicken
Tandoori Chicken – An exotic reminder of our trip to India.
Tandoori Chicken and Fried Eggplant
Spaghetti Arrabbiata – One of our favorite meals from, of all places, Frankfurt.
Our Version of Spaghetti Arrabbiata
Lamb Biryani – Well worth the effort and we decided to give it a little bit of heat.
Lamb Biryani over Basmati Rice
Moroccan Chicken – Cooked in a tajine, it is a one pot meal that is perfect for two.
Moroccan Chicken in a Tajine

Delicious Chicken Pot Pies

On December 12, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes4 Comments

Many of us grew up eating the pot pies that you can find in your grocery store’s freezer section, but making your own pot pie is certainly worth the extra effort. As with any food, making it yourself is usually healthier and tastes better. We had a delicious chicken pot pie when we were in Strasbourg and it was rustic and simple. Obviously you can make pot pies with turkey or beef as well, but chicken works out really well. It is a perfect way to use leftovers this holiday season in a way that doesn’t really feel like a leftover. We happen to have a mini-pie maker, which helps, but you don’t have to have one in order to make your own pot pies. You can buy premade pie crusts that are personal size in tin trays and just top with store-bought pie crust. The key to a really good pot pie is the stock that you use, so making a homemade stock is certainly worth the effort. Chicken pot pies are a perfect dinner for a cold winter evening.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Chicken Stock
4 tbsp Unsalted Butter
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1 Egg – egg white only
1/2 cup Carrot – diced
1/2 cup Onion – diced
1/2 cup Celery – diced
1/2 cup Frozen Corn – off of the cob (or peas)
1 cup Russet Potatoes – parboiled and diced
1 cup Cooked Chicken – diced
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1 tsp Dried Rosemary
2 sheets Pie Crust (store-bought) – one package
Salt and Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Be sure to cut the celery, carrots, and onion into equal sized pieces. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter along with the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the celery and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes and then finally add the onions and cook until they are translucent. Remove the vegetables from the pot, leaving any drippings. Add the remaining butter and heat until melted. Add the flour and whisk until it is slightly brown and nutty, do not over cook. Heat the stock in a microwave until hot and then add the stock to the roux, making sure to whisk frequently as pouring it into the pot. Add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper, and continue to heat until it reaches a slight boil. Reduce the heat to low and add the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, corn, and chicken and cook until heated thoroughly and the stock has thickened. Spoon the mixture into the bottom sheet of pie crust (if using store bought pie pans, prick with a fork and partially cook in an oven before adding the mixture). The mixture should be about a quarter of an inch from the top of the crust. Cut the pie crust to fit the top of the pie and place over the mixture being sure to crimp the edges together with a fork or with your fingers. Brush with egg white and cook in the pie maker (or in the oven) for the directed amount of time, 12 to 15 minutes in our case. Let them rest a few minutes before serving.