Gulyás - Hungarian Goulash

I think just about everybody has a memory of their school's version of goulash, I certainly do. It usually involved hamburger, macaroni and tinned tomatoes, possibly an onion or two. Traditional Hungarian goulash cooked by a traditional Hungarian!

I had my understanding of goulash gently corrected by my Hungarian friends the last evening of my stay in Budapest. Incidentally goulash - (to pronounce it in Hungarian, I think it is similar to English but one omits the "L" sound) is the word for herdsman or cattleman. It is a dish that was cooked outdoors by cattlemen, similar to the origins of American chili.

Last year when I visited Budapest there was some sort of May Day celebration in the centre of the city. It involved a goulash contest where large groups of people wearing team t-shirts slaved over an open fire that had a beautiful cauldron (bogrács) suspended over it by a large metal tripod. I was told that this was a goulash contest. It reminded me so much of a chili cook-off as they have in Texas. Indeed each cauldron had some sort of soup bubbling away in it. I was informed that this soup was none other than goulash and cooking it over the fire was the most traditional way to prepare it. So, proper Hungarian goulash is soup and not the casserole style dishes I was served throughout my childhood.A fire was lit in a front garden and proper goulash making started.


I get hungry just looking at this clip!

Tough bits of meat are made tender by the long cooking process. Indeed, my friend The Hungarian wished for longer to simmer his creation but time was not on his side.

The meat is browned first. Then onions, possibly garlic is then added . . . and then you start getting into the rest of the soup ingredients. The recipes are varied but goulash always includes but is not limited to meat, potatoes, paprika, peppers. This is when the peppers were added. Potatoes in this version were added last.

Incidentally traditional Hungarian goulash does not contain any tomatoes. It gets is wonderful red colour from the copious amounts of paprika that is thrown in. If you are wearing white, be careful as goulash splatters will be hard to get out later if you're a sloppy eater!We helped keep The Hungarian company by sitting outside in the beautiful evening air and sipping wine that was purchased earlier in the week.

I must say that the end result was sublime! It was served with big slabs of bread. Food cooked outdoors always tastes good but this was above and beyond better. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of the bowls at the table later on. My dear friends are so generous and though the goulash was delicious, I am ashamed to say that I could not finish the portion that was given to me.

Széchenyi Baths

I don't understand why Hungary isn't a more popular holiday destination. It has just about everything going for it. It has great currency with mustachioed kings on it! It has beautiful architecture, wonderful local foods served in generous portions, wine regions, nature AND because it used to be part of the old Ottoman Empire and there are thermal springs in Budapest, they have the baths!!
If I lived in Budapest, I'd have a lifetime membership to THIS PLACE!
The front desk

My pal Jo joined me on my trip to Budapest this year and the way the planning went this time around we got an entire day to play at the baths.We got there very early and immediately upon checking in we went up to the sports massage desk to book our massages. I'm glad we were early. There were two openings right away. Jo went first and then me.There are the private changing rooms with their enamel doors and more of that old world charm that seems to be as integral as the grout between the thousands of tiles.
Then there are the lockers which are less expensive and not quite so private. We went for lockers.
Our lockers

Last year I was comforted to note that this place is scrupulously clean. It still is. There wasn't a bit of dirt anywhere! In any forgotten corner there was an absence of the detritus that can usually be found there. With all the warm water and bathers, one would expect the occasional musty or damp smell but this wasn't there either.
The cold pool for laps - with statues

There are three large outdoor pools. Each pool is a different temperature. There is the cold pool in the centre where laps and serious athletic swimming occurs. There is this pool which is the warmest at 38 C. Famous photographs of old chess players are taken at the edges of this pool. Indeed the day we were there we saw at least two chess games going.
There was also a card game being played by these gentlemen. By the depth of colour on their skin, one can assume that they are regulars here. The cards were particularly interesting. The cards looked almost like a tarot deck. I have no Hungarian so I couldn't ask them if I could have a closer look at the cards. As it was, I mimed a request for permission to take their photograph.We had a glorious May day with barely a breeze and undiluted sunshine. After having been pummeled during our massages, soaked in the warm water and indulging in some serious people watching we got thirsty. For a mere 300 Hungarian forints, you can have beer. Nice beer too.
We had lunch on this terrace.OK, so with health inducing surroundings such as this, one would expect different food but sometimes you just want chips (french fries). Washed down with more beer, I felt completely relaxed!

After lunch we investigated the almost dozen rooms on the opposite side of the complex to the changing rooms.There is this room with exquisite red pillars surrounding the warm water pool.

There are pools with varying degrees of warmth from freezing cold plunge pool, 18C to very warm 40C. There is this pool that has a current. It reminds me of those pools that are used for therapy for injured race horses.
Of course there are saunas as well. There was the aromatherapy sauna that smelled of Olbas oil and this Finnish sauna that was the hottest one in the complex.We had a full and completely relaxing day. At the end of our day, we waited for our hosts in one of the temporary cafes and had . . . another beer!

Degenfeld Wines and Hotel

We had a lunch on the terrace at Hotel Tokaj with a marvelous view of the river. There were hundreds of song birds singing and lots of martins and swallows zipping through the air. A swallow on the beams on the terrace.

The menu was fantastic and not over priced. They have many delicious local dishes and specialize in fish.
Stunning ancient acacia tree on the grounds to the front.

We then went on to our next stop Gróf Degenfeld. The wine production is directly behind the manor house which has been converted to a fine and luxurious hotel. My friends had booked an appointment for the delux wine tasting on line. Although there was a mix-up with the on-line booking, we were seated in a comfortable and opulent front room with views to the manicured grounds and made very comfortable.This man (possibly the head waiter) spent a great deal of time discussing the wines on offer during the tasting. The presentation was entirely in Hungarian, but thankfully I was with two people who speak fluent Hungarian and English. They were perfect translators! At one point in the proceedings, the general manager of the hotel came through and introduced himself and hoped we were enjoying the wines.This establishment produces a marvelous white Muscat wine (Gróf Degenfeld Muscat Lunel). It is semi-sweet and smells of elderflowers. I just love it.
Half way throught the wine tasting the chef came through with a plate piled high with just-out-of-the-oven pastries. They were made with puff pastry and filled with local plum jam. At first, the pastries were a bit too hot and we had to blow on them a bit. We were greedy and couldn't wait for them to cool. The pastries were as luxurious as our surroundings!

Again, I could not buy any wines as I was restricted by airline regulations. Fortunately for me, once I was through security and waiting to board my flight, I discovered they sell Gróf Degenfeld Muscat Lunel at duty free!!! I was able to take a bottle home to share with The Man of the Place.

Boutique Wines in Hungary

I like wine and I love good wine. As I have always lived far from anywhere that could be considered a serious wine producing region, I never clapped eyes on an actual vineyard until I was almost 40 years old. When I get the chance to actually visit a vineyard and talk to the producers I try to be cool and worldly but in reality I still feel like Charlie Bucket and I’ve just walked through the gates of the Wonka factory. I try to manage my wide eyed enthusiasm, but after ten minutes of wine tasting anybody worth their salt as a salesperson can spot me as the novice.

After a holiday near Bordeaux, The Man of the Place and I became insufferable wine experts. Hey, we had visited three chateaux!! One can tell when a wine producing area has been entered, they don’t bother with fences. A fence takes up valuable space that could hold another entire row of precious vines. The vines quite often come right up to the road. Wine regions are also the cleanest places I’ve ever seen. There is never ever a single weed.

My dear friends who have much more experience and knowledge of the wines of the Tokaj region planned out an entire day of wine tasting. This included finding somebody to drive us there so that we could all be full participants in the wine tasting activities!

For those who don’t know, Hungary is home to no less than 22 different wine producing regions (according to Wikipedia) when I visited the House of Hungarian Wines last year, they said there were 14 separate regions. To be sure, the wine regions and the vineyards themselves do not match the scale or volume of production found in Bordeaux, Stellenbosch or Napa Valley but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in quality and old world charm.

Hungary makes gorgeous, drinkable wines and two are quite famous. Egri Bikavér or Bull’s Blood a dark red wine with a colourful past from the Eger region and Tokaj or Tokay (pronounced TOKE-eye) the King of Wines and the Wine of Kings from the Tokaj region which is made from grapes that have botrytis or noble rot.

The conditions in the Tokaj region in the foothills of the Zemplén mountains are perfect with its volcanic soil and the long Indian summers for the formation of botrytis on the late harvest Formint grapes.

As I was familiar with Tokaj wine and wanted to know more about it, I implored my friends to fix it for me to visit during my brief stay. I must say that I didn’t have to twist any arms. They were keen to go there as well and arranged and booked three wine tasting sessions on a full and glorious day in May.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was warm without being oppressive and I saw storks for the first time. The small picturesque towns and villages still hold nesting sites for these large birds. Like in the children’s stories and fairy tales the storks have nests on chimneys. Less poetically, they also have nests on street light posts and power line poles. I had never seen them before and my indulgent pals stopped the car more than once so I could take photos.

The first place we went for wine tasting was out of this world. We were met by Istvan Balasso a small wine producer in the centre of town and we followed him to one of the cutest, tidiest little houses near the edge of town. Naturally, this house had its resident stork, tending her eggs while the male stork soared around looking for frogs and fish.

We followed our host to a large room at the back of the house that had been turned over to the serious business of wine tasting. The house had thick stone walls that had a fresh coat of white paint, high ceilings with polished beams.

He told us that we would taste five of his wines, two dry wines and three sweet wines. He then got the wines out of the cooler and started uncorking ….

His vineyard is run by just him and his wife. The runs are small – he produces up to 700 bottles of any one kind of wine. Even fewer bottles of the sweet wines are made. If you follow the link to the website, you will read that the first year he was in production; the vines were attacked by hungry starlings. Up until now, starlings were one of my favourite birds of all time. They make spectacular displays on winter evenings as the sun sets. Now that I know they are grape stealing thieves, I like them a little less.

Istvan Balassa could very well be the very embodiment of everything a boutique wine producer should be. A dynamic young winemaker who uses traditional Hungarian wine varieties to make small batches of gorgeous wine and has a web site! As we worked through the fruits of his labour, I knew we were being traded up by an expert. By the time we got to the last bottle, the Zéta Mézes Mály I was caught. The 2006 production of this particular wine was sold out and he had the 2007 almost ready to go but hadn’t put the labels on it yet. I had consumed a couple of glasses of delicious wine, the charming wine maker was tanned and ever so slightly gorgeous and I felt I could not leave the country without a couple of cases of this wine. But there were two factors that kept me from doing that. 1. I had taken a Ryanair flight from Prestwick to Budapest and could not take any of the wine on board. The other factor was the price. We have to get a new water tank here at the house and The Man of the Place wouldn’t be over pleased if I dropped a couple of hundred pounds on wine while I’m away on a holiday. I bought two label-less bottles (See? I showed restraint!). They will be with me in July when my friends visit.

Aside from the bottle of 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszú wine that Tesco carries (God bless them for that!!) I am astounded that these delicious wines are not available in Scotland. There isn’t a single wine merchant in Scotland that carries Hungarian wines. I’ve checked!

Little toad hiding from the storks in the cellar.

Back to Budapest!

I have just settled back home after spending a lovely three days in what is fast becoming a favourite place for me, Hungary! Last year was the first time I had ever been there and this year on my second visit, I found my love of the place deepening.

As I was there for only a short period of time, we were very busy! When I was invited back to visit my dear friends I said that there were three things I hoped would happen. I wanted to:
1. Visit Tokaj region of Hungary where the excellent Tokaj wine is made.
2. Return to the Szechenyi Baths in Budapest
3. Have some traditional goulash as we had seen being made over an open fire in a cauldron suspended by a tripod frame.

My dear friends managed to help me get all three of those things squeezed into the brief stay!

On the way from the airport to where we were staying there was a stop for cake! I love these guys! They have their priorities in the right place!We ate these lovely cakes outside in the shade on a perfect, warm spring day.
To add to the celebrations, when we got there a rare and beautiful bottle of Tokaj wine was opened (bottle number 192 of a mere 700 bottles that were produced that year from that particular producer) and sipped in the garden. We walked around picking cherries off the a tree, nibbling on some peas and listening to crickets and woodpeckers. You can see the acacia blossoms were starting to fall. They littered the place like confetti. The air was still perfumed with their sweet perfume.
From left to right, Chameleon, The Hungarian, Jo and Me! This picture was taken Sunday evening. We had again gone to the excellent Szephalom Vendeglo - always worth a visit too see what is being served up. In addition to the regular menu, this restaurant dedicates a section of the menu to what is in season so that the chef can take advantage of the best of what Hungary has available that month. Raspberry Fanta? It certainly isn't available HERE!


Next time - Tokaj, One of the most famous wine producing regions in Hungary.

The Journey Continues

A friend of mine and her charming husband have purchased a new house. In the spring they are going to be hosting a nice big house warming party and have invited me! So, at the end of April, I am going to Budapest, Hungary for four days! Woo hoo! I can't wait to see my friend and I am very excited about going to Hungary for the first time.Castle Buda, overlooking the Danube.

When looking into flights to Budapest, I was delighted to discover that Ryanair have a flight from Prestwick (near Glasgow) straight into Budapest airport! Lucky me! Ryanair is a budget airline out of Ireland and have settled into small used airports near big European cities and offering very low prices. To keep the prices low in the face of all the costs of fuel going way up, they've started charging £18 per piece of luggage. I seriously considered going carry on only for this trip, but then thought that four days was "luggage worthy". As I am taking a small case, I'll be able to bring my trusty binoculars in the hope of spotting some birds I don't normally see.
I hope that we'll be able to do a bit of sight seeing while I'm there. I'd love to visit a spa in Budapest. Budapest is famous for its Turkish styled spas. I can think of no nicer way to get rid of a hangover than to float around in warm eggy smelling water with my friends.

Sadly The Man of the Place will not be joining me. He has some other functions later on in the year and wants to save his travel time for those. I am comforted by the fact that I won't be traveling all by myself. Friend and fellow blogger Gordon and his lovely wife Louise have been invited and they're going as well! We have made plans to check in at the same time so that we have seats together.

I am not familiar with the wines of Hungary. Looking on line, I have discovered that there are no less than 17 different wine regions in Hungary! I'm hoping to become better acquainted with the local produce. In fact, other than the spas, wine and some vague notions of goulash, I don't know much about this country.

I'm not going until the end of April, so I have time to learn how to say yes, no and count to ten in Hungarian.