media
Feb 15 '10
Japanese Express Fishy Interest in Secrets of Magyar Pepper Production
It seems that Hungarian peppers really are world-famous. Local media have revealed that a pair of Japanese farmers will soon arrive in the country to attend a week-long intensive survey of pepper-growing down in Szolnok, with the aim being to...
Jul 30 '09
Dry Tokaj Wines Get Sweet Coverage in International Press
Reader F.Sz. points us at this epic story about the growing popularity of quality dry wines from Tokaj that was published last month in the Wall St. Journal, and which we somehow missed at the time. While there is nothing...
Mar 05 '09
Restaurant Critic from UK Telegraph Misses Telegram on Local Restaurant Closings
The UK Telegraph had an upbeat piece yesterday about the "new breed" of high-end restaurants in Budapest, Prague and Bucharest. Included among the four reviews of BP luxury dining spots was this: There's no question of getting unfashionable goulash at...
Feb 06 '09
Mangalica Mania (III): America Goes Hog Wild for High-End Hungarian Pork
With the Mangalica Fesztivál starting today in Budapest, we thought we’d take a look at all of the Mangalica madness happening on the other side of the pond (including some of my own). Having long been a Mangalica fan,...
Dec 22 '08
The Babel About Budapest (II): Blog Blab Mixed on Babel Delikát
Regular readers may have noticed a flurry of recent comments on this site from folks who claim I and my co-authors don't know anything about food, and are thus unqualified to review restaurants. (You can "enjoy" some of the...
Dec 22 '08
The Babel About Budapest (I): Is the Hungarian Capital Really the Cheapest in Europe?
Posting has recently been light, in part because we've felt a little too poor to go out. But maybe we shouldn't be! According to this recent post on cafebabel.com - which bills itself as "The European Magazine" - a night...
Nov 11 '08
Dream of World's Tallest Túrós Palacsinta Ends in Tasty Failure
An attempt to make the world's tallest túrós palacsinta tower has failed. The effort was spurred by users of the unusual community website Mr. Noproblem, who submit wishes to the site (e.g. "I want to spend a weekend in Miami")...
Nov 06 '08
Near Miss in Int'l Design Battle May Re-Ignite Tom-George "Clone Wars"
Via ingatlanmenedzser.hu we hear that the king of Budapest's high-design "eat and be seen" dining scene - Tom-George - recently made the semi-finals in a prestigious international competition in Barcelona. Unfortunately, the challenge in the Catalonian capital wasn't a...
Oct 31 '08
All Hell Breaks Loose as McDonalds Hungary Goes "McMagyar"
Believe it or not, the really big news in Hungarian cuisine this week involves none other than McDonald's, which on Tuesday launched a new promotion as part of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of Hungary's...
Oct 29 '08
A Critical Look at the First Critical Hungarian-Language Restaurant Guide
We know, we know. We're late again bringing you our take on an important development in the Hungarian restaurant scene. The Étterem és bor kalauz (Restaurant and Wine Guide), published by Alexandra press and written by Tamás Molnár B. and...
Oct 02 '08
Hungary "Mostly Free" of Tainted Chinese Milk Powder
Examinations are underway to determine whether a Chinese candy known as white rabbit, which was marketed in Budapest, contained milk powder contaminated with melamine, a substance harmful to the kidneys. According to Origo.hu, the Chinese manufacturer of the candy announced...
Sep 30 '08
Companies See Green in Plan to Get Hungarians to Eat their Veggies
It's no secret that, for people who inhabit a country rich in all kinds of agriculture, Hungarians don't eat their fair share of fruits and vegetables. In fact, according to the latest statistics, the average Hungarian eats fewer than 400...
Sep 01 '08
Hungary's Most Predictably Boring Wine Award Awarded
Wine buffs in the English-speaking world often refer to unexpectedly great bottles as "sleepers." But the other, more traditional use of the word "sleep" might be better employed to describe my reaction to the oh-so-predictable announcement last week that Vylyan...
Jul 03 '08
Visit Hungary and Die of a Heart Attack and Alcohol Poisoning
Someone recently passed along the above video about Hungarian food and wine, which was apparently produced by some independent video production company for use by travel-related websites. While my tipster seemed mostly concerned by the fact that the thing...
May 27 '08
Anniversary "McMadness" Reignites Budapest Burgerwar
As we reported last Friday, global burger giant McDonald's picked today to stage a giant sale to celebrate its 20th anniversary in Hungary, offering Big Macs for the 1988 price of just 43 HUFs, which thanks to two decades...
Apr 28 '08
Premium Free-Range Beef Cattle Now Available Locally in Budapest
The somewhat bizarre but interesting video above showcases a recent "promotional tour" of Budapest by a pack of szürkemarha, organized by something called the Magyar Szürke Projekt ("Hungary Gray Project"). Among other things, (Hungarian-speaking) viewers learn that the country's...
Feb 22 '08
Great Italian Restaurant Tops Not-so-Great Hungarian "Best of" Restaurant List
Longtime readers will know that we don't give much space to the endless "best of" restaurant lists churned out in Hungary, for the simple reason that most are nothing more than shameless, "pay-for-play" PR stunts. But sometimes the results...
Feb 15 '08
If You are Going to Eat Boring, Characterless Cheese, it Might as Well be the Best Boring, Characterless Cheese
The plain white cheese known as Trappista is considered by many to be flavorless and boring, yet it is Hungary's most popular form of sajt, to the point that Wikipedia simply calls it a "traditional Hungarian" cheese. So when we...
Jan 30 '08
Thanks, But We'll Have the Fish Instead
The ongoing saga involving shady companies in Hungary being busted for selling rotten meat and other past-date-of-sale product has reached its logical Euro-conclusion, in a giant piece of conceptual art. A billboard of the poster pictured above is currently...
Jan 29 '08
Tokaj Almost as Exciting a Tourist Destination as... Detroit
Okay, so we were trying to ignore this, but since several readers have sent it in, here we go: according to a "best of" piece published in the travel section of the New York Times last month, the famed Hungarian...
Dec 17 '07
Hungarian Tube Meats Honored by EU, Scorned by Hungry Locals
We've got two pieces of interesting news relating to processed meat from Hungary, one good, and one bad. Since we're traditionalists, we'll start with the bad. According to a report late last week in daily Magyar Hírlap, leading Salami...
Oct 15 '07
Giving Hungarian Food a Good Name in Barberton, Ohio
There are few Hungarian restaurants outside of Hungary and the Hungarian-speaking parts of nearby countries, and when you do hear anything about these restaurants, it's hardly ever good. Instead, they almost always seem to give Hungarian cuisine a bad...
Sep 18 '07
Service Blog Snaps at Csalogány 26, Unbeatable Lunch Special Bites Back
The last time we checked in with Csalogány 26 we were worried that the very promising Hungarian/International restaurant would not stay long on the "Top 33" because of a lack of patrons. Now, however, there is a different concern....
Sep 17 '07
Small Hungarian Grocery Chains Choose God Over Customers
As reported over at Caboodle, some Hungarian grocery chains would prefer to stay closed on Sundays. This of course is in relation to the proposal by the Christian Democrats that Sundays remain a day of rest for all those working...
Sep 03 '07
Hungarian Education Ministry Offers Troubling Cooking Lesson to Budapest Commuters
Taking the metro to work this morning in Budapest, our typical pre-breakfast trance was broken by a poster of the above picture by Hungarian photographer Anna Fabricius, plastered on the wall of various subway cars courtesy of the culture...
Aug 30 '07
Adorable Hungarian Organic Goats Revealed to be More Dangerous than Terrifying Foreign Food Additive
We haven't mentioned it until today, but over the last month Hungary has been in the throes of a near-panic over reports that numerous food products sold in the country were unsafe due to trace elements of cancer-causing dioxin...
Aug 28 '07
Study Underscores Hungarians' Unusual Taste in Pasta
Hungarian "consumer protection" magazine Kosár ("shopping cart") recently published the results of an interesting test comparing some of the various brands of pasta commonly available on the shelves of domestic retailers. According to a summary of the finding on marketinginfo.hu,...
Aug 24 '07
Poultry Processor Chickens Out After Tasteless Ad Bombs
Executives of a Hungarian poultry processor and their public relations advisors have been busy this week dealing with the fallout of an ad campaign that is tasteless even by the country's pretty loose standards. According to portal hirszerzo.hu, Zala...
Aug 22 '07
Budapest Bread Festival Threatened by Brewing Peasant Price Riots
We somehow forgot to give you advance notice about this year's annual "Bread Festival," which took place on Monday, alongside much other traditional August 20th holiday merriment. But maybe we were doing you a favor. Because if you had...
Jul 10 '07
Hungarian Culinary Crisis (III): The Chew.hu Manifesto
Several weeks ago, when we published a translation of the so-called "Culinary Charter" addressing the alleged crisis in Hungarian dining and culinary culture, we promised to publish our own thoughts on the matter in "a few days." Well, it took...
Jul 10 '07
Hungarian Culinary Crisis (II): More Wisdom from the Experts
Below is a follow-up to an earlier post of a translation of the so-called "Culinary Charter" signed by dozens of Hungarian culinary figures decrying what they see as a crisis in Hungarian dining and food culture, and how to address...
Jun 24 '07
Hungarian Culinary Crisis (I): An Open Letter from the Experts
Is Hungarian cuisine and culinary culture in crisis? According to some members of the country's culinary elite, the answer is yes. Following is a (mostly) unabridged translation of an "open letter" signed by almost 100 leading members of the Hungarian...
May 02 '07
Booze News (II): Hungarian Competitors Come First, Last in "Battle of the Breezers"
In addition to all the wine, beer and hard liquor that Hungarians power through, there is also a growing market for what are officially known as szénsavas, alkoholtartalmú frissítőitalok ("carbonated, alcoholic refreshing drinks"). We say "officially," because there seem...
Apr 24 '07
International Obesity Experts to Pig Out Tonight in Domonyvölgy
If you've noticed a larger than normal volume of stories in the international press about the problem of obesity over the last few days, the reason may be the 15th European Congress on Obesity, which is currently underway in...
Apr 06 '07
Hungarian Ham-Makers Decry Growing Demand for Mystery "Easter Meat"
As we head into this Easter weekend, it's only appropriate to finish up with a little ham-related news. (Monday is a holiday in Hungary, unlike in some other parts of the world, while ham, not lamb, is the hús traditionally...
Mar 20 '07
Zwack Unicum Launches Moustache Blitz Across America
Unicum, Hungary's bitter-sweet herbal liquor, may not be to everyone's taste (in fact Peter Zwack says the secret is to get people to try it a second time), but it seems to be causing a buzz in the US....
Mar 13 '07
Owner of Super-Mellow Budapest Hippie Café Not So Mellow
Always amusing consumer blog Tékozló Homár has recently developed into an entertaining forum for shouting matches between disappointed diners and defensive restaurateurs, but the latest exchange is the funniest yet. The restaurant in question is the Darshan Udvar, a...
Dec 05 '06
Some Sweet News and Not-So-Sweet News About Royal Tokaji
Even in the world of wine, news is seldom all good or bad, and today's item about leading Hungarian sweet wine producer Royal Tokaji is no different. Following tradition, we'll give the bad news first. We've just heard news...
Nov 24 '06
Giving Thanks for America's Embrace of Hungarian Food
So yesterday was Thanksgiving, the day most Americans set aside to give thanks for their good fortune, mostly in the form of giant stuffed turkeys and other traditional fare. But over the past couple of weeks we've happened upon several...
Oct 24 '06
Book by Top Hungarian Food Critics Called Unfit For Consumption
In a country dominated by dine-like-a-king-and-not-pay restaurant reviews, the "Wittman Brothers" were some of very few critics who lived up to the name. The pair routinely panned poor restaurants in the column in daily broadsheet Népszabadság, and as a result...
