Hungary: Fatty Foods and Friendly SERVAS

I love street food, the greasier the better, and the food we found in the square in Heviz, Hungary, met all my requirements—and then some. Thick sausages, spare ribs with a shameless layer of fat, shish kabob with cubes of meat sandwiching sausage and bacon and crispy onions shiny with grease. Then there’s the fish, breaded and fried, and pickles, sauerkraut (not nearly as sour as ours), and a mixture of onions and peppers simmering in large round paella pans. A glass of wine will wash it down before dessert: a pancake/crepe, with your choice of fillings; jam, chocolate, cinnamon, Nutella.

We’d just arrived in Hungary at Lake Balaton by train from Slovenia, our bikes in tow, then immediately pedaled over to Heviz (point A on map) to stretch our legs. We grazed a bit at that first market, but it was just feast for the eyes. Our main aim at Heviz was its lake, where we’d come to soak in the healing waters of its thermal lake. Didn’t want to be too weighed down for that.

For centuries people have used the lake and its mineral water for curative purposes, and before that for tanning hides. In 1795 a count developed it as a private resort, and it has remained as such ever since. The spa buildings are constructed on stilts out in the middle of the lake, with connecting bridges. The lake is filled with people floating or leaning on colorful circles of Styrofoam, among purple flowered lily pads, while an occasional duck passes by. We floated for two hours then climbed back ashore and onto our bikes and rode back to Lake Balaton (point B on map) a few miles away.

Lake Balaton, known as the “Hungarian Sea,” is in a whole other category from the sweet little lake at Heviz since Balaton is the largest lake in central Europe and quite an asset to the tourist industry in this landlocked country. The lake is 48 miles long though less than 9 miles wide, but its most defining feature is the fact that it’s very shallow, making it idea for use as a beach and especially attractive to families. Budapest is about 50 miles northeast of the upper reaches of the lake, so Balaton is a natural escape destination from the city.

Miklos comes here with his family. Miklos is a member of SERVAS, an organization that matches travelers (e.g. my husband and me) with people who will host them (e.g. Miklos and family) and provide a place to stay, a meal, and/or a day or so of sightseeing. SERVAS was founded as an effort towards world peace—getting to know your neighbors as the first step towards international understanding.

We’d learned about SERVAS two years earlier when we met a man at a street corner in our own town of New Hope, Pennyslvania. He was stopped on the side of the road with his bicycle loaded down with panniers. Recognizing a fellow bike traveler and a kindred spirit, we stopped to ask if he needed any help. His name was Bob Thomason. He was 78 years old. Before long we offered him a place to stay, which he gladly accepted. When we saw him again two years later he told us that he was still riding his bike in one country or another up to five months a year. He’d been to Japan, Thailand, Germany, China, and a myriad of other places. He also had lots of stories to tell about his life in the U.S.. In the early 60’s he bought a house in an African-American neighborhood, becoming very involved in the community and the civil rights movement. Ironically, his daughters, the only two white children in the neighborhood, were bussed along with their neighbors to a “white” school. SERVAS, it turns out, can teach you not only about other countries but about your own country as well.

Miklos was our first host in Hungary. He, his wife and two teenaged sons gave up a day of their vacation to show us around the lake by bicycle. We ate our first sit-down restaurant Hungarian meal with them, in what we would call a cafeteria but that’s called here a “buffet.” That buffet had a nice assortment of hot dishes in steam pans, but the following day when we next went looking for a buffet on our own we were surprised to discover that that first one was actually top of the line; most buffets are actually fast food joints or hot dog stands serving a limited menu of fried food: fried fish, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Further investigation revealed that Hungarian buffets always have my favorite fried food, langos.

A langos is a round piece of dough which is fried in deep fat, then topped with something completely unhealthy. My favorite is slathered in garlic butter. Some were topped with "Hungarian sauce," a tomato based sauce with beans and slices of hot dog in it, but most people appear to get theirs with garlic butter, a mound of grated cheese, and sour cream: heart attack on a paper plate. Costing just a couple of U.S. dollars, langos became our mainstay meal in Hungary. It’s a good thing we were only there for two weeks! Although I loved the food in Hungary, it really wasn't very good for us—at least what we chose to eat wasn’t.

In Budapest (point C on map) we had one of our best meals. It was "just a little something scraped up" with apologies from the first of our two SERVAS hosts in the capital. After a week on Lake Balaton, spent swimming, sightseeing, and celebrating the anniversary of Hungary's statehood, I sent an email asking for SERVAS accommodation in Budapest and quickly received a welcoming reply.

But then a few days later I received an email in my box saying "better not come now, my wife and I are splitting up." Two days later, another email: "All is fine." We arrived at the door with trepidation. But all WAS well, and we had a lovely stay with a couple and their 6-month-old baby, who was learning three languages; Hungarian from her mom, English as the common language between her parents, and French from her father. That also explains the quality of the meal; only a Frenchman could whip up a meal like that at a moment’s notice. We cooed at the lovely baby, enjoyed late night discussions about politics, travel and culture, and in the morning they sent us off to Budapest with a list of where to go and what to see.

We stopped first at the immense train station designed by Gustave Eiffel of tower fame, with a vaulted ceiling and wall of glass, to pick up our friend Howard, our sidekick for the weekend. Our next stop, the exotic Rudas Turkish Bath. Budapest is well known for its curative waters, but the Rudas Bath is unique. The oldest in Budapest, it was built in the 16th century, whereas most of the other baths were built in the 18th. Shafts of colored light from a domed ceiling pierce the dark room and light up spots of water in the central pool. There are four other pools of different temperatures tucked into corners. Unique for Hungary, but also unlike the baths you find in Turkey. In Istanbul, for example, the baths typically have simple fountains and tubs where one pours water over oneself. Here you can lounge in the pool, stopping under a fountain for a dose of falling water.

Later we visited other baths, including the Szechenyi Baths, where there were dozens of pools, including a large outdoor one with whirlpools on the floor that people stand over for a massage, looking like bubbling chess pieces all lined up in a row. In the same pool a circular wall contains jets that push laughing children around in circles. One evening we took a boat ride on the wide Danube River, where we marveled at the lights of bridges and buildings, especially the magnificent Parliament building, reflected in the water. From the river, we first saw the brilliantly lit statue of lady liberty, a woman positioned in a graceful arc high above the city on its tallest hill.

I've never seen a city with so many statues as Budapest, some of them quite unlikely, like the bronze statue of George Washington in the city park. The Parliament building, where stone lions guard the entrance, is filled with exquisitely carved wooden people. Two men dressed only in their muscles hold up the portico of a building; cheerful cherubs ride a bizarre concrete sea creature; a row of horses gallop across the roof of Neprai Museum; grumpy faces looked down on us from their perches above the front doors of people's homes. Stone faces peer at you from every building. One building might have a hundred statues. There's Neptune standing with his forked spear atop a gazebo on Margaret Island. In the Japanese Garden there’s a naked boy stands ready to catch one of the living goldfish in a pool, while a slender young woman contemplates the lily pads. There’s even a park whose total reason for being is statuary; after the cold war, scores of Soviet era statues were pulled down, and dumped just outside the city. Now you can pay admission to go see them.

We traveled to other sights via the subway whose first line was built in 1896, making it the first in continental Europe. The Paris metro opened until 1900. London had already been fiddling with their underground for several decades by then.

Despite its age, the Budapest subway is so pristine that it looks like a replica. Its white tile, bright and un-defaced, trimmed with red, stands out brightly against the dark wood walls, cabinetry and cashier booths. I snapped pictures as we whizzed by each station on our way to visit places like the stunning Academy of Music and the Dohany Street Synagogue, which survived WWII because the Germans used it as a base for German radio.

Immense Hero’s Square and its impressive Millennium Monument pays homage with its statues to older wars, but also to peace, labor, wealth, and knowledge. Beyond it is the entrance to the city park, with its castle and lake. One night we heard music in the distance and followed it to find a live traditional band where a woman played the melody on a long wooden flute for people who were folk dancing. This was familiar to us; we do folk dancing at home. We watched, hoping to join in, but the steps were too fast and complicated for us to pick up on the spot. We considered joining the people we saw dancing the Argentine tango on the steps of the art museum, but finally just danced on the street to some 60's music pouring out of a bar.

Gypsy music is what we were looking for when we went for dinner at the restaurant Thiokoly, where two musicians played traditional Hungarian tunes every night. One played his ancient instrument at our table, and, learning we are American, switched to American tunes in an effort to please us—“Memories” from Cats and some Elvis tunes. We suffered in silence until joined by another SERVAS host, Andras and his wife Tatiana. At the end of the meal they were pleasantly surprised when Miklos, our Balaton host, in town for the night, joined us. They had met once before, and Miklos spoke to Tatiania in her native tongue, Russian, one of the six languages Miklos knows. Hearing Russian being spoken, the musicians immediately started playing a Russian song. And Tatiania was just telling us how sick she was of hearing “Kalinka” because that is what is played for her all the time, when sure enough they launched it then and there.

On our host's suggestion, we visited the marketplace, where in addition to tables of fruit and vegetables, artisans sold delicate hand painted eggs and brightly painted wooden dolls that nested inside other wooden dolls, each one smaller and smaller. Brightly embroidered table covers and little dresses for girls hung behind women who pulled them down for us to take a closer look. The basement held interesting cases filled with coleslaw, pickles, sour tomatoes and peppers, some stuffed with garlic or cabbage. Each vendor stood before shelves of glass jars filled with different kinds of pickles. It was an entire city block of pickles!

But when we at last reached the top floor of the market I was in heaven! Here was wonderful prepared food; sausages in sauerkraut, chicken legs wrapped in bacon, Hungarian stews, and big pans of potatoes. All of those wonderfully greasy foods that I’d come to love in Hungary, plus stands offering dozens of different beers to choose from to wash it down, and pancakes, both sweet and savory, and my favorite, langos, with every imaginable topping. I ate mine slathered in garlic butter.

© 2009, Judy Kashoff

For further information visit the following websites

Hungary Tourist Office in the US
www.gotohungary.com

Hungarian Tourist Office in the UK
www.gotohungary.co.uk

Hungarian Tourist Office in France
www.hongrietourisme.com

Balaton Regional Tourist Information
www.balaton-tourism.hu/public/balaton.php?language=2
 

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