Special Hungarian Foods
For Real Gourmands

Hungarian Salami. The best brand is Pick. Look for long salami bars, covered with white mould and with red-white-green paper rings (the Hungarian flag) around them. At the Great Market Hall (and in all Budapest Markets) Pick Salamis are nicely hanged at butchers' counters. There are Pick Brand Shops in Budapest: at 9., Kossuth Lajos tér and in Városház utca at No. 14. Both shops are in the V. district.

 

Hungarian paprika: you can buy this red spice in various packagings and in neat gift boxes. Make sure you check whether the apaprika you want to buy is sweet (édesnemes) or hot (erős).

Hungarian wines: the most famous are Tokaji Aszú, a sweet dessert wine and Egri Bikavér (Bool's Blood of Eger), a dry red wine. There are other great but lesser known Hungarian Wines that you should try. Wines from the Villány and Szekszárd region are good alternatives to Egri Bikavér. Our pages about Hungarian Wines help you to make a choice.

If you don't want to buy pig in a poke visit one of the numerous wine shops in Budapest. The staff will help you to choose the wine that suits your taste the best. If you buy wine in a grocery store choose bottles from the mid or upper level shelves, good quality wines are usually placed there. Most of the time the price also indicates the quality of wine.

If a bottle costs around 1000 Ft, you can't go wrong. Of course you can cough up several thousands forints for vintage vines.

Hungarian pálinka-brandy made from delicious Hungarian fruits: the best brands are Kecskeméti barackpálinka, (apricot brandy), Szatmári szilvapálinka (plum brandy), Zwack Vilmoskörte (William's pear brandy). Always look for bottles that have a label with "pálinka" written on it, otherwise you'll end up something awful that's made from pure alcohol with artifical colourings and flavourings.
Price of good quality pálinka. around 2000 HUF/8 €.

Zwack Unicum herb liqeur- one of the best known Hungarian spirit brands, made from more than 40 carefully selected herbs and spices. Have a swig before or after your dinner and it makes your stomach-ache go away. if you don't like the bitter taste of the original Unicum go for the Unicum Next, it has more sweetish taste. A 0,5 l bottle of Unicum or Unicum Next costs around 2000 HUF/8 €.

Honey - sweet, Hungarian honey comes in every shades of the golden. The most popular is acacia honey, but I prefer ordinary blossom honey. It has richer taste and a dark-golden colour. I always buy honey in the market. 

 

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Prunes and other Dried Fruits-Hungarian fruits taste delicious and their dried versions conserve and enhance the flavours of fresh fruits. They make healthy snacks or you can put them in pastries. Vendors sell them by the kilo in the markets.
Price: 1200-1600 HUF/kg 4,75-6,33 €/kg

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Fruit jams: Hungarian fruit jams are also of great quality. Due to the country's favourable climate Hungary produces luscious fruits. We make fine fruit jams of them to preserve their taste and flavor.

Apricot and plum jams are the most popular. Look for bottles where the label says that fruit content is around 40-50 % or above. Peasant vendors in the markets sell excellent quality homemade jams. There's a shop called Lekvárium (fruit jam is lekvár in Hungarian) in Dohány utca 39., VII. district. They sell all sorts of homemade jams and preserves. Their elederflower syrup has divine aroma.

 

Pickels: Hungarians are real experts in making savoury pickels. Gherkins, onions, sweet and chilli peppers, tomatoes, cauliflowers and so on, jammed in spicy, pickled juice.

They're perfect appetizers, but we eat them with meat dishes as a kind of salad. The best places to buy Hungarian pickels are the markets. Vendors sell them by the kilo. You can also get them in bottles in any grocery.

 

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Christmas Bonbon (szaloncukor): it's something you'wont find anywhere else in the world or if you do, than it's for sure that Hungarians brought with them. It is a chocolate-covered candy, wrapped in colourful foils and we hang them on the Christmas tree as decoration. Of course we eat them one buy one, and by the end of the holiday only empty papers hang on the tree.

You can buy szaloncukor only around Christmas time. Every grocery sells it. These special Christmas sweets come in nice boxes or in simple plastic bags. You can choose from a wide range of flavours from rum raisin to butter-scotch and fruit jelly ones.

 

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Budapest Shopping Malls - large, modern shopping centers, that cater for your shopping hunger and entertainment.

Budapest Markets - the best places to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, souvenirs and get a feel of everyday life in Budapest.

Great Market Hall - the largest and most impressive market hall in Budapest.

Gerbeaud Coffee House - try famous delicacies like the Gerbeaud cake in this historic cafe.

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