I figured since there aren’t many photos of Vienna or Budapest, maybe I could just write a few things about the food we’ve had in the last week…
Fried sole with potatoes and chard from Lake Bled, Slovenia. The presentation is remarkable. I’ve only seen this done once before. In Japan, the bones of the fish are served standing up with a long toothpick along side its sashimi. The presentation is odd, but even more so when you realize the body continues to “beat” so you know it’s very fresh.
The sole in this case was well cooked, and tasty. The potatoes and chard were a bit beat up and dry, though.
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Portion sizes in Slovenia are pretty big, along with the layering of different meat and some sort of gravy. This is beef with a layer of ham, and a bunch of gravy, served with fries. This was Mike’s meal, and he said it was good. I have my doubts, though.
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This delicious flaky pastry is called burek. It doesn’t look too appetizing, but believe me, it is good! It’s made with phyllo dough, and can be filled with ground beef, spinach, cheese, apple, etc. It’s greasy and savory (or sweet)– my kind of treat.
It is said to be a Slovenian specialty, but we found it again in Austria. But Google says it’s Turkish.
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This is kremma snezna rezina or cream cake. Sorry for the photo, we weren’t hungry at the time, so we took it to go. It is made of phyllo dough on the top and bottom with layers of vanilla custard and fresh whipped cream. This is a Bled, Slovenia specialty, and, oh, is it special! so delicious.
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This food vendor sells pita, burek, and my new favorite, gozleme. The only difference with the burek and gozleme is the dough. The gozleme can be stuffed with the same kind of fillings as the burek, but the dough is more like roti or a heavy crepe, not made from phyllo dough.
I got the spicy meat gozleme, and it was yummy.
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I always thought goulash was noodle soup with beef. Apparently in Hungary, it’s a little different. Or maybe it was the fact we were at a restaurant called “El Greco” in Budapest. This was a beef broth soup with chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots, and paprika. They also served hot sauce on the side, kind of like the Vietnamese sriracha sauce. Turns out this was one of the best soups I’ve had, and the Greek food we were served was really bad.
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In search of Mike’s relatives in Porva, Hungary we decided the best place to start looking was to go to where people might gather– the local bar. We figured we could speak with people, see if they know the Gartners, and get know Porva. Finding the bar was easy, as there is only one main road, and one bar, and one restaurant, and one grocery store…
This nice barfly(with very few teeth) invited us to sit down next to him. We discussed the Gartners’ or rather pointed to the piece of paper with the family tree drawn out, and he said he knew them. Of course he did, the town only has 600 residents! He spoke to us in German and Hungarian, we gestured back nodding in agreement of whatever he was saying. Then he bought us a shot of Betyar Vegyes. I’m not sure what it was but it tasted like vodka flavored with cassis. Then of course, not to be rude we had to buy him one before departing. It is said that Hungarians like to do shots for just about any reason, and this guy was no exception to the rule.
This was Mike’s last dinner in Hungary. Again–what is it with the layering of meat? It was beef with another layer of meat with mushroom gravy and 13 tater tots. Not my kind of thing, but Mike liked it okay.
The food (and drink) overall has been pretty good with a few exceptions here and there.
