Over the Christmas and New Year period of 2012 a group of us Kiwi Expats descended upon Prague in the Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary for the festive celebrations.
Amongst the excitement of embracing these two European cities for the magnificent architecture, culture and history, (and to be away from work for ten days!) I was certainly eager to see what each country's cuisines would have on offer.
Both countries cuisines involved a lot of pork, stews, sausages, dumplings, and cabbage. We devoured two traditional Czech meals when in Prague, plus various treats from the local Christmas markets. Our first meal consisted of plenty of meat and a varied range of potato / bread / doughy-like dumplings. These dumplings were much larger than I had experienced before (compared to those in Poland) and were very stodgy and did not come with a gravy or sauce much to Adam's disappointment. Others came with different fillings and looked more-so like cakes rather than traditional 'dumplings'.
As mentioned previously pork took up a lot of the menu.... Pork knuckles, pork schnitzel, pork tenderloins, pork stew and so forth. Three of our team members gorged into the pork knuckles which in each plateful there was enough for two or more. These knuckles came bone still in-tact and with assorted condiments, chili (which got the better of Newdick) gherkins, and cabbage and peppers. The first night we ate out in Prague I tried one of the weirdest flavour combinations I would have thought possible; pork tenderloins stuffed with smoked salmon on a bed of spinach in a blue cheese sauce. Whilst the waiters were too busy providing enough beers to cater for the table they managed to forget the blue cheese sauce for my meal. After almost finishing my plateful one of the waiter's finally realised what we were asking for and brought the sauce over. The interesting mix of flavours of this dish really worked well together. The salmon complimented the pork and the blue cheese sauce moistened each mouthful, it really was a surprisingly tasty dish!
Speaking of Christmas Markets this must bring me to discuss Budapest! They had hands down the best food options at the Markets in the Vörösmarty Square. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I love a market atmosphere, people wandering around, tasting what is on offer, lines of people waiting to get their hands on some of the best snacks cooked before your eyes, it just presents some of the fun of take away food. Especially when its crispy cold outside and you settle into a nice warm stew followed by some hot wine whilst you are bundled up in a woolly hat, scarf, gloves and embracing the winter air. We almost ate in these markets everyday because the options were so good! From slow cooked beef stew served in a soft wholemeal bowl of bread, to straight out of the oven pizza, to the mouthwatering hot dogs served with gherkins and cabbage which you had to wait at least twenty minutes to get. Even at 3am on the way home on New Years Day Adam and I tucked into a hot dog from a closing market stall, this place definitely rocked!
Apart from gorging on the Christmas Markets every day we also experienced some other goodies that Budapest had to offer, Ring Burger being one of them. Whist burgers aren't a traditional Hungarian food the burgers at this place do deserve a proper mention. They were slightly smaller than expected but with a good variety of options all served with a side of fries and the juiciest meat pattie on offer I would definitely recommend this place to others. We also dined out on other non traditional feasts, the Hummus Bar which was extremely tasty and felt a lot healthier than what we had been eating that we almost went twice! And on our last night Eataliano also hit the nail on the head with a brilliant Italian pizza and pasta menu.
Whilst the Central European adventure had to come to a close at some point, I have to say I was ready to get back to a meal of lots of vegetables and less stodge. The food experience of these two beautiful cities was definitely going to be missed but I fear the size of my waistline would not be so forgiving if I lived on these cuisines all year round! I will however definitely be dreaming of those delicious treats that the Budapest Christmas Markets had to offer until I can get back there again!
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