beetrock

55 Kiraly utca
Map

“Tourists, beware!”- should be the mantra of this establishment. A hungover Pest dweller can appreciate the thick mushroom goulash and a hefty portion of the desert curiously dubbed “dumps with poppy,” but an unsuspecting city guest in search of gastronomic pleasure is likely to end up with gastritis cramps instead. Kitchen closes at 8pm, we were told, and I would like to know when it opens, especially on a Sunday, when I am most likely to require a helping of dumps, with or without poppies.

I’ve been pretty devastated about loosing my little Casio Exilim-S600, but I think my grief peaked yesterday when I looked through the year of flickr photos that it left me and the little lonely, and now useless, dock on my desk. I am usually pretty aware of my techie belongings but something must’ve happened last Saturday night at dinner. Something, that caused things to go very, very wrong. And now I don’t have my little orange jewel no more and I weep in sadness.

Perhaps, my most favorite card, EVER. Thanks to super P!

Café Central Konditorei
Srauchgasse 4
Map

Even the promise of dining at a table of former Trotsky sightings could not make us bear the wait to be seated at Vienna’s historic Café Central. We headed for it’s tiny offspring just up the street to have delicious strudel and mélanges. Perhaps smaller and less grandiose, the Café Central confectionary has much more to offer than just powdered doughnuts.

Kazinczy utca 35
Map

In my last minute attempts to enjoy the culinary treasures of Budapest I took J to this small and fun place in the Erzbetvaros. I’ve been to Stone Soup before and every visit makes a precedent for coming back. We had the homey eggplant pate that reminds me so much of the Russian style eggplant “caviar” and to supplement my fried camembert I ordered something attractively titled “potatoes in seeds.” J kept her pallet seedless but her dish was equally tasty. Keldeves gets points not only for fantastic, creative and varying vegetarian friendly recipes but also for staff niceness.

I went back to take photos of the delicious food and lost my camera! So the photo of the funky decor is taken from the restaurant’s equally funky website.

Kantine M 101
Mariahilferstrasse 101
1060 Vienna
Map

Even after our successful battle with the striking Hungarian railways and arriving to Vienna by Eruolines bus, failures awaited us. Our attempts to follow the footsteps of every Vienna Lonely Planet reader proved futile when starved, we arrived at a very closed Zum Alten Fassl. Supposedly a home to the best schnitzel in Vienna, the restaurant was possibly on a winter or vacation schedule. Traumatized and still hungry we wondered a couple of blocks up Margareten Strasse and stopped at a restaurant promising us bohemian and old beisl delights. As a miracle would have it, the place also offered the delicious dark Kozel beer that I hadn’t seen anywhere since departing Prague this summer. N had her much desired schnitzel, curiously fried into a coating of shredded potatoes and looking strangely like the potato pancakes that I make at home. I had a fish dish, that was semi good and semi healthy, but what made the food consumption experience ever so pleasant for me was the generous serving of lightly pickled cabbage. Read more…

Arany János u. 9.
Budapest
Map

M&M’s last hurray in Budapest was celebrated at this apparently truly Italian eatery. We had meaty and non-meaty appetizers but sadly our side vegetables were served before our meal and consumed rapidly. The main course – two kinds of fish, which were identified by our own Italian as “ugly and very tasty” and “big and flaky” – was devoured. We did make the waiter come and show us the ugly fish before it was cooked. Ugly indeed. Wine flowed and suspiciously whorish looking patrons celebrated something at the table next to ours. The Italian owner came to say hello but I was advised not to utter another word after hello. I was told that Italian hospitality of that particular specimen, despite its warmth, can be time consuming. The dinner was wonderful but bitter sweet as the M&M clan left the next morning.

J came to visit last Friday and we had a fantastic weekend in Pest. It was a rare sunny day and we had a lot planned. We went to the Central Market, bought paprika and delicious, properly sweetened cherry strudels, walked aside the Danube and went to the Szechenyi outdoor baths. The baths in the winter are even more amazing than they are in the summer, and we went at sundown when the sky was all shades of purple and pink. An absolutely amazing experience except for and occasional older man creep factor. We finished our day at 6tos, with more creepy men but fun was still had by all. J left on Sunday night before a crazy storm – for a few hours I felt like the tree outside of my balcony was about to collapse onto my building. This did not happened, but there were some definite shrill screams outside. Today it’s another Friday and another good friend is roaming the city on her own until I get off work and rescue her from the claws of the pesty budas.