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Traditional food · Hungary
The fish soup of the Tisza and the Danube, the wines of Tokaj and Badacsony, the cakes and crepes of Budapest, pálinka and the street food and Christmas treats found across the country.
In the photo: Lago Balaton em Tihany, Veszprém
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The cuisine
Hungarian cuisine formed between the plains and the rivers. In the Great Plain, cattle herders cooked meat with onion in cauldrons over the fire, the bogrács, and from that custom come gulyás soup and paprika stews. On the banks of the Danube and the Tisza, fishermen made carp and other river fish the basis of red paprika fish soups, which each town prepares in its own way. Ground paprika, grown in the south of the country, reached the Hungarian table in the 19th century and became the nation’s most characteristic seasoning.
Since 2012, Hungary has maintained by law an official list of its national values, the Collection of Hungarikumok. It gathers places, traditions and products, and many foods and drinks are on it: gulyás soup, the fish soups of Baja and the Tisza, Dobos cake, lángos, kürtőskalács, pálinka, fröccs, szaloncukor and wines such as Tokaji aszú and Badacsonyi kéknyelű.
Budapest experienced the height of its cafés and pastry shops at the end of the 19th century. From the capital came Dobos cake, presented at the 1885 exhibition, the crepe named for the Gundel restaurant and Unicum, an herbal liqueur from the Zwack family. In the north, Tokaj gives its name to a sweet wine made from grapes affected by noble rot, picked one by one. On the northern shore of Lake Balaton, Badacsony hill is home to a white grape almost exclusive to the region.
In the south, Szeged and Baja each have their own fish soup: Szeged’s is a thick broth passed through a sieve, and Baja’s is served over a thin noodle. Throughout the country, fried lángos appears at fairs and beaches, kürtőskalács roasts over coals at winter markets, fröccs mixes wine and sparkling water in summer, and szaloncukor decorates Christmas trees.
13 flavors
Wine mixed with sparkling water (szóda), in proportions that have their own names, such as kisfröccs, hosszúlépés and házmester. White, rosé or red, it is the summer drink of Hungary’s bars, cellars and terraces.
Beef soup with plenty of broth, onion, paprika, diced potato and csipetke, a pinched noodle that cooks in the pot. It is made without thickening with flour. The name comes from the gulyás, the herdsmen of the Great Plain.
Sweet yeast dough rolled into a strip on a wooden spindle, baked while turned over embers and coated with caramelized sugar. It comes off the spindle in the shape of a hollow cylinder. It originated in the Land of the Székely in Transylvania and is sold at fairs and Christmas markets throughout Hungary.
Yeast dough hand-opened and fried until golden, crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The classic topping is sour cream, grated cheese and, if you like, garlic. A street food found at fairs, markets and beaches across the country.
Fruit brandy distilled in Hungary from plum, apricot, pear, apple, cherry and many others. By law the fruit must be grown in Hungary, and all stages from fermentation to bottling must take place in the country. It is a protected geographical indication of the European Union.
Christmas bonbon, usually a fondant candy covered in chocolate, wrapped in shiny colored foil and hung on the branches of the Christmas tree. The most common fillings are fruit jelly, marzipan, coconut and caramel.
Baja fish soup from the banks of the Danube, made with carp, onion and ground paprika cooked together in a cauldron, without straining the broth. It’s served over a thin noodle, gyufatészta, with the fish on the side and hot pepper.
Layered sponge cake with thin layers of sponge alternated with chocolate buttercream and topped with a sheet of caramel. It was created by pastry chef József C. Dobos, owner of a delicatessen in Budapest, and presented at the 1885 National General Exhibition.
Crepe folded and filled with walnuts, raisins and candied orange peel, flavored with rum and topped with chocolate sauce. It is named after the Gundel restaurant in Budapest’s City Park, which put it on the menu; the recipe is attributed to Ilona Matzner, wife of the writer Sándor Márai.
Bitter herbal liqueur, dark, produced by the Zwack family in Budapest with a secret recipe of more than 40 herbs and spices, aged in oak casks. The round bottle with a cross on the label is recognised throughout the country.
Szeged river fish soup, red from paprika, made with a thick broth of several fish, carp heads and bones, and onion, passed through a sieve. Carp pieces cook in that broth, and the soup is served with bread and hot pepper on the side.
Sweet wine from the Tokaj wine region in northeastern Hungary, made from grapes affected by noble rot and harvested berry by berry. The aszú berries are crushed and macerated in must or wine, and the wine ages in oak barrels in underground cellars.
White wine from the kéknyelű grape, grown almost exclusively in the Badacsony wine region on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. The grape’s name means “blue stem.” The wines are usually dry with marked acidity, and there are also sparkling and sweet versions.
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Your questions
Gulyás soup, paprika stews and river fish soups are among the best-known dishes. Many specialties are tied to places: Dobos cake and the Gundel crepe to Budapest, the fish soup to Szeged and Baja, wines to Tokaj and Badacsony. Lángos and kürtőskalács appear across the country.
It is a national value inscribed in the Collection of Hungarikumok, the official list created by a 2012 law. It includes places, traditions and products that the country considers characteristic of Hungarian culture, among them several foods and drinks.
In Hungary, gulyás is a meat soup with a generous broth, potatoes and small pasta. Pörkölt is a thick meat stew with onion and paprika, with little liquid, served with a side. What many countries call goulash is often more like pörkölt.
Among the best known are Tokaji aszú, the sweet wine from Tokaj; and Badacsonyi kéknyelű, a white from the north shore of Lake Balaton. Wine is also used in fröccs, mixed with sparkling water.
