Goodbye Ilona and her Budapest.

On the flight to Budapest from Geneva, a Hungarian lady was interested to ask where I am from.  So I had a brief chat with her.  She was curious to know what made me to visit Budapest.  I hesitated for a second but then replied her it's simply because of the rich historical background and the beautiful scenery...etc.  Back in my mind, it was also my silent agenda to visit this city because of the movie Gloomy Sunday (a story about a restaurant waitress being forced to get involved with a German lieutenant, and the waitress's lover - a pianist working in the restaurant wrote a piece of music of his complex feeling about the war time and his love being gone in hatred.).  The music was related to a series of suicide committed by the restaurant visitors.  Later on, the song was adapted into English and the song was called "Gloomy Sunday".  A city of being torn apart and no more tomorrow after the Sunday.  Love, hatred and despair - for people who hope the Angels have no thought of ever returning them.....  

This day the city was in a sunny bright weather.  I saw such a clear blue sky in a light haze.  I found the city vibrant, creative and bright.  I could see the subtle caring smile of Ilona (the Waitress in the movie).    

Kempinski Budapest, Hungary

Meatology, Budapest, Hungary

Seemed like I had to try as many various goulash soups as possible.  This time it's a bit Italian with gnocchi in the soup, but another pleasant flour aroma.  The Italian style nan was freshly baked.  Only the soup and the nan were good enough.  I asked the waiter the various kinds of sausages on the menu and chose this one with pork and beef mixed in.  It's a in perfect texture and juicy inside.  Their house pickled was so good to go with meat.  The grilled free range chicken was a 2-thumbs up!  I was a bit surprised the locals can eat that spicy.  The 2 chilli sauces served on the side were so spicy that only a few drops of the yellow one could make you sweat.  The red one was triple more spicy.

When the night falls, in Budapest

Pesti Sorcsarnok, Budapest

The goulash soup of this place is 95% similar to what we have in HK.  Though I don't like fat, some brisket fat makes the soup more aromatic like this one.  The sauce of the main dish (grilled chicken on gnocchi) was exactly the same "orange tomato" sauce we have in the HK style "tea" restaurants.  One of my good old friends told me he missed this kind of "orange tomato" sauce.

The swimming pool, Kempinski Budapest

It's not common for the European hotels having an indoor swimming pool, and yet and the price range of US$130-200.  One of the factors of choosing this hotel is also about this pool.  

Central Market, Budapest

A bit surprised to see that the locals eat all parts of the poultry, from chicken neck, liver, heart & feet.  This could be controversial when some claim the others for not consuming the whole of certain food, when they don't eat all parts of what some common poultry like Chicken & pig.  Or could we claim it as an environmental protection issue?

Sorforras etterem, Budapest

The restaurant offers a tourist menu for 3 courses at about US$15.  20-30 years ago I often wanted to go for some places which didn't look touristic.  However, I wondered if I spoke local language?  In this forum age, many claim to "eat local" when they travel.  Imagine when so many tourists claim to "eat local", would those places are simply "touristic".  So let's try to remove this label and just eat at your wish.  As when we create an alternate trend, the alternate will then become the main stream.  

Back to this restaurant, the place was quite cozy and the goulash soup was quite different and it's actually a broth.  What surprised me was the duck confit.  US$15 for such a full meal wasn't bad.

Castle Hill, Budapest