• About
  • Archives
  • Bread/Baked Goods
    • Almond Cake (made with xylitol)
    • Almond Cake (Tarta de Santiago)
    • Ardys’s Sourdough Spelt Bread (overnight method)
    • B & B Mug Muffin
    • Bread and Butter Pudding
    • Buckwheat Pikelets (pancakes)
    • Donna’s White Fruitcake
    • Flourless Chocolate Cake
    • Gluten Free Currant Scones
    • Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
    • Grain-Free Granola (my version)
    • Grain-free, French-style Apple Cake
    • Grain-free, Italian Pear Cake (Torta di Pere)
    • Hot Cross Scones (grain free)
    • Mug Muffin (grain free)
    • My Revised Sourdough (Winter)
    • Nut and Cinnamon Baked Muesli (granola)
    • Pumpkin bars
    • Super Single Muffin
    • Toasted Almond Muesli
  • Favourite Quotations
  • Food
    • Almond Milk
    • Babaghanouj (grilled eggplant, Turkish style)
    • Beef Cheeks Ragu
    • Beef Jerky
    • BLT Salad (with green dressing)
    • Brussels Sprouts with almonds and currants
    • Carrot Cake Style Bites
    • Cashew Milk
    • Cauliflower Cheese and Ham
    • Chicken Breasts with Rosemary
    • Chicken Liver Paté (*adapted from taste.com.au)
    • Chicken Salad
    • Chocolate Pud
    • Cold Brew Coffee
    • Cucumber, Corn, Coconut + Peanut Salad
    • Dukkha
    • Gado Gado (adapted from Charmaine Solomon)
    • Grain-free grilled cheese
    • Green Dressing
    • Grilled Eggplant Strips
    • Grilled Salmon
    • Homemade Ketchup/BBQ sauce
    • Kale with Chilli and Garlic
    • Layered Vegetables with cream
    • My Best Pulled Pork
    • My Pulled Pork (using Romertopf clay baking dish)*
    • Not-Nonna’s Meatballs
    • Pappa al Pomodoro
    • Pasta e Fagioli with Escarole
    • Pickled Eggs and Beets
    • Pumpkin Pie Frappé
    • Ricotta – homemade
    • SANE-eats
    • Slow Cooked Beef Ribs
    • Stuffed Mushrooms
    • Summer Minestrone
    • Taco Salad
    • Turkey/Chicken and Cheese Salad
    • Vietnamese style salad and Dressing
  • Instagram photos
  • Travel Photos

ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Tag Archives: Hungary

In My Kitchen – August 2014*

01 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by Ardys in Food, Travel

≈ 46 Comments

Tags

Budapest, Food, France, Gallipoli, Hungary, Istanbul, photography, Travel, Turkey

*Warning to those on a diet, this post may be hazardous to your mental state!

Most of the passed month, I’ve been eating from other people’s kitchens in Budapest, and along the Danube to Istanbul! I’ll be writing about some of that, hopefully not so much you will be bored, but for now I’m back in my own familiar surroundings preparing very simple meals to recover from ‘travel tummy’! The problem with eating very cleanly and healthily at home is that when you travel it is very hard to replicate. And then there are the temptations…

Turkish-delight-Turkey

Variety of Turkish Delight

‘Travel tummy’ is different than Bali belly!! Now returned to normal, I have learned my tolerance for certain foods, combined with summer heat, is even lower than I had thought. So, future efforts will have to be more restrained, which of course means passing up certain flavours one would love to experience when travelling… like tasting Turkish Delight while IN Turkey!! While it was very interesting to see all the amazing varieties that come under the umbrella of ‘Turkish Delight’, I was shocked that in my new incarnation of eating almost no sugar for all of this year, they were way too sweet for me. So I did taste them, but they were so sweet there was certainly no temptation to overindulge.

baklava-Turkey

Tower of Baklava

baklava-istanbul

Assortment of Baklava, Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

The Baklava in Turkey was amazing. It was incredible to see, as much as eat, though, again, it was really way too sweet for me to enjoy. I had never tasted Baklava until I moved to Australia 31 years ago. The Greek community in Darwin meant that it was fairly available in cafés, as well as occasionally offered from the Greek family across the street from our house. I used to love it. But now, I taste it more in the spirit of research, than passion. (That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!)

croissant-budapest

As good as it gets croissant, Sofitel, Budapest

The one indulgence that I will forever remember was from the kitchen of the Sofitel Hotel in Budapest. Croissant. And fresh butter. No, croissant is not on my menu normally. In fact I guess you could call me a croissant snob. I declared to my husband a year or so ago that I would not be eating another croissant unless we were in France, where they are quite obviously a level above any others I’ve tasted. But I could tell from one look, these were special. They were the kind one only finds in France, or a French owned hotel like Sofitel. They were small, perfectly flaky, buttery miracles. So yes, I ate one. Okay, two—but not on the same morning. Such restraint. With stunningly fresh butter. I savoured every mouthful, and I swear a little tear escaped my eye the day we boarded the ship and left the Sofitel buffet!

cabbage-stuffed-hungary

Hungarian stuffed cabbage rolls

meatballs-hungarian

Hungarian meatballs

hungarian-restaurant-budapest

Hungarian cuisine, Little Bites of Hungary, Budapest

Two of the most outstanding dining experiences were possibly the most humble. On our second night in Budapest we found a little place that specialised in Hungarian food. Not so unusual, you might think. However, their menu offered a few different ways you could eat, or sample, the selections. You could order a fixed menu consisting of several courses, all in small servings. You could order the same dishes individually, a la carte, as small servings, or as regular sized servings. We seldom want a large evening meal so the a la carte small servings of a couple of dishes suited us perfectly. And the dishes we had were absolutely delicious! We marvelled at what a good concept this was and wonder why we have never before seen a place like it. (excluding Tapas, which is something different again)

squid-eggplant-gallipoli

Grilled squid and eggplant (babaghanouj)

lunch-fish-gallipoli

Lunch by the sea in Gelibolu (Gallipoli)

The other beautifully simple meal was in Turkey, in the small town of Gelibolu (Gallipoli). We ate next to the water and had simple grilled squid, with babaghanouj (grilled eggplant), and grilled fish. Delicious. Since we returned home, I have twice replicated the babaghanouj, and that is without having a recipe. It was that simple. We discovered the secret is, a little tiny bit of salt, and only the tiniest hint of garlic. I have always found baba ganoush recipes called for so much garlic, it was inedible for me (I have sensitivity to onion and garlic family). But the ones we ate in Turkey, in four or five different places, were always very, very lightly flavoured as I have described above. It allows the buttery, mellow flavour of the eggplant to dominate, which we loved. (in the interest of giving value for money, click here for my version of grilled eggplant)

I hope this gastronomic tour will appease your desire for IMK from me this month. I assure you it is more interesting than my own very simple cooking has been. Thank you to Celia at figjamandlimecordial.com for hosting this monthly tour through kitchens around the world! Pop on over there and see what other interesting things are happening.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 726 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • who’s in charge…
  • trust the shoes…
  • the good, the bad and the ugly footwear…
  • lest we forget…
  • something’s afoot…
  • one foot in front of the other…
  • ding, ding, ding…
  • what we have to lose…
  • scraping away the webs…
  • after the blow…

Archives

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • ardysez
    • Join 549 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • ardysez
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: