Coffee and sweets!!

We have been utterly enjoying ourselves…ok, overly indulging ourselves…with the local sweets. There is everything from fresh breads, pastries, cakes, ice cream, gelato, and on and on…. Everywhere we walk, we see another pastry shop or gelato stand!! Coffee shops are also everywhere! The coffee shops are not similar the ones in the states. Instead of a “Starbucks” environment, most coffee is served at drinking shops or at the pastry or ice cream/gelato shops, and of course in restaurants. We have not seen any shop which solely serve coffee, except the espresso bars in the Arkad mall in Gyor.

We already spoke about the drinking shop in which we were served a latte in two separate cups…which was fantastic. In addition to that shop, we have enjoyed other spots and other coffees. There is a pastry shop right down the street from our house. Two days ago we stopped in for the first time, and the woman behind the counter did not speak any English. There was a case full of delicious looking deserts! Not being able to read any of the labels in front of the succulent looking treats, and not being able to ask her to tell us what they were, we just pointed. We paid 160 forints (.70 cents) for a piece of square cake which was white with white cream, topped with chocolate shavings and what we found out was ginger. After taking our piece of heaven to a café style table in front of the shop, we enjoyed every last bite. The desert was unlike anything we have ever had, it had both raisins and ginger, but it was good!

Today, we went back to the same shop and ordered from a man who did not speak any English. We chose a hot pink square which looked like cake, a pink ice cream, and ordered a latte (or at least tried to!). The hot pink desert was cake, like we had presumed, but the pink frosting was very different from what we were expecting. It tasted exactly like the pink on top of a pink donut at any donut shop in the states. The cake on the inside was white on the top and bottom with a center of what tasted like chocolate raspberry…very good! The pink ice cream turned out to be raspberry, and my latte was served but it came out as an espresso!! It was all very tasty and cost a total of 500 forints or almost $2.50.

When we returned home, we were determined to figure out how to properly order coffee drinks in Hungarian. We think we may have discovered the problem…we are saying milk wrong. But supposedly when ordering a latte, saying “latte” should work…but it only has once. When saying milk, “tej”, we were pronouncing it just as it looks…wrong. The “j” is a “y” and “coffee with milk” is kave tejjel. Next time we are excited to try ordering a kave tejjel and seeing what comes out!!

Side note-the one time we did get a latte, was yesterday at a different shop. This shop is situated on a corner directly behind the Reformed Church. It has a much more modern feel, and the prices reflect that. Everything was a bit more expensive. The young lady behind the counter did not speak English, but must have understood “latte” because a “latte” was served!! Woo-hoo, it was so tasty!!