Today is Sunday, and that means that Papa was desolate this morning. We went for a walk downtown and were not sure if we would eat downtown or just take a stroll. As we strolled down the extremely humid streets, we laughed at how quiet the town was! There were a few restaurants open, but nothing seemed to grab our attention. We saw a restaurant down one of the alleys which we had previously seen. The outside menu was entirely in Hungarian which dissuaded us before. This time, we decided just to venture, and perhaps we would get lucky and they would have an English menu.
We stepped into the restaurant and it appeared to be closed. There were no customers or staff present. We were just about to walk out when the owner, an older woman who appeared from the kitchen, greeted us in Hungarian. In Hungarian, we returned the greeting, and asked in English if they were open. She replied in English, “Oh yes, yes we are open.” She proceeded to offer us seats in two different dining rooms, with much enthusiasm for the dining room that she described as “Traditional Hungarian.” We chose the traditional dining room and asked her if she had a menu in English. She said that she did not, but one would be available next week. Instead, she asked what we liked and made several suggestions. We agreed with most of the suggestions she made except soup, it was just too hot. She told us that she would make us a nice lunch, which would not be too heavy because of the heat. A server appeared with two bottles of water (which we ordered).
We enjoyed the beautiful dining room and the antiques which filled the room. A server brought our lunch out. She sat down two large plates which consisted of a small salad with what tasted similar to thousand island, with tomatoes and green onion, two fried cheese squares, two fried mushroom and a sautéed mushroom. We were a bit confused because in addition to these large plates, the server sat down smaller plates in front of us. The owner came out just at that time and showed us the proper, traditional Hungarian way to eat. The large plate, which contains the food, is sat to the side at an angle, the smaller plate is sat beside that, and the water glass goes to the right. She told us that this meal she made was a very traditional Hungarian meal. We dug in and it was amazing!! The traditional meal and atmosphere created a very special lunch.
After we finished eating the owner came back out. We expressed to her how much we enjoyed our meals. She thanked us and began to tell us about the building which was 400 years old and providing us with information about the history of Hungary. We learned that she was born in Hungary and was attending school until the revolution at which time she fled to Germany. Her father fought during the revolution and she has pictures of him on one of the walls. She expressed to us that she felt keeping traditional Hungarian culture alive is very important. In addition she feels that many Hungarians want to be more modern because they see their traditional past as being Communist. She asked if we had visited Lake Balaton and we said we had, telling her which city. She knew the city well and had opinions about the Festetic Family and their Castle. Though she stated that the home is beautiful she felt that it provided a very narrow view of Hungary, through a Russian lens. She also spoke about the Nomads and Mongolians in Hungary. We paid our bill and said our goodbyes. It was a beautiful experience that we both enjoyed and we cannot wait to go back and try some more traditional Hungarian cuisine