If you've never taken a food tour, it's a great way to see a new city and get the inside scoop from a local on what to eat, what the locals eat and some of the history along the way. They are usually a walking tour with many small bites spread over several hours. If you are ever in Budapest, perhaps as a stopover on a Danube river cruise, I highly recommend taking one. In Budapest we took an organized food tour by Nora at http://www.foodtourbudapest.com/ She guided us through the town on a culinary adventure and gave us so much history along the way. Some of the food from these photos are from that tour, others are food we found along the way on our own.
On the food tour we learned that meats and breads were the primary foods of breakfast and supper, with a bigger meal served mid-day. We tried to follow this pattern.
More samples from the food tour. Below is the variety of salami sausages we tried at the Central Market,
Foreground: Sztrapacska with sheep cheese, bacon, sour cream,
Background: Lecsó with eggs and sausage
We learned that when you hear "paprika", you can't assume it is that typical smokey-sweet dried and ground pepper flavor that we're all used to. Sometimes the word is used to describe a pepper sauce (hot-sauce) that is stirred into the goulash soup or on other foods.
There are a few very nice pastry shops in Budapest. Our tour guide took us to one of the more famous shops called Hisztéria Cremeria. These are a few of the beautiful pastries on display. One of the girls behind the counter was so camera friendly she had to make sure she showed me the love.
Right: NImród cake, 2021 winner of the "Cake of Hungary" competition
Pastries we sampled included the traditional Hungarian honey cream cake "Mézes krémes" and the Nimrod Cake that won the national Hungarian competition for 2021.
Above is just a single page from a 20 page menu book for the Cafe Frei. This place is the fastest growing coffee shop in Europe, which started in Budapest. There are so many varieties of regional coffee drinks, it makes Starbucks look old-school. They also sell their own chocolates and pastries too!
Another popular item in Budapest are the "Chimney Cakes". These are a type of pastry dough that is rolled onto a small cone shaped holder then roasted on a spit. Many vendors of these can be found on the streets or in local markets. Typically they are flavored with nuts or cinnamon, but some of the more touristy places have added fillings and toppings like ice cream or chocolate.
Tourist variations of the Chimney Cakes.
The apple pie slices below were a totally unexpected surprise. We stopped at the café inside the museum of fine art and I ordered a slice of something familiar. Now this is a cafeteria-style eatery inside the museum. They have a captive audience, so expectations were rather low. I've eaten a lot of apple pie in my days, but this was far and away the MOST delicious apple pie I've ever had! I don't know if was the variety of apple used, or what ever else they added, but I was in heaven.
One place not on our formal tour, but we discovered ourselves is a small alleyway in the Jewish quarter, near the ruin bars that is filled with food trucks (below).
One of the trucks in this corridor was a place that served Langos Burgers. They offered many varieties including lamb and duck (about $8.00), but we opted for the traditional beef with sweet potato fries.
Background- Morning Bowl with roasted mushrooms, avocado, goat cheese, poached egg, hollandaise sauce, pickled red onion, baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, hemp seeds and sourdough bread.
Cruffins and Croissants from à table! Madách Bistro.
On our last day, we found a great Indian restaurant called Bombay. As you can see the food was delicious and nicely presented.
Left: "MALAI BROCCOLI", broccoli, cheese, cashew, yogurt served with tomato chutney Right: Tandoori Chicken on spiced sweet potato puree
Lamb biryani and garlic naan from
Below are some of the hand-made chocolates from a tiny little chocolate shop.
The picture below shows some of the sweets from a vendor at the street market. These colorful "licorice" vines remind me of some of the street vendors you might see in Stockholm.
French baking has a strong following in Budapest. Below is a photo of some of the macarons available at a local street vendor.
Reading labels at the grocery store is hard unless you read Hungarian. The next photo is the label of some local cheese we found at the grocery - still not sure what it was but it did have dried tomatoes and basil (paradicsom & bazsalikom).
Next is an example of the prices at a local McDonalds (1,000 huf is about $2.50).
Finally the hairy red pig was a photo our tour guide showed us to describe the type of rare pork we were having at one of the restaurants. This rare breed of pigs bred in Hungary has a very tasty meat and was made nearly extinct under Soviet occupation.
On August 26, 2021, we stopped in Manchester for a brief over-night stay on our way back from Scotland. We got to meet up for lunch with a nephew at The Trafford Centre, which is a massive shopping center/theme park. The food court, shown in the photo below, was designed to look like a deck on a massive cruise ship.
Food Court at The Trafford Centre
We stayed in the central business district of Manchester and did a fair amount of walking around. There are a lot of fantastic restaurants in Manchester including the Corn Exchange where they film the British TV show called Million Pound Menu, which is a reality competition for restaurant entrepreneurs. Sadly, we didn't have the time to try the so many good options. The photo below shows some of the historic sidewalk dining at the Old Wellington and Sinclair's Oyster Bar which are in a part of town known as Shambles Square.
Sidewalk dining at Shambles Square
Just around the corner from Shambles Square, is Manchester Cathedral. This church was celebrating it's 600th anniversary and was founded in 1421 as the St Mary's Church in Manchester. It has a rich history and while we were touring, they were rehearsing for a rock opera.
Manchester Cathedral
Inside Manchester Cathedral
Now, recall that up in Scotland, I posted about the popularity of deep fried Mars Bars. Well, in Manchester the thing was "Deep fried Oreo" - Wow!
Deep Fried Oreo at foot cart in Manchester
We also got to meet an long-time family friend up in Manchester at the "Curry Mile". We went to the top-rated Indian restaurants in the area. The food was okay, but the company was great!
Will these be enough poppadoms?
Here are some 360 panorama images. Remember to click the images to look around and use +/- buttons to zoom in and out.
Now over here, takeaway restaurants may look a bit different from what you're used to in the USA. Many of these little family businesses are located within the home that often fronts a busy street. There is usually just a small lobby and counter, with a kitchen in the back somewhere. The owners typically lives in the house too. This model has proved to be very adaptable for the harsh lockdowns in UK as they have no inside or outside dining anyway, everything on the menu was already designed for takeaway and nobody has to travel to get to work. Many of these little shops are called "Kebab" shops. They often have a little of everything on the menu besides great kebabs including pizza, burgers, fish & chicken.
The shop below is one we walk past every day on our walk to see the grandkids. We haven't eaten there (yet) but it seems typical of this "jack-of-all-trades, takeaway" genre.
Solent Kebab takeaway
Now there are also more specialized restaurants that try to do one thing well. Fish & Chippies are one type that are very popular here. There seems to be one in every neighborhood. Here is Mother Kelly's Fish & Chips. It's also along our daily walk and one of the few that actually has a large indoor dining area. They have always done take away, so adapting to the lockdown was less painful for them.
Mother Kelly's Fish & Chips
Now Indian food is a big thing over here too. After all, chicken tikka-masala is the national dish of Britain now, beating out bangers and mash or fish and chips! Some of the best Indian food we've ever had was in Oxford (on a previous trip) at 4,500 Miles from Delhi. So expectations are high for Indian takeaway. Initially we were disappointed with the local choices. The shops we tried in and around Portchester and Portsmouth seemed to be produce curries that were overly sweet and lacking the depth and complexity of spices that we've come to love. One day I saw a thread on the local community facebook group that was discussing favorite Indian take away during the lockdown. Through the recommendations of the locals we discovered this little hole-in-the-wall shop near the train station called Leith Tandori that finally fulfilled the promise of flavorful Indian take away we've craved. We've ordered from them many times and it has always been great.
Leith Tandori takeaway
Now a little closer to our apartment, we also have a little strip of take away shops. These are just a five minute walk from our flat and there are three excellent choices right together including the Golden Bridge (Chinese) New Shahee Tandori (Indian) and Blue Ocean (fish & chips). So even while we are remodeling our kitchen in our flat, we always have convenient and tasty take away nearby.
Golden Bridge, New Shahee Tandori and Blue Ocean - takeaway dining
Now we're about a month away from the opening up of some new out-door dining choices, according to the promised reopening schedule by Boris Johnson. We're looking forward to the many fine dining restaurants located near our flat with large outdoor dining on the board walk over in Port Solent. Doesn't this look like a great place for patio dining?
Port Solent harbor & boardwalk
Yet, we are still in England, in the spring time. so this might be a better perspective on what outdoor dining might be like in on April 12th:
