Enter the dragon at Kőbányai út – The hidden side of Budapest’s Chinatown

In its global abundance, Chinese cuisine is familiar and plentiful nowadays, marketed in the same way as “European food” and hamburgers alike. But as for Chinese culture, this is another matter altogether for the many who, like me, know little more than what comes across in periodicals and other media day to day.  

But for a brief insight, I recommend making something of a start by visiting the newly developed Monori Center in Budapest’s District X. Although this small hub presents itself as a wholesale market, the neighbourhood is also an up-and-coming family-friendly locale, tucked away in the not-so-illustrious Kőbánya suburbs.

Now officially known as Chinatown, this is where some of the best Chinese food and restaurants in the capital are found, and makes for a pleasant stroll along the main Jeyenye utca promenade.

As well as serving up the real thing both to their own people and to passers-by alike, these establishments are similar in décor to the real things back home when compared to most of the standard, less elaborate Chinese restaurants elsewhere.

Don’t dwell too heavily on Chinese stereotypes to guide you there. The architecture in this sullen, remote part of the city is as oriental and exotic as elsewhere within the often dreary Pest suburbs – in other words, not much. But fear not, some lanterns and calligraphy do finally appear.

Perhaps, it is also fitting to say, the Monori Center is not a typical expectation of a Chinatown, as depicted in various films and stories that brim with noise, activity and opium dens overflowing onto streets that are naturally lined with pagoda-shaped buildings.

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At first sight, expect clothes and domestic shops and the aroma of local cuisine in this modest abode. In this sense, yes, the Monori Center is a bit too reposeful than expected. But I am sure things will liven up when it comes to Chinese New Year. Until then it gives the impression of an up-and-coming neighbourhood.

In addition, there is an exclusive hotel, a doctor, a Chinese school, a newspaper production company and a sense of community. Immediately the Monori with its irregular but striking allure has something worthwhile to offer and makes for an eventful outing.

Remarkably, and perhaps not knowingly, Budapest is home to the largest Chinese population in Central Europe. Compared to higher profiled westerners with their rhetorical values and declamatory enterprises, these are a more reserved and far less boastful people. They also came to Hungary and other former Iron Curtain regions post-1989, with as many similar reasons, but far less is mentioned about them.

There are often other Chinese stalls throughout the city and nationwide that remain resolutely far from the spotlight. Such as the one where I am frequently greeted at the Bosnyák tér market in the Zugló district. These people are usually hands-on in catering trade or at stalls trading imported goods from their homeland.

Many live in the easterly suburbs and habitually labour in earnest from dawn to dusk. Some have settled and integrated into Hungarian society, others move on to Western Europe. Then there are those who return home.

In recent times a new generation arrived. Unlike the first wave, many newcomers are more high-tech and cosmopolitan. They are generally better-off and have greater chances of succeeding than their predecessors. Some live in the privileged Buda Hills, having left their former working-class lives behind. But many from both before and now still work the treadmill, as ever.

One distinguishing feature relating to the clothes shops are the sometimes original but often surreal   names many have. Such as Sun Bird, Moon Girl, Z-Boxer (I assume this is to be pronounced in the American way, Zee-Boxer) and my favourite one so far, “R-Marks”, as in Remarks. And so forth.