Cold fruit soup, sweet pasta, “bird’s milk” and meat served in jelly are among the Hungarian specialities that initially left me puzzled. What seemed unusual at first eventually became surprisingly enjoyable, turning culinary confusion into genuine appreciation. 

Written by Fabiola Sosa

Meggyleves – Sour cherry soup

Picture this: a creamy pink soup with small, deep-red spheres. Floating in the centre is what looks like a dollop of white cream. Let’s be honest, it is a strikingly unusual composition, yet incredibly Instagrammable. If I am not mistaken, this is the only food I know with a colour quite like that. 

Where do I even begin? This was the dish that taught me that cold soups actually exist, and I have to say, what a brilliant invention for those hot days when all you want to do is jump into Lake Balaton. I also had no idea that you could make a meal based on fruit without it being considered a dessert. 

Then came the real adventure for my taste buds. I have a sweet tooth, so I love all sorts of combinations involving sweet flavours. For that reason, I sometimes wonder what it must have been like on the day a Hungarian woke up and said: “I know! I’m going to mix sour cherries with sour cream.” I will probably never find out, but I am quite sure I would have liked to be their friend. 

Madártej – Hungarian floating islands

If you were expecting to read about an exotic ingredient, an unusual texture or a peculiar colour, I am sorry to say that will not be the case. I chose this dessert because its name has always caught my attention so much that I believe it actually shaped my experience the first time I tried it. 

Madártej literally means “bird’s milk”. Yes, you read that correctly. When I was told what it means, I was so confused that for a few seconds I thought: “Wait, do birds produce milk?” But once I remembered that this could not be further from reality, I became slightly worried about trying it, as my intuition told me there might be some unexpected surprise involved. 

As soon as I cautiously started eating it, I kept it in my mouth for quite a while because I wanted to figure out where such an expression came from. However, in the end, all I could sense was something soft and delicious that made me feel as though I were levitating among clouds of cotton. Although I ended up enjoying it, I still need someone to explain that name to me so I can sleep peacefully at night. 

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Mákos tészta  – Poppy seed pasta

During my initial visit to Budapest, before officially moving to Hungary, I remember it was a summer day and I was walking around looking for a restaurant where I could have some traditional food. At one point, I came across a buffet that caught my attention. When I went inside and started looking at the variety of options on offer, there was one in particular that stood out for its eccentricity.

From my point of view, the only normal thing about it was the pasta, but what really caught my attention was the black colour of an unfamiliar powder it was mixed with. My immediate thought when I saw it was rat poison and, because of that, my curiosity only grew stronger. When I served myself some and finally tasted it, I did so blindly, with no idea what to expect. 

Once I took a bite, it felt so strange to sense the texture and flavour of that mysterious powder, which turned out to be nothing more and nothing less than ground poppy seeds. I had never encountered this ingredient before, and I found it both fascinating and highly unusual that this kind of seed could be part of a pasta dish. 

It was definitely unlike anything my palate was accustomed to, but my experience with mákos tészta did not end there. And there was still another surprise: a peculiar sweetness. The moment I noticed it, I briefly wondered whether someone in the kitchen was deliberately trying to get fired so they could collect their severance pay. 

Nevertheless, I continued my investigation and, when I discovered that it was icing sugar, I simply could not believe it. How was it possible for something like that to be mixed with pasta? And, more importantly, how was it possible for something to taste so different and yet so good? 

Kocsonya – Jellied meat

It is night, you are hungry and visiting someone else’s home when a jelly filled with pieces of pork and vegetables appears in front of you: R.I.P. Seriously, I think I lost around 30% of my brain cells as I struggled to understand what exactly I was looking at. 

The nearest window to jump out of was quite far away, so I stayed there examining it carefully while wondering: “Do astronauts eat anything like this in space?” At that point, finding out did not really matter because there was no graceful way out of this one, and I had to face whatever was sitting on my plate, seemingly staring back at me through its two slices of carrot as though it had a life of its own. 

The texture was familiar to me to some extent, as I had grown up with fruit jellies, but what I had to mentally digest was the fact that, this time, it was savoury. At first, it was also interesting to chew something gelatinous combined with pieces of solid food. Finally, after swallowing my last bite, I concluded that I could, in fact, be an astronaut.

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