The weirdest Hungarian dishes – vol. 2

The exploration of the weirdest Hungarian foods continues.

These are the types of meals foreigners usually consider weird, but some of them are difficult to get used to even for Hungarians. But, regardless of the weirdness, we recommend trying all of them at least once.

Vargabéles and other sweet pastas

Pasta, but make it sweet. Italians might think we have lost our minds, but the sweet variation of pastas can actually be a quick, tasty option to satisfy one’s sweet tooth – or it can save the leftover pasta from the Bolognese you just made. So, what exactly should I put on my pasta, you may wonder… Well, you can do poppy seeds or ground walnuts and mix it with as much powdered sugar as you like. These are some typical dishes you could get, for example, in school canteens, but legends also say there are some crazy people who mix their pasta with jam or cocoa powder. If you wish to take the sweet pasta experience to another level, try vargabéles, which, besides the pasta, includes a lot of sweet quark filling baked together and served with jam.

Véres hurka – blood sausage

That is right, as the name suggests, this dish is made of blood. Actually, Hungarians are not the only ones who consume bloody sausages, though, because the UK has its similar version, the black pudding. While they normally serve their black pudding as part of the full English breakfast, the Hungarian blood sausage is rather eaten for lunch or dinner with mashed potatoes. Instead of cereals, the véres hurka is made with rice. Other types of offal can also be added to the mixture, which is then stuffed into the pork’s large intestine.

Bundáskenyér – salty French toast

This is the Hungarian version of the French toast. It is not sweet but definitely delicious and a very filling breakfast idea. You just have to soak bread slices into beaten and salted eggs and then fry them in vegetable oil. Voila! If you wish to intensify the pleasure even more, you can serve your bundáskenyér with some dips; the most common would be to eat it with sour cream mixed with garlic, but ketchup works, too.

Zsíroskenyér – lard on bread

Please do not judge until you have tried it. Zsíroskenyér is the perfect snack you might still get in old, traditional pubs to go with your beer. Or you can easily prepare it yourself. Just take a slice of bread (you can also toast it if you fancy, but fresh bread would be the best) and spread lard, or even other animal’s fat, like duck or goose, on it. You can basically top it with anything you would like, but the most common toppings are slices of red onion and, of course, paprika.

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