Hungary is a country in central Europe, bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Fun fact: Hungarian design teacher Erno Rubik invented the famous magic cube puzzle game in 1974.
Upon arriving in Budapest for a stay of almost a week, we were really exited about being able to check off THREE items (eszterhazy torte, rigó jancsi, and kifli) on the list. So we started asking at every place we ate and… got nothing but shrugs, puzzled looks, and lots of head shakes. So, we resigned ourselves to disappointment and decided to just enjoy the city.
Budapest is made up of two main parts, Buda where Buda Castle sits on a hill, and Pest on the other side of the Danube River. Officially, there were three cities– Obuda, Buda and Pest were unified in 1873 into Budapest. The views from the castle are stunning.
On our last full day, we decided to do a hop-on, hop-off tour bus. For those of you who have never heard of them, they are double-decker red buses which drive around to the main sites of the city, and people who buy the day tickets jump on and off wherever they like. The have a fleet of buses to drive the circuit, so you usually don’t have to wait more than 10 to 20 minutes for the next one.
Anyway, we were passing through a random neighborhood, when the tour guide announced this was where people get off for the local shopping mall. So we walked around the dodgy area for a bit looking for a mall with no luck. Then walked into a building that could be a shopping mall entrance… and found an office building cafeteria instead. Annoyed with the tour guide and sweaty, we decided to take a lunch break and ordered portions of some mystery food. As we pushed our trays along towards the cashier, I looked into the dessert case and did a double take. I squinted closer. Could it really be?
Eszterhazy torte! It was destiny. I snatched one up and gleefully paid for my treasure. Following is our review of the dessert.
Eszterhazy Torte: 4.63 stars
Art is Alive in Budapest
