Bouchon — Upon the recommendation of our first hotel, we decided on traditional Hungarian fare for our Friday night out. We started with a lovely bottle of white wine and because I had my cooking class earlier in the day, I opted for an appetizer of goose liver and fruit jams. Eric ordered the wonderful pork tenderloin ragout with bacon and fried potatoes, which he is still talking about a few weeks later. Good atmosphere, friendly service and delicious food. Highly recommended.

Chagall Cafe — Another hotel recommendation, Chagall Cafe is a hybrid of Italian and Hungarian with many pastas on the menu. Eric opted for the gnocchi that had a delicious sour cream-cheese sauce while I ordered the bacon-wrapped duck with incredibly soft potato balls. Dipped in Eric’s sauce, they were my favorite part of the meal! As you can see we sat outside, enjoying the cooler evening.

this lighting makes me look like I was on a movie set!

Pater Marcus – Our second Belgian pub of the trip, this one was disappointing. The food was just okay, my pork was slightly overcooked and sorely lacking in sauce. They also were missing several beers, so Eric was quite frustrated after his first two options were shot down. Brasserie Henri was definitley a better choice.

In between meals we ducked into a few cafes to sample some of the delicious looking desserts we had read about in advance…

Ruszwurm – Located near Buda Castle on the Bastion, this little shop boasts several types of chocolate layer cakes and sweets. We got there a little late in the day, so the selection was limited but we came away with a huge coconut fudge ball for me and a slice of the square chocolate layer cake for Eric. Easily the best sweets we had on our trip.

Central Kávéház — One of the oldest cafes in Budapest, the display of desserts was almost dizzying! After much deliberation in front of the dessert case, I selected a chocolate tart and Eric chose the poppy seed cake paired with a lemonade overflowing with fresh fruit.

Cafe Noe — One of the pastries on our ‘must-try’ list was the flódni, a multi-layered semi-savory cake with apple jam, walnuts and poppy seeds. Thankfully, this little place in the Jewish Quarter wasn’t closed for May Day and we were able to order a flódni and an apple strudel, then grab a shaded table in the peaceful back courtyard.

tasty pastries with peach juice

Overall we found the food in Budapest to be very good and really enjoyed exploring the different districts for snacks and meals.

DiVino – Our first wine bar of the trip and probably our favorite. Situated right at the base of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, this bar was absolutely packed at night, with well over 100 people spilling onto the fountain steps drinking wine until late evening. During both of our 4pm visits it was relatively quiet, so we were able to grab an outdoor table and people-watch.

Innio — Around the corner from DiVino, we stopped in here after dinner on Friday for a nightcap. This is more of a regular bar than a wine bar with fewer selections available by the glass. It was also (by far) the most expensive of the five places we tried.

Kadarka — This modern wine bar was located just two blocks from our hotel which made it a great spot for a quick drink (or two). We also ate dinner here one evening, where Eric discovered the wonders of tokmagkrem piritossal (pumpkin seed butter) on toast and we learned about a new type of wine called ‘siller,’ a deep rosé. Kadarka offers half pours of any of their wines for around $1-3, so sampling several types was easy.

enjoying a Hungarian rosé

Borbíróság — Located just behind the Central Market, this seemed like a good place to have lunch. We skipped food due to a large breakfast, but Eric tried the only Hungarian beer of the trip and I sampled yet another rosé. The outdoor patio was shady and a good spot for people watching. In fact, that blue van in the photo below parallel parked while we sitting on the sidewalk!

Doblo — This cozy bar is located in the Jewish Quarter on a quiet street. It definitely had a more local vibe and the old building lent a lot of charm. There is a good selection of wines by the glass and we came back our last night to try some cherry palinka, a traditional fruit brandy.

Eric sampling the cherry palinka

We also did a little wine shopping at both supermarkets and shops to bring home a few favorites and two bottles of Tokaj. On the whole Eric liked the Juhfark varietal, but was not impressed by most of the Furmints. The Apatsagi wines were amongst our favorite, as we found them to have more acidity than many of the other bottles.

Since we didn’t find much craft beer on menus, we also stopped in at Csak a Jó Sör to pick up a few Hungarian beers to try at home – one cherry beer was far too sweet, but the other, Hammurapi +21, a doppelbock, was interesting. However, wine is definitely the better option out and about in Budapest.

I choose Culinary Hungary because it included an optional market tour and the class was a one on one teaching experience in a home kitchen.

I met Agnes outside the Central Market and we hit it off right away as we navigated the bustling market. She was full of interesting facts and tips for shopping in the market and encouraged me to sample various foods like langos (delicious crispy potato bread), mangalitsa salami and a chocolate-covered cottage cheese dessert.

mmm, salami!

She was quick to point out that the paprika sold at the market was not high quality so when I mentioned that was one of the main things I wanted to bring home, we made a quick stop at a smaller market near her house. “When I run out of my grandmother’s paprika, I buy from this guy.” That’s a great endorsement!

To get our appetite ready, we started out with bread slathered in goose fat and salami, goose cracklin and a shot of home-made plum palinka, a traditional fruit brandy.

I choose the three dishes I wanted to make ahead of time, so first up was preparing ingredients for the goulash soup and chicken paprikash. We chopped several onions since they are a base for practically every Hungarian dish (except dessert of course), drank red wine and chatted. It was essentially a perfect afternoon.

making nokedli noodles (the Hungarian version of spätzle)

To complete the meal, I chose to make the most decadent chocolate dessert available, a Hungarian sponge cake filled with vanilla custard and rum chocolate sauce, somloi galuska. There are many steps to make this dessert, but it’s not complicated. Trust me, it tasted as good as it looks…

Not only did I get to spend the afternoon drinking wine and cooking, I picked up excellent paprika from a market I never would have visited on my own, learned about name days and naming conventions in Hungary, discovered the most incredible condiment (brought home two jars) and made a new friend. Agnes even packaged up the leftovers for me to bring back for Eric to try at the hotel!

I can’t recommend Agnes enough for an educational and fun afternoon in Budapest.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral dominates the surrounding buildings and also features a lovely square with great people watching (plus wine and gelato!)

St. Stephen’s Cathedral from the Bastion

 St. Stephen’s Cathedral from the square

The fees were a bit high to enter the Dohany Street Synagogue so we simply admired the exterior and continued on our way.

Dohany Street Synagogue – gorgeous and intricate brickwork

Holocaust Memorial at the synagogue

In the courtyard of the Fisherman’s Bastion you find yet another lovely church.

Matthias Church – note the multi-hued tile roof

Ok, not a church, but this steep, winding street does lead to the tomb of a famous dervish(!) Gul Baba.

view up Gul Baba street

fountain at the Gul Baba tomb

City Park

We headed to this section of town to visit the Museum of Fine Arts and the Széchenyi Baths. The museum was ok but oddly not climate controlled which seems to be taking a toll on some of the art work. The interior is quite interesting though.

Just outside of the museum is the imposing Heroes’ Square.

Heroes’ Square

A short walk across the park lead us to one of the famous baths. This was definitely the most frustrating and frankly boring touristy thing we did in Budapest. It is quite expensive to enter, towel deposits are a pain, and given the number of people it is not all that relaxing… we’d vote this one overrated for sure.

Széchenyi Baths – the pools inside are warmer and filled with even more people…

Budapest is separated by the Danube River, so there are a number of bridges that bring the two sides together. The Chain Bridge is probably the most famous, and heavily trafficked, as it connects the center of both cities.

The famous Chain Bridge linking Buda to Pest

View of Buda from the Chain Bridge

Liberty Bridge is downstream of the Chain Bridge, close to the Market, and affords a number of photographic opportunities.

Liberty Bridge with Elisabeth Bridge in the distance

Fisherman’s Bastion

Buda Castle and the Fisherman’s Bastion dominate the Buda hillside and offer brilliant views of the river and Pest side of the city. They are also beautiful in their own right.

Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion closeup

panoramic view from the Bastion

National Gallery

Parliament

Seemingly the largest building and visible from many parts of the city, the Parliament building looks like it was designed for a movie set. Parts are undergoing renovation but from a distance you can’t even tell.

Hungarian Parliament- every bit as decorative as it looks

another view near sunset

closeup

Along the river and not far from the Parliament is the Shoes on the Danube memorial to Jews murdered along the river bank in WWII.

memorial to Jewish victims along the Danube

Certainly one of the more moving memorials we’ve experienced in Europe.

• the Hungarian language was just as hard to comprehend as we thought it would be. Luckily, most everyone spoke at least a little English, and we never too much of an issue.
• wow traffic! Budapest is a city on the move via all kinds of transport- car, bike, bus, boat, train and more. At times it was hard to get away from all the noise, so quiet spots were appreciated.
• It was sunny and near 80 every day at the end of April. More surprising was the heat retention at night- it took a while for things to cool down, so our long sleeves were mostly neglected on this trip
• Maps of the city are deceptive – Budapest is quite large, so we walked miles each day.

There are a number of sights around town, but 2-3 days would have been enough to see the sights of interest to us. Overall we felt it was somewhat like Brussels– the city is much more interesting at night, and we especially liked the food and wine places that we found. Through the next few posts we’ll detail where we went and what we tried.

Hotels:

Our original plan had us spending some time in another part of Hungary, Tokaj. When those plans fell through we tried to add night to our reservation at our main hotel but the price was simply too high. Instead, we spent our first night at the K+K Opera based in part on our good experience with the London location. This hotel has a good location just 1 block from the opera house and one street off the main thoroughfare. Our room faced a courtyard making it blessedly quiet for our first night.

comfortable beds

The bathroom was a little small but otherwise clean and manageable.

The remaining four nights in Budapest were spent at the Casati Budapest Hotel. Due to a great Cyber Monday deal in November we were able to reserve a junior suite at about half the normal price, and lower than their standard room rate. Switching hotels was easy as this was just three blocks away!

Our room had a fun owl mural and a large amount of floor space. Definitely one of the larger rooms we’ve experienced. Unfortunately, the room lacked storage space for clothes with a tiny closet and no drawers. Rather odd given the size of the room overall.

our room – not pictured is the black leather couch on the close wall.

The beds were very comfortable– combined with the quietness of the courtyard and thick wall, one morning we slept till just before 11a!

large bathroom (sans toilet, which is in a smaller room with real door on the other side)

We enjoyed the art in the lobby and murals in the hallways too.

 the unusually long hallway to our room

The Casati is a fairly small hotel with a single person at the front desk. Occasionally we could not find that person, possibly because they were doing something elsewhere in the hotel. The K+K is a larger hotel with a more standard check-in desk. In fact, their front desk was quite helpful and proactively recommended restaurants that would take reservations.

Both hotels included breakfast with the room rate, and both had a nice selection including scrambled eggs, a variety of meats and cheeses, pastries, granola, etc.

Overall both hotels were good options and we would consider them again on a future trip.

Saturday

We arrived Saturday morning and were impressed by Nashville’s arrivals area– they have 10 minute pull-through waiting spaces (with electornic timers) right next to the terminal for picking people up. Very civilized! We hopped in to Leah’s car and drove over to Marche in East Nashville for Saturday brunch. The restaurant was very busy so we had to wait about 20 minutes, but the croissant french toast certainly made up for the inconvenience!

Stuffed full of breakfast goodness we headed south to Cheekwood Gardens. The weather was beautiful and the tulips were putting on quite a show.

From Cheekwood we drove through the rolling residential areas around Franklin to Leah’s house. Having seen many of the renovations on her website it was nice to receive a personal tour of the current renovations, both inside and out. Later that afternoon we walked down to the small, but bustling, Franklin downtown. Leandra couldn’t resist the allure of several shops but the damage was minimal– some moonflower seeds and a few potential Christmas presents.

By this point we had walked several miles in all so we retired to Leah’s backyard for a well-earned local beer — Yazoo Brewing Company’s Sue, a deliciously-smoked stout.

That evening we tried J.Alexanders for dinner. Though we usually skip corporate restaurants, J.Alexanders came highly recommended, so we called ahead for seating and ended up waiting about 20 minutes. We were rather entertained by the various high school prom kids whilst waiting :)  Our orders came out surprisingly fast, to the point where we weren’t sure it could be ours, but each entree was exactly right and excellent to boot. Hats off to that kitchen, they were definitely firing on all cylinders.

Sunday

Unlike Saturday’s blue skies, we woke to an overcast morning. Leah wanted us to try The Loveless Cafe and knowing the wait times thought it best to get there before 9:30a. We were lucky to have about a 30 minute wait, so we bided our time browsing the attached stores.

Since this is also a BBQ place I was looking forward to the ham, but I was underwhelmed with the flavor and texture of the thick cut. Thankfully, the biscuits were proper Southern style, buttery and warm, and the cheesy hashbrown casserole was awesome.

From here we headed to Edwin Warner Park for some light hiking through the spring woods. Lots of wildflowers were in bloom including Virginia bluebells, trilliums and violets.

Plus a snake!

Having clearly earned it, we later visited Sweet CeCe’s Frozen Yogurt in Franklin, where I mixed thin mint and chocolate milk frozen yogurt with peanut m&ms and malt balls for a delicious lunch :)

We had to be at the airport around 7p, so we headed back to East Nashville for an early dinner at The Pharmacy, a burger place. You definitely can’t go wrong with a place that serves tater tots as a side… and their burgers were excellent. Once again, service was very quick, so we had a bit of time to stop at Bar 308 for a pre-departure drink. It was fairly quiet while we were there, but I can see how the place could be very crowded on a Friday or Saturday night. They have a fairly extensive cocktail menu, so Leandra tried a vodka and ginger drink she wished were a little sweeter while I opted for a vodka and citrus on the 2-for-1 happy hour menu.

All-in-all, a great overnight trip courtesy of our Southwest pass and Leah’s hospitality- thanks again!

Looks inviting, but in April it is still chilly – After about 20 minutes beach combing for sea glass and shells, Leandra learned how windy it can be on a beach in the spring!

Returning home we met back up with my parents and headed to Grana in Jamesport for lunch. All their wines were the same price ($30 bottle) so we ordered a Pugliese Pinot Grigio and three ‘personal’ pizzas…  I don’t know if their sizes have increased, or they were just feeling generous, but the four of us barely finished two of the pizzas! The third was not even touched so we just took it home. Thankfully the two we did eat were great, very thin with a crispy crust and fresh mozzarella.

Over lunch we discussed what we should do next and we all remembered our Christmas-time visit to One Woman Vineyards in Southold, so we decided to re-visit and try any new releases. On arrival they had a great sign on their tractor.

The Gewurtraminer was as good as we remembered. Next, we tried the 2010 and 2011 S.blanc, with Leandra liking the creamier 2010 better, and Eric the more acidic 2011.  Finally, Eric tried the new Tribute blend, which is a blend of their four white varietals and dangerously easy to drink. Note: though they charge for tasting, they waive y0ur tasting fee when you buy a bottle with cash.

We capped off our day at dinner with family, then packed up in preparation for our morning flight back to NC.  Though only a quick weekend trip we managed to pack a lot into our NY weekend!

In a first for us,  our flight from RDU arrived at LaGuardia 45 minutes early, so our cab arrived at the hotel right around our original landing time. At check-in we were notified that we had been upgraded to a lexington studio room on the 19th floor. One minute later we were in our spacious (by NYC standards) room.

looking left, looking right

our view in the morning

We decided to try out one of the better-known craft beer bars in the area, The Ginger Man, and along the way I took Leandra through Grand Central Station since she had never seen it in person.

The bar was quite crowded when we first arrived and we struggled to get an order in. We eventually got a menu (they’re printed daily as the beers change rapidly) and placed our orders for a Left Hand Ambidextrous II and the ‘t Smisje Imperial Sour. Beers in hand we scouted around and found stools and an open counter towards the back, allowing us to settle in and enjoy some people watching.  Around 9pm the crowd thinned out, then became quite busy again after 10p. Looking over the beer list again Leandra noticed they had the Alvinne Undressed sour beer that we’d only seen in Brussels.  That quickly became my second order (Leandra opted for a Two Brothers Northwind Imperial Stout), along with pretzels and a surprisingly spicy mustard sauce. Tired after a long day at work we gave up our seats around 11p for our super comfortable bed.

The next morning we had breakfast at Demarco, a coffee shop in midtown. Their breakfast sandwiches were tasty and Leandra really enjoyed her latte. As a bonus, they had complimentary copies of the NY Times so we read through a few sections with our breakfast.

Fueled up we walked across town taking in a few of the tourist sites that we hadn’t visited in about 10 years: Rockefeller Center, Times Square, then on to the Macy’s Flower Show in Herald Square.

Chrysler building (one of my favorites); 30 Rockefeller Center

still ice skating in April!

a typically busy Times Square

Macy’s flower show

Macy’s flower show

We returned to the Hyatt around noon, checked out, then took a taxi to my brother’s apartment on the Upper East Side. From there we all walked to the Guggenheim.

.

Photos are only allowed on the ground floor, but the exhibit spanning the main hall was quite interesting: long plastic tubes with colored liquid.

The Thannhauser Collection was our favorite exhibit, featuring an outstanding density of masters including Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc.

We spent the rest of the day with family, then back out to Long Island later that evening.

Floris Suites -  Unlike most of our trips, for this getaway we booked a package deal with airfare and hotel through AA vacations. We considered 6 different hotels, and though the Floris Suites is not on the water, their combination of price and reviews won us over.

Upon arrival the lobby is a little confusing, as the large desk you see is unoccupied. Instead, check-in was in an office to the right. Initially we were given a room next to the kitchen (room 1) which would have been noisy in the morning and evening; thankfully we were able to move to room 31 which was on the other side of the building. Our room was the smallest type they have, a Junior Suite with a kitchenette, sitting area and queen bed.

Plenty big for us! The room was quite comfortable, and the kitchen space was very handy to have. Some rooms have a garden view, others a pool view – we didn’t see much difference between those, but we liked the second floor better.

Lobby seating area

Hotel affiliated food

We checked in around 9pm, so on that first night we headed to the lobby bar for drinks and a snack. Eric tried the chicken satay skewers and the Bon Bini (white rum, green curacao, lemon juice and pineapple juice). Leandra tried the spicy meatballs and a Sjalotte (peach liquor, malibu rum, blue curacao and coconut cream). All together it made for a nice start to our weekend.

The hotel provides towels and access to Pirate Bay Beach Club and Restaurant on Piscadera Beach. We thought the beach was a reasonably nice site with good morning shade, but without movable umbrellas so we had to move our chairs around to stay in shade as the day progressed. The club was medium busy on weekend, a bit noisy with small kids. Chairs were always available but varied in their degree of comfort. Snorkeling wasn’t great along this beach, really only decent along the docks. We had lunch at the club once, splitting a ham and cheese toastie and making our own shandy by mixing limeade and beer. Charging to our room didn’t work here or at hotel bar and we never figured out why…

Food

Kome – Housed in an open two story building we were seated on the 2nd floor with a fun view of the downstairs. We wanted to start with a sparkling wine, but they were out of the bottle we wanted, so we switched to a rose. Leandra had scoped out the menu online and came in wanting the bouillabaisse, while Eric ordered the satay noodles as a starter and the beef tenderloin. Our waitress came back with apologies for the second time as they had given Eric an old menu and the satay was no longer ordered… he just stuck with his entree at that point. Besides the small missteps in ordering our experience was great and the food was very nice. The chocolate brownie dessert was great finish too.

Rozendaels - Our experience here started out nicely with a table outside on their large patio. However, they had a rush of tables around 7:30p, and we were ignored from that point on. Our dirty plates sat for almost 30 minutes after we were clearly done with our meal and we couldn’t get anyone’s attention. Finally, Eric got up and went inside to get the manager who cleared our plates without so much as a word. They never asked about dessert and we were so fed up we just paid the bill and left. It’s a shame, as the food itself was pretty good, but the experience was such that we just wouldn’t bother returning.

Centrum supermarket – On Saturday morning we made a trip here for groceries. Fresh pineapple, ham and cheese croissants, juice, etc. made up our breakfast each morning, while chips, cheese and adult beverages were enjoyed in the evening (or midday!).

 local rum and a South African rose