Food Wine Budapest

by Carolyn Banfalvi

Book Overview

"Despite its vast repertoire, variety, and recipes bursting with flavor, Hungarian cuisine is one of the most underappreciated and unknown European cuisines. There are few Hungarian restaurants... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892145561
• ISBN13: 9781892145567
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Little Bookroom
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Read and Excellent Information

After 25 years in the wine business and years of food and wine travel I was astonished when, in preparation for a trip to Budapest, I ordered Carolyn's book and after its arrival found I just couldn't put it down.Her descriptions are so complete I feel like I've already been in Budapest instead of just anticipating my upcoming trip. As far as the absence of maps my suggestion is to buy a good Budapest map or just Google Budapest. This is absolutely the best food/wine/travel book about a foreign city I've read!

Insider information on the best food in Budapest

Carolyn Banfalvi has poured her passion and knowledge of food and wine into this book. It is packed with information including essentials on getting around the city, a select list of further reading and websites, an outstanding culinary dictionary and a great primer on the delicious Hungarian wines. Even if you are not planning a trip to Budapest, it is worth reading for the information on soups, meats, dumplings, and palinka. The coffeehouses and sweets are documented to great detail. This book will not disappoint. It is a great investment on the rich food culture of Hungary.

Excellent Eating Guide

I have been to Budapest many times and thought I knew most of the good eateries. This colorful guide book offers up some tempting new suggestions in city where you can find some of the best fois gras and red wine in Europe. Having recently returned from Paris I can assure you that when it comes to value dining Budapest is hard to beat. Not only is the Hungarian fois better in most cases but it is a fraction of the price one often pays in Paris for smaller portions. For those who love red wines what's not to love about the beautiful vintages coming out of Villany. The author knows Hungarian food and you can feel the love for the country, its people and its cuisine as you leaf through this beautiful edition. Invaluable : Especially now that the dollar is so strong against the forint... Visit now and enjoy the real bargains this city offers up.

One of the best food-travel books I've read

I travel a lot, and I travel, primarily, so that I can DINE. Accordingly, I've read a LOT of food-related guides, but never one quite as comprehensive, on-the-mark, and as readable as this one. When I first read the book (cover to cover, in preparation for a 2008 return visit to Budapest), I thought that the author must be some older, vastly-experienced travel writer, writing from a long experience with not only Budapest/Hungarian food and wine, but also coming from a broad background of food-writing all over Europe. I was (totally, joyfully) stunned to discover that the author was a young-ish resident of Budapest, and that this incredible guide was her first major published effort. Astonishing! I've read many, many food-related guides for places like Paris, London, Catalonia and elsewhere, and this book is the best one -- by far, bar none -- of all I've seen. I'm still suffering from a sort of happy disbelief at both the quality of the writing and the accuracy of the recommendations. Wow. Wow! The company that published this book should send the author on extended visits to other major cities, to parlay her perceptive skills and style into a series. In short, if you're headed to Budapest (or anywhere else in Hungary), this is a must-have book.

Put it in your backpack

I purchased this book as soon as it was available. My husband and I were planning our first trip to Budapest. We read through the book before we left, marking all the restaurants we wanted to try while we were there. We slipped the book, already looking worn and ragged with yellow sticky tags hanging out from two sides, into our backpack as we headed to the airport. And that's where it stayed as we walked the streets of Budapest for 11 days, enjoying some of the wonderful restaurants, the great food and Hungarian wines that Banfalvi recommends in the book. Each time we were ready to eat, we pulled out the book, filled with information about where to get good coffee, sweet treats, wine, or a good Hungarian meal. Her food-related Hungarian-English and English-Hungarian dictionary was very helpful. Locator maps would have been useful, with numbers used to indicate locations of each place. We did discover, though, that Budapest is an easy city to navigate and it's not difficult to find what you're looking for. If you're planning a trip to Budapest, you'll be glad you have this book in your backpack.