Amber's French Bakery & Cafe

My ideal Saturday seem like this: sleeping until late, having a late breakfast in a cozy cafe, going to a market for fresh meat and vegetables and cooking the marvelous lunch I was thinking of during the week. Not every Saturday happens this way, but luckily the last one was exactly as I wanted. And I definitely can't complain: the Amber's French Bakery ensured the good start of the day.

The location is perfect, it's just in front of the Great Market Hall, on the Fővám tér. You can choose between croissants, pastries, sandwiches, tarts and of course from eclairs which can't be missing from a French cafe.

We would have liked to try the croissant with almond or the puff pastry with pistachios but unfortunately at 11 o'clock they already ran out from it. Looks like it's worth it to wake up earlier and try one of those! ;)

But we were not disappointed neither with the croissant with ham and the baguette with sour cream, ham and cabbage. They were tasty, warm and freshly prepared. The combination of the cabbage and sour cream was surprisingly very delicious. 

Warm croissant with ham

Warm baguette with sour cream, cabbage and ham

A Saturday breakfast can't be finished here, so it was followed by a chocolate eclair and a brioche with chocolate. The eclair fulfilled all my need for chocolate for that day with it creamy and light texture.

For home we bought also a baguette for 420 Ft which was definitely worth to buy it. The only thing I regretted is that we bought only one for the weekend.

The Amber's French Bakery & Cafe is a perfect place for a breakfast with affordable prices. So far the only things needs to be improved is the service. The stuff is nice and helpful, and they speak great English too but they chose to have the self-service system which is still a little chaotic and slow. They opened only this summer, so I hope they will improve it and I can go back and try the croissant with almond also.

A sweet jaunt to Vác: Mihályi Pastry Shop

There is a little city, called Vác, located in the heart of the Danube bend 30 kms to the north from Budapest. This baroque-style town deserves an article on my gastro blog, not only because it's my hometown but because of its wonderful pastry shop. 

Mihályi László, well-known pastry chef, opened his shop in Vác, in 2008 after working in such an illustrious hotels as Four Seasons and Sofitel. In the cakes of Mihályi you can find everything what makes them unforgettable: modernism, new shapes, individual style, high quality and surprises. This doesn't mean that he rejects the traditions. On the contrary; he creates such a well-balanced cakes, that they will make you return and order other ones from his assortment.

Rákóczi túrós

Vác desszert

You can't go wrong with choosing your cake. They look wonderful and they taste wonderful! Even though, the prices of the desserts can be higher than in most of the pastry shops of Budapest. But if you feel that you need to pamper your taste buds a little bit, get on the train or on the bike and make a little trip to Vác. After having a cake on the main square, don't miss the sunset from the Danube promenade!

Hachapuri

Georgia is a country which is receiving more and more attention in Europe: Wizz Air launched their flight to Kutaisi; their wine is appearing in restaurants and some travel agencies are also organizing trips to Georgia. In case you would like to get more close to their culture or you just want to eat delicious in the centre of Budapest, just make a visit to the Hachapuri restaurant, located on the  marvelous Andrássy út.

The name of the restaurant comes from the Khachapuri, which could be considered as a main national dish of Gerorgia. It's a bread stuffed with their traditional Sulguri cheese. They prepare it in many different ways, probably in more than the Hungarians do the lángos. One of the most popular is the Imeruli one, which has a round shape like a pizza and filled filled with cheese.

But the Hachapuri restaurant is giving more attention to the Archaruli Khachapuri. This has a shape of an open boat: crunchy bread from outside, soft filling inside. The filling can be cheese with a poached egg on it, meat stews or vegetables stews: the combinations are endless.

Baroma Archaruli stuffed with pepper, ham and cheese

The Georgians are fond of one specific spice: the coriander. In case you feel the same about it, try from the seasonal menu the Lamb kebab rolled in thin slice of lavash bread, with red onion and fresh coriander. Although the combination of the lamb and the coriander seems strong, it's a nice dish to enjoy with some unexpected flavors in it.

Lamb kebab

The dish I am sure I will order next time is the fried Hinkalis. These Georgian dumplings comes with the following fillings: beef & pork, mushroom, cheese, spinach. The very best was the one with beef & pork. The menu says that upon special request, they are pleased to serve only Beef Hinkalis.. Even if I liked all of them, I think next time I will do so..

Fried Hinkali

0,75 bistro

0,75..The wine lovers already know what is it about. It's the amount of wine what you can find officially in a bottle. With this catchy name the 0,75 bistro was opened on one of the most attractive sites of Budapest. In case you are thinking that in the area of the St. Stephen's Basilica there are only overpriced restaurants made for tourists, I have to tell you that at the moment it seems not true.

It doesn't matter if you would like to have some wine with tapas or a complete dinner or just cool down with a lemonade on a warm day; for sure you can count on the 0,75 bistro.

As it was a perfect summer day, we decided to sit on the terrace with the nice view on the St. Stephen's Basilica. From the beginning until the end, our dinner was accompanied by Zöldike Sauvignon Blanc from the Madaras winery. Even if we were planning to try other wine, the freshness and the youthfulness of this one, made us order it again and again.

With the wine we received a little appetizer which was a perfect paté with some baguette. I really like; especially in restaurants specialized in wine; if there is always some bread on the table and you don't have to ask for it always if it gets empty. And in the 0,75 bistro, it always happened this way.

From the list of the tapas we tried the Serrano ham plate and the Eggplant dip with baguette. Both of them fulfilled our expectations. High-quality cured Serrano ham with some olives and a perfect, well-balanced eggplant cream. For been tapas, the portions are bigger than what you would expect in a Spanish bar. But this is not a problem, as far as the meal is appetizing. 

As a main course we tried the Chicken with paprika sauce and noodles. And with this dish we were convinced that the 0,75 bistro is representing high quality not only with the wine and tapas but also with the Hungarian dishes. I would even recommend this chicken paprikash for visitors who have never tried it before. 

In conclusion, I can tell you the 0,75 can be a perfect place for many occasions: for friends, for couples, for business dinners, for tourists, for a snack, for a complete dinner or for some wine. 

Am I going to return? - For sure! There is a lot of wine and dishes still to try. 

Do they speak English? - Yes and very nice and helpful service.

A little escape from Budapest: Villány

Luckily Hungary is not equal to Budapest, there are many other places to explore in the country. In this article I will introduce one of the nicest regions of the south of Hungary. The easiest way to get there is by train or by car. I would strongly recommend to go by car,so you can discover the Villány wine region.

Villány is one of the top wine regions of Hungary with its sub-Mediterranean climate. The majority of Hungary's award-winning wines are produced in this area. The towns which definitely worth a visit are Villány and Villánykövesd. Villánykövesd is famous from its picturesque cellars which are situated in three different levels.Unfortunately most of these little cellars are not open during the weekends, even though there are always some family-owned cellars who are glad to introduce their honored wine.

We stopped for a longer time in Villány, where you can find most of the fashionable wineries of Hungary, like: Gere Tamás, Csányi pincészet, Sauska, Bock.Apart from them, there are many other ambitious wineries, who have also decided to represent the high-quality Hungarian wines.

One of them is the enterprise of the Maczkó winery, which was founded in 1996 by a son and his father. However, the tradition of wine growing goes back several decades in the family.They are committed to produce high quality wine both for the local and the foreign wine admirers. And the base of all is grown on 15,6 hectares in Villány area.

Like most of the wineries in Villány they also prepare the well-known red Hungarian wines, like: Portugieser, Pinot noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zweigelt and Blue Frankish. Their white ones are the Riesling Italico and the Chardonnay.

We tried the Kis Medve Cuvée from 2012 which was a medium-bodied wine, with a lower content of tannin. The fruity aroma with the elegance of the wine made it truly pleasurable to drink it. Just in the perfect way it has to happen in a Hungarian winery, the wine was accompanied by a "Zsíros kenyér", which means a slice of bread with duck fat, red onion and paprika on the top. Maybe it's not a 21st century's gourmet food, but still it's one of the best Hungarian dishes, which can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, anyhow but greatest with a glass of Hungarian red wine.

I recommend to everyone who makes a little trip to the area of Pécs, visit Villány, and also to stop by the Maczkó winery for a glass of wine and a perfect "Zsíros kenyér" in their relaxing and quiet garden.

Gourmet Festival - desserts

A gourmet festival is not appetizing just because of the extraordinary ingredients, seafood, caviar, or exquisite wines and drinks; but also because of the delicious desserts you can find.

Today I will briefly introduce three of the the newest pastry shops of Budapest that were part of the dessert section in the festival:

The Dolcissima just opened after the festival near to the Margit híd, in Frankel Leó utca (Buda). For this event they prepared traditional, Sicilian cannoli. The cannoli are fried pastry dough filled with an extremely delicious cream, made from ricotta.

Some months ago I had the pleasure of trying some real cannoli in Sicily, and since that I've fallen in love with them. They are not the lightest desserts ever, that’s true, but the well adjusted combination of crispy dough with smooth cream makes it so perfect… that you cannot stop eating it! .

Cannoli from Dolcissima

Thanks to the Dolcissima, now it's enough just to cross the Danube until the very begining of Buda hills, for finding some traditional italian cannoli. But not only that, because you will also find a nice selection of cakes, ice creams, mini pizzas and focaccia sandwiches.

The DesszertNeked (dessert for you) permanent shop is originally located next to Deak Ferenc Tért, in Paulay Ede utca. To the festival they mainly brought tarts and macarons. The tarts are amazing. I tried the one with passion fruit and this little delicacy for sure will bring me to the store to see what else they are preparing there. I think it will deserve a separate article..

The tarts of DesszertNeked

 The festival was prepared also for the chocolate lovers. The Zangio chocolate store was offering a wide selection of exquisite bonbons. My favorite was the salty caramel, but you can find some more unusual ones also, like: ginger, onion and caramel, spicy tomato or juniper. Even if they sound out of the ordinary, they are well-balanced, tasty chocolates of which all of them are having their own quality.

Zangio chocolate

As a conclusion, it can be stated, that luckily not only the street food and the bistros are improving in Budapest, but also the desserts are having more and more important role in today’s gastronomy.

Gourmet festival 2015

The dirty weather of the last weekend almost could frighten me away from going to the Gourmet festival, but luckily I stayed strong and took my courage to confront the rain. Bringing the umbrella and leaving at home the sunglasses made the rain stop, and the sun to shine.

As it was my third time on the Gourmet festival, it was obvious where I had to go first and start my little, gastronomical lunch trip. It was the Aranykaviár restaurant, which represent the highest quality among the Russian restaurants in Budapest. I couldn't skip the opportunity of trying their delicious meal. 

Pelmeni from the Aranykaviár

The pelmeni, which is a Russian dumpling made from unleavened dough, was stuffed with shrimps, served with sour cream and caviar. I definitely wouldn't mind eating it every week, it's excellent.

In the price of the entrance ticket a small street food was included which you could get at the Electrolux, who were the sponsors of the event. For this reason I was not expecting anything special. But at the end it turned out they were also supporting the high level of quality.

My other favorite meal was the duck burger, prepared by the Chianti restaurant from Veszprém. It was a perfect combination of many ingredients, of which all of them were making an essential part of the dish. After it, I've decided I have to go to Veszprém and see their restaurant.

Duck burger from the Chianti restaurant

From a gourmet festival, some fish or mussel can't be missing, so I decided to check what the Sarki Fűszeres was offering. Originally you can find their idyllic store on the Pozsonyi út. The place is a little heaven for the gourmands: you can find the best cheese, ham product, spices and many other delicacies. On the festival they were preparing bouchot mussels with onions, white wine, parsley and a little pepper. It definitely made me feel like I was on a seashore, smelling the sea in the air.

Bouchet mussels

After all these delicacies only some desserts were missing for having a complete lunch. But about them, let me tell in other article. ;)