We strolled through Saint Germain des Prés and I daydreamed of a life there. The librairies, cafés, vintage cinemas seduced me and I pictured myself a Sorbonne girl running off to class with a backpack full of books ´n autres choses. Some day maybe… For lunch we chose a brasserie named Café Bonaparte, which faces a…
We found classic French fare at a bistro named Le Mesturet, somewhere between the tourist-jammed Louvre complex and the more business-oriented Opera quarter. It’s a typical old-school Parisian spot with a small bar near the entrance, an intimate dining room with tasteful wooden furniture, a green awning over its doors, monogrammed china. All that good stuff.…
On La Rue des Rosiers in the Le Marais district of Paris’s 4th arrondissement folks have plenty to be excited about. And around a place called Chez Hanna there’s a particularly palpable hush, like the chilled silence of a site where something important has happened. People sit on the curb or stand around with palmsful of pita overflowing with…
In my experience, food is more fun with a story behind it. Sure, a ham ‘n’ cheese sammie with store-bought cold cuts and pre-sliced Bimbo can hit the spot just fine during a 30-minute lunch break on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. But how vastly more entertaining it is to take a bite of something born…
Sziget Festival blew my socks off this year. I was very impressed. It seems like this massive, weeklong, multicultural party gets bigger and bigger each year. If you’re a music lover (or, more generally, if you don’t hate a good time) and you haven’t been before, go. Take a train, plane, car to Budapest, then the boat or…
There is a rich tradition of after-hours kebabs in the city of Budapest. Between 3 and 7 a.m. you’ll find pockets of youth huddled around a gyros stand, clutching a steamy meat-filled pita in their palms as if it were the Baby Jesus, putting on pause all chatter about what went on that night –…
Lots of interesting things have happened in Budapest’s food scene as of late. Grandma-style classics and modest street food snacks have been reinvented and made trendy at new restaurants and gastropubs. “Locally sourced, sustainable and organic” is a thing. There’re food trucks, craft beer and foodie hashtags (like #mutimiteszel) to make sharing food finds easy. All that…
Pretty much every nation of people on this planet has a version of deep fried dough of which they are fiercely proud, one which they insist is unique and different from all other versions. India has the paratha, the puri, the vada. Bulgaria has the mekitzi. Turkey has lokma. In France it’s the sweet goffre. It’s akara in West Africa, bannock in Canada, frybread for…
For the first time in a long while I returned to Hungary with a guest, this time with one I love. And while it was important to point out the Basilica, Margit Island and the magnificent view of the Danube and Pest from the Buda Castle, it was just as crucial to me that he taste a…
And then there was a bakery called Boulangerie de Mamie Jane on Route Neuve in the center of Gordes. When sightseeing in small French towns it generally seems good practice to skip dessert at whatever restaurant one has lunch in and stop by a boulangerie afterwards instead. Chances are the restaurant’s desserts are brought over from a nearby bakery anyway; you will likely…
That Best Bite 