EAT IN ASIA / Destinations / Other destinations / Europe / Hungary
Szimpla Sunday Farmers' Market
Do you have plans for a Sunday morning in Budapest? If not, why do not you spend a couple of hours on a food market? Try local natural products, enjoy a wonderful cup of a freshly brewed coffee, and taste local specialties. If you prefer to pair it with some stronger drinks, order a shot of a traditional Hungarian fruit spirit – palinka. Choose between a pear or an apple one and feel the local atmosphere. Just relax, spend some time on chatting with your friends, and buy some unique products. Enjoy their freshness, naturality and traditional receipts.
A lot of products offered on the market is home-made and prepared by owners of stalls. Fruits and vegetables are from their orchards and only traditional and natural methods are used. Super healthy, with no extra additives, no preservatives, no artificial colorants, just naturality. Although some fresh products might not be ideal in their look and shape, appreciate the method they were grown and try to imagine, how good it would be for your organism to eat them instead of having one from a big plantation.
As the selection of what is offered on stalls is quite big, you will definitively have no problem with choosing something for you. Meat and cheese products, fresh fruits and vegetables, vegan alternatives, sweets, syrups, teas, oils, herbs, sauces, and spices.
Szimpla Sunday Farmers' Market offers you everything you might need to have a great brunch and to supply your fridge with super healthy products. Just close to the entrance to the market you will find bread, meat, and cheese.
Hungarian home-made beef, pork, and deer sausages
The first stall with sausages offers a selection of buffalo, pork and deer products. Choose between mild and spicy ones. Between the most popular ones are different types of dried sausages with hot paprika. The most unique one is a deer sausage with red vine.
Relatively mild in taste, with a limited amount of paprika lets you taste delicate vine aromas and a typical deer meat flavor. Apart from that, you will find hot, thin beef sausages good as a quick snack or a great bite paired with a glass of a red, dry vine. If you prefer regular meats, pick one made from a pork, buffalo or mix meat sausage.
Natural cow and goat Hungarian cheese
Looking for a vegetarian alternative, just look at the opposite site of the street. A cheese stall will definitively not disappoint you. Mainly cow cheese products are a great alternative. If you are looking for a goat cheese, you will find something for you to. Ask the seller and listen to their recommendations. Believe me, they really know what they say.
Original Hungarian goat cheese
If you are goat cheese lover, pick a delicate lágy sajt or a creamy szarvasgombás with truffles. If you just want a plain cheese, choose a natural one.
Traditional Hungarian cow cheese
Cow cheese fans will have a wider choice. A huge number of yellow and white, fresh cheeses is available, and you can really get crazy selecting only a couple of them. Mature, semi-mature, with a stronger or with a more delicate taste are ideal to pair with a glass of a good Hungarian wine.
Try a hard, stone like kősajt, a natural mature natúr érett or pick a soft, fresh white crème cheese. If you are looking for some flavored ones, try a garlic cheese – fokhagymaz or one with walnuts – diós. A delicate white, fresh cheese - lilahagymas - with red onion will be a great alternative for a regular, natural cream cheese.
Fruit and vegetable home-made products
Pumpkin
Go a little bit farther and try a unique pumpkin pesto. The recipe, although very simple in ingredients, gives a wonderful result. Pumpkin, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil. No extra cheese or nuts. So tasty and keeping the traditional basil pesto texture. Of course, you have this regular option too, however, it is good to try something new. Then, have a look at great, potent oils – a walnut, poppyseeds or the one pressed from milk thistle seeds. All super healthy and natural.
Paprika
Hungary is famous for all kind of paprikas. Hot and mild. Small but spicy, big and delicate or semi-hot for these undecideds. Everyone will find something for himself. Paprika sauces, salsas, chutneys and… jams! Yes, paprika jams! The flavor is mild at the beginning, getting hotter and hotter, but will never reach super spiciness, so do not worry.
Spreads and chutneys
Apart from that, you will also find some unusual, home-made spreads and chutneys. They are really delicious! Prepared from natural ingredients, they have a great composition and a wonderful taste balance. The selection of bread spreads includes these with mushrooms, garlic, olives and super aromatic, sun-dried tomatoes.
Then, there are perfect chutneys. The first one we tried was with beetroots, onion and plums. Then came a chutney with cabbage and onions, and finally was a super tasty one with pumpkin, fig and pear. Apart from that, a pumpkin and eggplant hummus is a great alternative for a traditional chickpea one.
Home-made jams and syrups
If you are looking for a sweet alternative, try some jams, that are made with a coconut sugar and contain in 90% fruits! The selection is very wide and all extremely fruity. You will find traditional tastes like plum, sargabarack - apricot, forest berries and orange. More local flavors include rhabarbarin, som - cornelian cherry and figs. Then, there is a walnut and a rose hip aromatic jam. Finally, there is a fruit and vegetable mix of pumpkin and goji berries.
Lavender
Another seller has also unique lavender jams! There were three options – a plain one, a regular, sugar-based lavender and strawberry one and a healthy option with stevia. This time, only one flavor – strawberry and lavender. Apart from that, in the same place you will be able to buy a lavender syrup and other lavender products.
Truffles
And what about truffles? Have you ever tried them before? If not, or just curious about Hungarian truffle products, try a couple of free tasting snacks. In a small bowl you will find different types of truffle butters and tapenades served with a small piece of bread and sun-dried tomato chunks. The bread is served with a truffle oil and has a delicate flavor. Aside you will find a colorful, pink butter with beetroot and truffles and a small piece of a plain truffle butter. Then there are two tapenade pastes – one a natural one with truffles, and another one – a black one with a squid ink. Both great, creamy, and soft, with a delicate truffle taste.
Nothing extremely dominating and nothing over-flavored. In the same place, you will also be able to buy an aromatic truffle salt and truffle oil. These products are not only unique and super tasty, but also are a good idea for a gift for your friends or family.
Ecological sprout boxes
Finally, for all those who love a raw and natural food, sprout boxes will be a great choice. Packed with a lot of microelements, nutrients and vitamins, the selection of multiple sprouts will do a great job for your organism. Although not so colorful and spectacular, they will give you a lot of healthy and valuable compounds.
Whatever you do not chose, the walk on the market, with tasting different local products, will be a great time. Spend your Sunday morning or brunch in a great atmosphere and enjoy the naturality and beauty of all presented products. Try as many of them as you can. Relax, stay with your friends or family, and enjoy that calm time. Put aside all your worries and feel the local atmosphere of Budapest!
