Katy came to stay last weekend - alas that meant that instead of lounging on the sofa watching England lose to Australia, I was obliged to get out and about around the city - shopping in the main market for my week's provisions, incredible how far a phrase book, mispronounciation and a couple of smiles can get you but somehow we managed to buy a mix of vegetables, find Lea and Perrins W Sauce (God knows what the cost per 100ml was but worth every florint) and various other bits and pieces. Throw in lots of walking around the Citadelle, Fisherman's Bastion, the old parts of Pest looking for a coffee and French onion soup and it all stacked up to be a very cultured and far more sophisticated weekend than if I can been left to my own devices!!
Unsurprisingly, elements of it also centred around food - Gordon's recommendation of Soul Cafe on Raday Utca was inspired - marketed as an international bistro, it more than hit the spot with Grilled Cheese as a starter, followed by the best Steak I think I have ever met and had the pleasure of devouring - Steak in creamy Morel Mushroom sauce and served with Gratin Potatoes, whilst Katy tried Red Tunafish stuffed with Ricotta, served with Risotto - all washed down with a bottle of Red Villany (not sure where in Hungary it came from, although I think Villany might be the region - another project is to learn about Hungarian wines) made for a lovely evening - and believe it or not, I couldn't even face the idea of a desert. On the Burgess/Nunn restaurant rating scale, this was a 9/10 - if not a 9.5 - not a bad place to discover so early on, although might be a special occasions place rather than a every evening establishment
On Saturday evening, we enjoyed one of those spontaneous evenings that seem to happen from time to time - having met Gordon (the agent I am renting the flat from) for a beer and then being joined by Jim, we suddenly found ourselves invited for a drink at Jim's flat on Raday which then turned into dinner and several bottles of wine - by the end of the evening, we didn't know which one we were drinking but they were all very pleasant. Jim is an artist, originally from Glasgow, who has been in Budapest for the best part of 20 years and is married to a Hungarian journalist and is also responsible for the paintings on the wall of the flat - one downside of the evening was that he lives in the most amazing flat 'block (block really not doing it justice as it is so far removed from Nelson Mandela House) - the flat overlooks a beautiful courtyard and the whole buidling was designed by the same architect who designed and then built the Opera House on Andrassy which is an incredible building. The reason that there was a downside to the evening is that I have now been told that this is the benchmark for the type3 of property that Katy would like to live in and so, I suspect that in 2009, I may be on the move!!
On Sunday evening, we checked out a Greek restaurant on the Belgrad embankment, near the flat - Tarverna Dionysus - what a great idea - the inside of the restaurant is designed to make you feel that you are sitting in the street of a typical Greek island village - complete with white washed walls, blue roofs and I am sure if we looked hard enough, in one of the corners there would be the obligatory cat!! - ON the restaurant rating scale, this one achieved an 8/10
One place that is definitely an every evening establishment is the bar opposite the flat - Fescke - it has the atmosphere of a student pub but a very chilled out, relaxed student pub - big sofas, cool paintings on the wall, amazing photos and a fog of cheap cigarette smoke - it also hosts live music nights so certain visitos might want to bring their instruments with them and see if they can get a slot - it is also the scene of a recent triumph - I managed to order a beer and a glass of wine in Hungarian which is a necessary but still very important step in the right direction - follow that up with the fact that I managed to order a Coffee this morning and you never know, I might be fluent in about 20 years!!
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