Food for the eyes at the Christmas market, this would be the complete title of my post, but used the short version for a reason. Now you may be wondering why is food for the eye, when it should be for the mouth or stomach, but there's a good explanation for that too.
I'm a bit late with he Christmas market post, but the truth is, I forgot about these photos and my plan to post the food later, so here I am today. I hope you're up to a nice visual adventure. Yes, the keyword is visual here for you and for me was visual as well 😆
Each holiday and event in general has something special, or some dishes that can't be missing and mulled wine is one that is a must, when it comes to every winter event. It works like a magnet on people, or at least that's what people think. When it's cold outside, a hot drink can work miracles, or do a lot of damage as well, depends on where you stand.
A cup of mulled wine, which was 300ml, costed 3 euro, 150ml of Grand Cuvée costed 4 euro and a bottle (0,75L) of fairly young Grand Cuvée, from 2023 and 2024 made your pocket lighter with almost 18 euro. Now obviously a cup of wine for 3 euro won't kill you, but the level of stomach acid this over sugared drink cases, could. Two years ago, guided or corrupted (better word) by the festive spirit, I had a cup of wine and regretted it for a whole day. So this year I took a photo of the booth, then took a big turn and moved on.
Chestnuts. When I was a little girl, whenever we went to the city center, during winter, we always bought roasted chestnuts. The memory of those delicious chestnuts are still alive, but when you see you have to pay 4 euro for 200g of chestnuts, of which half is either badly burnt or under roasted, while the other half may be bad, you decide to keep those sweet memories and not ruin them with buying overpriced, burnt chestnuts. Sadly I moved on from here too.
Pies! This booth would attract you even if you are not hungry. Who could resist to an apple pie, a cabbage pie, or a ham and cheese pie. Well, I did, because paying between 6 euro and 8 euro for such a pie seems robbery. (On my way home, I bought two pies filled with ham and cheese for 3.5 euro.)
Fries, tacos, burrito, quesadilla, Mexican loaded fries ... none of these dishes were compatible with my diet (not by any standards), but maybe this would have been the place where I'd have had a bite 😬 regardless of the price, but I didn't.
Lángos, a dish you can find almost everywhere and it's always calling your name, even though on a scale of 1 to 10, you can give it a 15, when it comes to how healthy it is, 10 meaning very unhealthy.
Lángos is a typical Hungarian food. Nowadays it is a deep fried flatbread, but in the past it was made of the last bits of the bread dough and baked at the front of a brick or clay oven, to be served hot as the breakfast of the bread-baking day.
Prices here ranged between 4 euro for a plain one with sugar and 7 euro, for a lángos topped with waoo, nutella, banana, strawberries and candies. Don't ask me how much calories the latter contains as I guess it can equal my whole calorie intake now that I'm on diet.
Kürtős, or kürtőskalács is kind of a must as well, at every event and not only.
Kürtőskalács (Romanian: colac/cozonac secuiesc; German: Baumstriezel; English: chimney cake) is a spit cake specific to Hungarians from Transylvania, more specifically the Székelys. Originally popular in the Székely Land, it became popular in both Hungary and Romania. The first written record dates back to 1679 and was found in the village of Úzdiszentpéter (now Sânpetru de Câmpie), while the first recipe appears in a manuscript cookbook dated in 1781. Earlier a festive treat, now it is part of everyday consumption. A similar pastry to kürtőskalács is Baumstriezel, originating in the Transylvanian Saxon communities.
Depending on the taste, you would need to take out between 7 and 8 euro of your pocket, to enjoy these lovely horn cakes. (I guess the guy was not happy about me taking a photo.)
Artisanal cheese, a real heaven for those who like to take an adventurous culinary trip and taste something new. Obviously not compatible with my diet, so I took a deep breath and walked away, again.
The truth is, you need a lot of self control to resist temptation, but this time it was really easy for me. Making smart decision can save you money and your diet too.
What would you buy from these places? Let's see who likes what :)
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
