budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

A short walk from the körút and Blaha Lujza tér, you’ll find the newest veggie eatery in an Indian cultural centre. It is in a small street just off Almássy tér.

The staff were very kind and welcoming and explained our choices: normally they have a soup,  one or two subjis, rice, pakoras, a Hungarian dish, a salad and cakes. You can buy a meal or set menus, raging from student (small 630 Hufs) to maharaja (everything they have for 1980 Hufs). Most dishes are lacto vegetarian, but there are always vegan options. Interestingly when we were there everything was vegan!

We had chickpea soup with peanuts, aubergine subji with rice and salad, small veggie burgers and pakoras on a skewer. I really loved the soup and the pakoras, so much that I bought a couple more to take home for the children.

This is the “bharata menu” and pakoras, it was very filling and great value for 1400 Hufs!

Bharata
Bharata Cultural Centre is the new home of Indian culture and cuisine: it offers yoga, ayurvedic medicine, meditation, dance and music courses,  and soon cooking classes! The cafe has special offers at the moment with really friendly prices. All food is lacto vegetarian or vegan. There are set menus, special offers for students, lassis and sweets.
Budapest 1074. Almássy tér – Tivadar u. 3.
Open: Monday-Friday:  12:00-8.pm; Saturday 6pm-9pm, Sunday closed
http://bharata.hu/bisztro.html

The cold weather has caught up with us, it was -15 C last night. The Danube, Lake Balaton and all other waters are frozen solid, time for ice skating!

Budapest has several outdoors ice rinks, the biggest and nicest is Műjégpálya at the city park. The artificial ice rink and the main building have recently been fully renovated. It is open every day in the morning and in the afternoon (closed at lunch time) and you can rent skates or sign up for classes. I prefer weekday mornings, it is a lot more relaxed when the teenage kids are at school and not playing tag at 90 miles/hour. You will notice some elderly people doing pro dance moves, these pensioners are a delight to watch, but the music leaves a lot to be desired.

By prepchik07

You can find several other smaller rinks in the city and many schools turn their football pitch to an ice rink for a few weeks. We visited Lake Omszk this morning, it is a few kilometres north of Budapest, a former gravel pit turned into a recreational area. The lake is totally frozen and there were lots of happy people skating, playing hockey or just sliding around. Lots of happy doggies too! Can you see the dad with the pushchair in the middle of the lake? You can see James and our toddler there too.

If you fancy skiing you just need to get over to the Buda hills and bus no. 21 will take you to Normafa, where you can find 7 ski slopes! Not exactly the Alps, but very convenient.  Most people will sledge down, then take the bus up again, drink some mulled wine, or pálinka, have a rétes and off again! Great fun!

by Zsolt Bugarszki

Sledging you can do almost anywhere on the Buda side, there are hills everywhere! The best slopes are around the Normafa, Sas Hegy and the Hármashatárhegy. Wheeeee!

I have some very pleasant news, 3 new vegetarian restaurants have recently opened in Budapest. I haven’t had the good fortune to check them out yet, but I hope I can post some reviews soon!

Ganges

The Ganga Vega Cafe has a big brother now, a restaurant close to Octogon. They offer delicious vegetarian food, Indian menus, and healthy options. They offer home delivery too.
1064 Budapest Vörösmarty utca 31.
gangesetterem@gmail.com
+36.30.5306368; +36.70.6338981
www.ganges.hu
Open M-Saturday 12- 8 pm

Bharata

Bharata Cultural Centre is the new home of Indian culture and cuisine: it offers yoga, ayurvedic medicine, meditation, dance and music courses,  and soon cooking classes! The cafe has special offers at the moment with really friendly prices. All food is lacto vegetarian. There are set menus, special offers for students, lassis and sweets. Can’t wait to try!
Budapest 1074. Almássy tér – Tivadar u. 3.
Open: Monday-Friday:  12:00-8.pm; Saturday 6pm-9pm, Sunday closed

Hummus Bar

There is a new vegetarian hummus bar just a few minutes from the budaveg vegetarian B&B, at  Hollán Ernő utca 6. James had a Falafel plate and was very pleased with it.
Open: Monday-Friday 10-10pm Saturday Sunday: 12-10 pm
Tel: 06 70 932 8284

Mannatural 

This lovely vegan raw food restaurant has moved! Just a few minutes from the previous location to 1054 Budapest, Garibaldi u. 5. They also offer an “all you can eat buffet” lunch for 3000 HUF and dinner for 5000 HUF on weekdays. Please call or email to reserve for dinner: 06-20-776-9843, info@mannatural.hu, just pop in for lunch.

This means we have now 22 vegetarian restaurants and cafes in Budapest, pretty amazing! I have just updated the restaurants page and our ebook accordingly, which you can get by subscribing to our mailing list. We hardly ever send out any emails, and you can safely unsubscribe any time.

Here is the follow up to my gardening story. When you have a tiny garden you start going vertical and use all the available space- so you need pergolas and containers.

Pots and containers are pretty common everywhere for flowers but we experimented with growing edible stuff- and hey they are pretty too! Our tomatoes did really well in the simple flower pots, we really only needed to keep them safe from the dog, but otherwise were easy plants. This year we planted some in the garden and they did amazingly well, we had yellow tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes as well, my favourites are the yellow ones, fantastic taste, really sweet!

I planted strawberries too, but they didn’t give a lot of fruit at all- we had like 20 berries from 10 plants- a plain waste of money…

James built a fantastic pergola to have some shade in the hot summer days, and also to have a place for the kid’s swings. I planted pink roses on one side and kiwis on the other at the posts, and runner beans in between. I planted normal runner beans and these special long green beans I discovered at the local market a year ago. The runner beans did really well, and I picked enough beans for 3 soups in the middle of the summer. Then just before the second harvest hundreds of shield bugs appeared on the beans, but they didn’t seem to harm them. I consulted Aron again and he said that they would suck the beans dry- and he was right, we lost the second harvest. Luckily there was a third batch right in October because we had an amazingly warm and sunny autumn. Look at these beans, I am in love with the colours!

I also planted these long green beans called “Turkish beans”. They like to run up to four meters and weren’t too happy with the mere two meters I provided them, still we had a few beans, enough to steam as a side dish.

Finally a trick I learnt from Aron; before the frost came I had to pick all our tomatoes and I was so upset about the green ones, but he advised me to put them on a tray with a few apples, put a tea towel on the top and they would ripen. And they did! They taste like store tomatoes, so not as good as the sun ripened ones, but at least they are organic.

Honestly I don’t think we saved any money on growing our own food, plants and potting mix are not cheap-but quality local veg is. However it was fun, very satisfying to pick warm sun kissed food and I think it is good to show your children, after all they learn by example.

Tonight all the magyar children will polish their boots and place them on the windowsill, St Nicholas aka Mikulás is coming tonight with sweets and treats!

We spent the afternoon making cinnamon rolls- snails and ladybirds- to leave next to those tiny boots for St. Nicholas and I am certain that he will be delighted!

So will the kids with these red sacks: they contain two raisin-apple muffins, a small packet of chocolate covered currants, a golden walnut, a red apple and a tiny wooden car.

Budapest is also getting ready for the celebrations, the lovely decorations are up, Christmas trees, lights and the Christmas tram started running too! It is the good old number 2 that runs along the river on the Pest side, check out this short video and see the amazing ride with all the sights along the Danube lit up!

And of course don’t forget to check out the Christmas fair at Vörösmarty square! There are quality crafts, hot wine, great toys and gifts, live music and entertainment for all ages.  And Santa from Finland is at the grotto tomorrow.

If you prefer cutting edge design, then the Museum of applied Arts is the place next weekend, on the 10th-11th from 10 am till 8 pm there is a contemporary design market, and guess what! Napfényes patisserie will be there too with vegan delights!

There seem to be a massive boom in cooking classes nowadays, or perhaps just facebook make me more aware of them?

Vegan & Gluten Free Cookery Workshop The Salt’n'Pepper cooking school organizes workshops where the chef of Napfényes Étterem is teaching culinary skills. Unfortunately info is only in Hungarian on their website, but email them for info if you are interested.
saltnpepper@t-online.hu
06 30 950 6422 1055
Budapest, Balassi Bálint utca 19
http://www.saltnpepper.hu/home

Vegan rawfood classes organised by Mannanatural restaurant: 3 hour classes taught at their restaurant in a specially built teaching and dining are upstairs, after “cooking” the students are enjoying a healthy dinner.  For details and times check their website.
 1054 Budapest, Hold u. 13. 
+36-20-7769843 
info@mannatural.hu
http://www.mannatural.net/index.php?oldal=fooldal

Lacto vegetarian classes: are organised by 108.hu which seems to be part of the Hare Krishna church. They offer a big range of classes from Indian to Hungarian vegetarian, special Christmas menus, ginger bread making with children and so on.  Courses are taught by Hémangi dévi dászi populag vegetarian gastro blogger of http://www.vegavarazs.hu. The 108 school is only a short walk from budaveg vegetarian B&B!
info@108.hu
06-30-464 77601137.
Budapest, Szent István krt 6. III/12. 27-es csengő (Jászai Mari tér)
http://108.hu/fozotanfolyam  

Isteni Ízek Főzőtanfolyam/ Divine tastes cooking course also organised by the Hare Krishna Church at the Indian cultural centre. The TV chef Mahadzsan dász is teaching the course, which is planning to start 15th February 2012
Bp.1039 Lehel u. 15.-17
06 30 872 1995
mahadzsan@freemail.hu

Raw vegan gourmand dinners Finally if you don’t want to cook but still want to fill your belly with vegan raw delights than Életkonyha/ Lifekitchen is your place. They offer themed vegan raw gourmand dinners in their home for small groups. These girls also make amazing raw “sweets” and cakes, have a look at Sületlenségek website.
003670-70-28187, or 003630-399-4912
info@eletkonyha.hu

https://www.facebook.com/EletKonyha.LifeKitchen

Are there more? If so let me know happy to add to our blog!

At the moment two lovely Italian girls are staying at the budaveg apartment, one of them, Chiara translated our website to Italian and we are very happy to give her and her friend a week’s stay in return! The are very busy during the day exploring Budapest, the museums and the christmas market, but last night we all went out to Napfényes Étterem, probably the nicest vegan restaurant in town.
The restaurant belong to a Rudolf Steiner inspired movement, and they promote healthy vegan food and lifestyle. They also have a vegan patisserie, organize cooking and lifestyle courses issue beautifully illustrated cook books and have a small health food store at the restaurant.


You’ll find there a fantastic selection of vegan dishes: soup, pizzas, pasta dishes, traditional Hungarian dishes, puddings and cream cakes from their patisserie, salads, and an impressive range of organic juices and teas.

We would have had a lovely time if our children hadn’t run amok in the restaurant; they were running up and down in and out of the kitchen screaming with delight. So much for lethargic veggie kids! Luckily the staff not only put up with it but even gave them some coloured pencils and paper and played with them to give us a breather and a chance to eat our delicious meals. Taking pictures is not my forte especially when I have to run after my kids. This is the only moment they actually sat on their bums.

James chose vegan breaded cheese with rice and peas, and tartar sauce, Lita chose “Fried Pancakes Filled with Vegetable Cream served with Mashed Potatoes and Onions”, Chiara and I went for the vegan Brassói with Lecsó, which is called “Ratatouille Seitan Cutlets” on the menu, and the kids got half portions each of yesterday’s special: Mixed Vegetable Pakora with Mashed Potatoes. The vegan Brassói with Lecsó is my favourite dish: lots of chips and seitan in a great spicy sauce! Here is a close up of the table:

The prices are great, mains are between 1500-2000 Hufs. We had a lovely time, but probably won’t go there (or any other restaurant) till they are at least ten, or go without them. So please it is your turn to dine out in style at a lovely vegan restaurant!
I’d like to thank the staff again for being so super nice!

Address: Rózsa u 39, District VII Tram: 4/6 at Király utca and walk, or 76 trolley bus.
Open: every day 9am-10pm
Vegan, non smoking, no alcohol, sells health food too
English menu, English spoken.
http://www.napfenyesetterem.hu/

This has been one of my favourite places since it opened, a real gem in the city. Napos Oldal is very conveniently located between Octogon and Nyugati tér easy to pop in when I am running errands or on the way to the cinema in the evening. The name means “sunny side” and it’s surprisingly sunny due to the corner location.

Half of the premises is a veggie cafe, the other half is a health food shop, selling everything from seitan to organic cosmetics. They have a wide selection of fresh salads, baked and fried vegetables, sandwiches and cakes. There is a different soup and main dish every day, you can see the daily offers on their website. There is also a wide selection of teas and other drinks. The menu  is almost always vegan, and the majority of the salads and sandwiches are too. My favourite is the seitan sandwich, and these are pre-packed so you can easily and quickly take them away.

They do a wide range of cakes from sugar free candida cakes to real patisserie beauties and none of the cakes (or dishes) contain eggs, yeast or white sugar. Obviously a real heaven for the health conscious or candida sufferers. Also the ingredients are  roughly 30% organic.

I chose two types of salads, bulghur and potato, a vegetable pie, a vegetable pancake, a carrot and walnut cake and a cup of green tea  for my lunch. Firstly the cups are BIG, which I just love, I love tea and I find small cups annoying, why go stingy on water?! The food was delicious and filling, the cake was a “healthy” cake, so not too sweet, but I like it that way.

You order at the counter, all the signs are in English, and you pay at the health food counter on the way out, I think it is great that you don’t need to queue twice if you want to buy anything. There is a nice and very light seating are with 5 tables, it was busy at lunchtime, but I always had a seat, as many buy takeaway.

Napos oldal is an amazingly peaceful place right in the middle of the city, highly recommended!
 
Address: Jókai u. 7. Metro: Nyugati tér on blue line or tram: 4/6 at Nyugati tér or Oktogon
Open: Monday- Friday 10 am till 8 pm, Saturday 10 am till 2 pm.
Tel: 1-3540048
http://www.naposoldal.com/

We got a tiny garden- even by British standards but I try to squeeze in everything we need: a play area for the kids and the dog, flowers and a vegetable garden. I was a bit reluctant at first, since there was a septic tank at the bottom of the garden for a good 30 years and I was afraid that the soil might be contaminated so for the first few years we were living here I only grew flowers and herbs.

One day browsing the net I came across a brilliant way of container gardening called an “earthbox”  and found a great tutorial on how to build your own and James kindly built a couple for us.

I was very excited about starting to produce our own food and got a lot of potting soil- but made the first mistake of buying “general flower potting soil” (általános virágföld in magyar) which is really not suitable for growing vegetables and can be toxic as I learnt later from Áron the organic farmer. I also bought far too many plants at the market- got carried away- and planted cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and courgettes. I covered the top with the black plastic bag of the potting compost and filled up the containers with water- and checked the plants every day!

And gosh they grew! The peppers were doing really well even though they were a bit crammed, one cucumber went mental and grew all over the lawn and the tomatoes looked very promising too.

The courgette/ zuccini plants looked great and had a couple of baby fruits, then started rotting one day, still don’t know why- and it happened this year too.

The cucumber produced plenty of delicious fruit and we found it extremely exciting and satisfying to pick a fresh cucumber when were making sandwiches. The tomatoes soon had bright red fruit which caught the attention of our naughty dog, and he kept picking the tomatoes- and destroying the plants with his gentle 35 kg body. Why on earth did we raise him vegetarian? So not many tomatoes for us. James built an impressive fence around the plants but soon Oli demolished that too and gulped down the rest. Ah well, at least the peppers did well.

A year later when we were back in England I was flipping through a gardening catalogue and the “upside down tomatoes” caught my eyes. I was a bit sceptical but willing to try; if it worked we’d have tomatoes growing out of the dog’s range! If you google it you will find plenty of video tutorials  on how to make your own. I just got a couple of builder’s buckets, James drilled a hole in the bottom and voila. I put in the tomato plant and planted flowers on the top. To be honest the flowers did a lot better than the tomatoes, the did produce some fruit but none of them did great. I experimented with strawberries and cucumbers this year and the strawberry did ok, the cucumber did really well, till we forgot to water it once- which ruined the plant. The moral of the story is that cucumbers should go in Earthboxes, they need so much water (and they are safe from the dog). For more images click the photos or the flickr button in the side bar.


Next time I'll write about container gardening and pergolas.
Are you also growing vegetables at home?

I was over the moon when I found this little veggie place a few minutes walk from our newly established veggie B&B in 2003 and I became a patron immediately. I just got hooked on their warm spinach pita bread, spinach is my favourite vegetable and I can’t have it too often.

The place is tiny, with only 4 chairs and 2 tables outside in summer, but I always managed to get a seat since most customers just pick up their food and eat in their office.
There is a lovely selection of sandwiches, warm pita breads, salads, and one or two main dishes a day and some desserts. They also offer water, fresh fruit juices, cocktails and teas. There is always a vegan and a macrobiotic option. The dishes are very imaginative, Indian, Hungarian, Italian and so on.  The food is free from additives and preservatives and filled with their loving care!
They make the sandwiches in the shop, the salads and the mains are made in their home delivery kitchen and arrive in the shop around 12. There is normally warm food till 3.30 or 4.00, but you can get sandwiches from 11.00-5.00.

I popped in at 11 just as they were opening up, I normally get up at the crack of dawn so by 11 I am usually famished and the nice girl behind the counter was very understanding and warmed up the previous day’s lecsó, my favourite traditional Hungarian food! It was delicious and just the right spiciness- we Hungarians love our paprika!

I was on my way to the airport to pick up a couple of omnivorous friends from Denmark, so I bought 4 sandwiches as well, two mozzarella tomato and two parmesan rucola baguettes, they were a massive hit and very good value for 690 Hufs!

Nem süti 
small sandwich bar, five minutes walk from the budaveg apartment right next to Margit Bridge,

Address: Jászai Mari tér 4./b (Pozsonyi u). Metro: Nyugati tér on blue line, tram: 4/6 at Jászai Mari tér
Open: Mon-Fri 11am-5pm
Ovo-lacto-veggie
http://www.nemsuti.hu/
https://www.facebook.com/nemsuti