BUDA BITES

In Hungary there are food festivals to celebrate nearly every commonly used ingredient, from the humble onion to the walnuts that are essential to bakers. Last weekend was the annual food festival in the village of Nagyszakácsi, which translates as “master chef”. Legend has it that this is where all royal chefs in Hungary once hailed from. Generations of chefs were trained by their elders here and favored chefs were granted noble status. These days the only reminders of the village’s proud culinary past are the two tiny so-called museums holding old cooking equipment and folksy ceramics. It’s pretty much a one-street village whose claim to fame is this annual festival (which happens the first weekend in August). The Festival— In The Footsteps of Royal Chefs (Királyi Szakácsok Nyomdokán)—is a Renaissance festival complete with actors in costumes, elaborate food displays and sculptures, and music. But, it’s really all about eating, and eating in large quantities. The different sections of the village are devoted to different guest chefs and groups from neighboring villages who came to cook. The Nagyszakácsi locals made some fantastic rétes (strudel), a restaurateur from Transylvania brought her entourage and cooked up Transylvanian soups and stews in big cauldrons, served puliszka (polenta) loaded with homemade curd cheese and sour cream, and fried some of the best lángos (fried dough topped with garlic, cheese, and sour cream) that I’ve tasted yet in Hungary. Everything was cooked over open fires or in brick ovens; breads were mixed, kneaded, and baked in the open; and the displays were meant to invoke Medieval decadence. Other highlights included halászlé (fisherman’s soup) cooked in ceramic pots next to a fire, lots of tasty stuffed breads, and did I mention the lángos? It may be Hungary’s

biggest food festival, and keeping with its goal to keep things as they were in Medieval times, the quality of the food is excellent and its all homemade. If you go next year, be aware that there’s no accommodation in Nagyszakácsi or the surrounding villages (either stay in Kaposvár like we did, or somewhere in Southern Balaton).