eG Foodblog : yunnermeier - Hungry in Holland,Oberhausen & Budapes

[yunnermeier]

I stupidly left my camera cable at the cyber cafe Very pissed off now but I hope to find it there when it's open at 10!

In the meantime ,you will have to be content with 2 food-unrelated pictures :

Sikló up Buda Hills

St. Stephen's Basilica

Today is the last day of this blog and I must say it was good fun although I haven't been able to update much the last few days (Farmboy was stuck to his computer ,playing Gothic 3 and then Budapest!). Thank you all for your encouragement and feedback.

My last post will be of lunch (unless of course my cable is lost forever) and then we shall sit back and enjoy Davina's foodblog

[yunnermeier]

Kaneel: where do you live now? I really must make a point to try Pom before I go home to Malaysia!

[yunnermeier]

There are some questions I've been meaning to ask everyone for quite some time.

i) Have you heard of Malaysian food before and where (not including eGullet)?

ii) What have you heard?

iii) What do you like about it and what do you not?

iv) What have you tried?

v) And finally, which dish is your favourite?

[Chufi]

Mei, this has been great fun. It's great to see you enjoying yourself, with your hostfamily, farmboy, and all the things Amsterdam has to offer

I hope the rest of your stay here will be wonderful! Maybe we can meet one day before you go home!

[yunnermeier]

My Last Post

I generally don't have itineraries when I travel. I stop where I want, eat when I happen to see a restaurant/stall/picnic blanket I like and most times, I don't make reservations for hotel rooms.

Today, we happened to come across this little restaurant near the Danube. I'm sorry to say that I can't remember what it's called except that it had a white exterior . It wasn't too expensive, our bill was only 8000HUF including tip for 2 main courses, 1 dessert, 2 soft drinks and 2 coffees.

I had beef (tenderloin) yet again which was served with green grapes and chopped porcini mushrooms. According to my tastebuds, there was also some white wine added into the sauce. Very tender. It wasn't TOO special though because there's only so much you can do with a lump of meat. Beef will taste like beef (which is exactly how I like it).

Farmboy despises mushrooms. He cannot tolerate mushrooms in soup or even on pizzas. His dish had some kind of mushroom sauce and despite that, he ate everything! The veal was delicious (he said that. I personally thought mine was better) but the parsley rice was undercooked (there's nothing I hate more than undercooked rice! so gritty!).

We were quite full by then but wondered how we could possibly miss dessert. I was stuck between a traditional Hungarian torte (eGullet-ers have been recommending this!) and the sweet poppy seed noodles but finally decided on the noodles because I've at least have had a torte (not a Hungarian torte though) but never sweet noodles.

This was the best of all. I still have dreams about it! The sweet poppy seed noodles were served with vanilla sauce and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Warm, melty..just great.

OK then, this is the end of my last post. Thank you for not laughing at my pathetic dishes and I hope to learn more from eGullet (I don't trust any recipe on the internet-or even books- except the ones from eGullet!)! I learnt how not to embarassed when taking pictures of food and markets ;-)

Cheers!

Edited November 6, 2006 by yunnermeier (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Thank you for this week. I muchly enjoyed it. If you do remember the name of the place you dined, please share. You've moved Budapest up on the 'must see' list.

Thank you!

[Abra]

It's been fun, thanks for sharing it all with us!

[yunnermeier]

Kouign Aman (what does your username mean anyway?) : Thank you very much for your tips on the spacecakes. I see you have had quite some experience I'm really going to try making Indonesian layer cake (spicecake, spekkoek) one of these days.

Abra: Thanks for your pictorials. I especially enjoyed Ayam Taipan and I still can't believe you liked Pak Chan! Tell me if you want more (this offer only stands if I do go home though! )

Chufi : The Dutch Cooking thread was my introduction to Dutch cuisine and it's a thread I still follow faithfully. Farmboy has requested me to make stofvlees next weekend and I'm going to follow your recipe. I reckon I'm going to be a very good Dutch wife

[ludja]

...

We were quite full by then but wondered how we could possibly miss dessert. I was stuck between a traditional Hungarian torte (eGullet-ers have been recommending this!) and the sweet poppy seed noodles but finally decided on the noodles because I've at least have had a torte (not a Hungarian torte though) but never sweet noodles.

This was the best of all. I still have dreams about it! The sweet poppy seed noodles were served with vanilla sauce and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Warm, melty..just great.

...

←

This looks wonderful; thank you for sharing it with us. These sweet poppyseed noodle dishes are very popular in Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic. I love the idea of serving it with a vanilla sauce.

I don't know if you'll have a chance to answer this, but were the noodles made with potato? Some versions use a handmade potato dough.

Thank you for a wonderful blogging week!

[Jen Keenan]

Mei, please tell the farmboy he has nice hands. I don't expect to change his mind, but do also tell him there are plenty of pictures of me on the Internet, several of them unflattering, and my favorite one is absolutely ridiculous - I'm wearing a terrible wig and a bedsheet for a dress. No harm has ever come to me because of it.

To answer a question or two: I had never heard of Malaysian food until I came to New York. A friend took us to a place I don't remember the name of in Chinatown and we had Roti Canai. Delicious. There is also a chain of Malaysian restaurants in the city called "Penang" (what isn't called Penang?) and there I have VERY much enjoyed their mango chicken. Spicy and sweet and savory, yum! I had no idea Malaysia was so ethnically diverse but to me this means more chance for happiness in eating.

Not sure if this is at all relevant or helpful, but a good friend of mine moved to Finland for a boy and is using her you-can't-work-here time to finish her education. Somehow they have managed to survive - or more than. They're getting married next summer!

[markemorse]

Well, Mei, thanks for a great week of blogging...it's always amazing to see someone else with a completely different perspective on the country you both live in!

I hope things work out for you here....

mark

[percyn]

Mei, thanks for the blog.

While in Budapest, visit some spas with natural hot springs and for some authentic Hungarian food, try restaurant Fatal (at one end of "walking street"). I would also recommend a boat tour on the Danube at night.

Cheers

Percy

[sadie_siamesecat]

Lurker popping in to say that I've so enjoyed your blog! Thank you for sharing!

[yunnermeier]

Wow, it's still open! I could've posted dinner and drinks. Unicum (strange Hungarian liquor) is disgusting!

Ludja : I'm not sure if they used potato flour, all I remember was that the noodles was sort of bread-ish. The vanilla sauce was quite thick and strong but on the other hand, it's not something you get sick off easily.

Jen: I'm going to keep my hopes up. I don't see why Farmboy and I wouldn't work (eventhough we do fight quite often on who's going to do the dishes:D). Farmboy is uh not... physically gifted (I sure hope he doesn't read this!)which is why he doesn't want his picture posted. but is hilarious and very nice..More importantly, I like him hehehe or right..

You have to try more Malaysian food! Or make your own (ie like that ikan bakar recipe I left here )

Markemorse: The Netherlands is a comfortable place to live in and I enjoy the gezelig-ness of it. Of course I wish I've never set foot in this klompen country sometimes but I'm sure everyone away from home feels that time-to-time. Will definitely not go to Wau!

Tejon: Sorry it took me so long to answer your Tokaji question. I lost it amongst the other posts. I'm not familiar with wines , most times I drink bastardised 2-euro bottles of wine so I cannot judge. Also the Tokaji I ordered is not Tokaji Aszu (my Tokaji at the bar -20 euro ,he said if I wanted Tokaji Aszu , it would be 78 euro so you can imagine how unspecial my wine must have been )

Percyn : Where is the walking street?? We leave tomorrow morning, though

And finally... Hi sadie_siemesecat

Edited November 6, 2006 by yunnermeier (log)

[gus_tatory]

herbie is giving me a headache hehehe

←

OMG no wonder! there's 4 grams in that little foil brownie tin?!

this blog is honestly very fresh and fun--thanks for sharing!

[Marya]

Kouign Aman (what does your username mean anyway?) : Thank you very much for your tips on the spacecakes. I see you have had quite some experience    I'm really going to try making Indonesian layer cake (spicecake, spekkoek) one of these days.

←

A kouign aman is a very rich pastry from Brittany.

Thank you for a very entertaining blog. Your youth is refreshing. Your adventures are great reading.

Edited November 7, 2006 by Marya (log)

[MarketStEl]

There are some questions I've been meaning to ask everyone for quite some time.

i) Have you heard of Malaysian food before and where (not including eGullet)?

ii) What have you heard?

iii) What do you like about it and what do you not?

iv) What have you tried?

v) And finally, which dish is your favourite?

←

Well, my experience with Malaysian food consists of a single meal at Penang on 10th Street in Chinatown about a decade ago. Honestly, I don't recall what was distinctive about it, though I do recall a whole fish being brought out.

Guess it's time to return there, just for you.

I've enjoyed your trek through Mitteleuropa and your global cuisine-surfing. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

[yunnermeier]

All the answers to my questions above and the ones I got through PM have disappointed me. I can't believe Malaysia is known just for laksa And I can't believe Singapore is considered having the best food in South East Asia. Let me tell you that Singaporean food is essentially Western Malaysian food (they stole it from us and made it popular) Famous 'Singaporean' dishes such as Ampang (a Malaysian town!) Yong Tau Fu , Penang Asam Laksa, Ipoh (another Malaysian town) sar hor fun etc definitely originated from Malaysia. Man, the other May is going to be so pissed off now

And yes, I do feel very lucky to have found a real Dutch family, living in a quaint Dutch town, in a typical canal house, surrounded by 4 churches ,have a Dutch boyfriend, even know how to make stoofvlees now and buy cake flour from the local windmill..I'm definitely living the Dutch experience Oh ,incidently my host family's friends are looking for their first au pair so if anyone's interested...PM me.

Edited November 7, 2006 by yunnermeier (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Mei:

My thanks for the small world tour. Fascinating places, people and food. It's been great. Your photos of the Dohany Synagogue are lovely. I stopped there when in Budapest and bought my "Passover Mom" (my college roommate's mom who has been kind enough to have me at their Passover dinners for the last 20 years) a matzoh cover that is beautiful and hand embroidered. I'd fogotten how gorgeous that incredible Morrish architechture of the building is. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Best of luck with farmboy and your future travels and plans! I will look forward to your updates.

[markemorse]

Well, back in America I used to eat at this Penang chain that other people have mentioned pretty regularly, the most memorable thing I had other than my first roti canai, nasi lemak, ikan bilis, etc, was a huge pile of kang kung? with lots of belacan: really just about the most concentrated shrimp experience I've had I think.

And in Amsterdam (other than the Wau experiences listed upthread) I used to eat at Nyonya Malaysia Express (Kloveniersburgwal 38) about twice a month, until I moved across town. I'd be interested in what you think of their food. I almost always get the roti canai (I could swim in that curry!) and this ikan kerrie something with buah keras, can't remember the actual name. I'll check next time...

And the only thing I don't like about Malaysian food is that it's so hard to find!

mark

Edited November 7, 2006 by markemorse (log)

[Pan]

Mei, I had a lot of fun reading this blog, and I'm glad you got your camera cable back! I got Malaysian food from Skyway, my favorite restaurant in New York (a restaurant that would be merely OK in KL but serves the best Malaysian food I've had in New York by a pretty wide margin), for takeout and brought it uptown to my folks today. Roti canai, Ipoh bean sprouts, kangkung belacan, udang galah with a "special sauce" (which had belacan in it, among other things - very good jumbo shrimps in that, as Skyway does seafood dishes very well), Ipoh roast chicken (I just tried a bit), and bubur cacak (spelling?). There are plenty of leftovers for my parents to eat tomorrow, and perhaps the next day, but we all enjoyed the meal.

Have fun for the rest of your time in Budapest and a safe trip back!