Great Market Hall, Budapest

Visiting a market is like a ritual for the both of us
esp whenever it comes to a foreign country
I enjoyed most when it comes to GAWKING at all those beautiful fresh produce
perfect looking, grown on rich fertile soil, these vegetables were almost ready for Ms. Pageant
*ermmm the vegetable category hehehehehehe*

clean, fresh, colorful with spotless skin
the chilies were as big as my PHONE receiver...yes my office phone receiver
well if u compare the red chilies against the cauliflower u'll have a rough idea how big they were

if u wanna go to the market, the best time would be early in the morning
but Spring came early in Budapest, the SUN shone like there's no tmrw even though it's only 9am
the UV rays hit our face and it was awfully painful

Monkey is alwiz the tour guide for all our travels
even though it could be a country that she's never been

as we were approaching the beautiful tiled buildings
with yellow and green mosaic roof, JS kept asking me the same question
"Are u sure this is the market???"

yeah I know....such a beautiful market rite?
it looked more like a train station to me

built in 1896 by Samu Pecz
his loved to work with Zsolnay tiles - colourful ceramic or stoneware tiles
Samu Pecz also designed and built the Matthias Church in Budapest which I'll blog about it another time.
his style is so distinctive and rich.

from the floor to the arches
nothing was spared....everything was very well thought after

Great Market Hall is the largest indoor market in Budapest
it was only a 15 mins walk from our hotel
lucky us :D hehehehehehehe
but it was a pleasant walk down Vaci Ter to the market with so many shops for us to gawk at

JS did not believe his eyes when he saw the building
he was almost kneeling down near the tramways to have a good photo of this building
yeah I know, too beautiful to be a MARKET

Once we were inside the same question repeat itself
"Is this a market? Are we in a market?"

yes I know...it's SOOOO CLEAN
SPANKING CLEAN!!!
CLEANER THAN MY HOME
ok maybe my house is dirty

JS dashed to his favourite porkie stall
yes this is a fresh narket
u can get everything anything from fresh meat to seafood to chicken, vegetables, fresh food
ready cooked food, groceries, eggs, noodles, pastas, dumplings etc

While I dashed to........hehehehehehehehehe

all the yummy cookioes
I dunno which one to get???
they were so buttery and melts in ur mouth

since our stomachs were bz playing Symphony no. 5, we decided to head upstairs for breakfast
there's this famous Langos stall, a Hungarian specialty
If the Spaniard has got their Churros, the Hungarians has got their Langos

it's basically a deep fried bread made from sour cream or yogurt or milk
mixed with flour, yeast, salt and water

there's 2 version of sweet and savoury Langos
with numerous toppings
the traditional way to eat them is with grated cheese and sour cream

the sweet Langos
with toppings of Jam, Cinnamon sugar, chocolates, nuts

a traditional Savoury Langos of salami sausages, sour cream at the bottom with a lot of grated cheese
and finally topped with onions, cubed feta cheese, onions and bell pepper

Since we were suckers for Chilies
heheheheheheh yes I know for breakfast this looked overly spicy
but Hungary has got the best chilies around

the 2 different type of cheeses used were very balanced
underneath the grated cheese were some sliced ham
topped with a few squirts of ketchup
and TONNES OF pickled chilies
HUNGARY AND AUSTRIA has got the best pickled chilies in the world
Monkey & JS were fighting over the tiny cut pickled chilies :P

the dough was amazingly crispy
nothing like the chinese Yu Tiao
its edges were crunchy and towards the middle is really thin

while chomping down our Langos my eyes were feasting on other stuffs
yeah I'm a greedy bugger
without a word, JS knew wat I was thinking and threw me a snarling look

ok I get it...nothing more than a Langos
but those sausages looked AMAZINGLY YUMMY!!!!
eaten with those pickled chilies...oh damn I m craving for it now

Hungarians are really civilised
definitely more than Malaysian
everyone seemed to clean their table once they are done
so we did the same....*okie not me, only JS...lazy me*

we don't see any rubbish on the street
well the market's tiled floors speak for itself...
it's so darn clean!!!!!

anyhow we had a yummy breakfast
stuffing our faces with Langos and local coffee melange
while trying to talk to locals eating alongside with us
it usually started with sign languages, then all of us got cozier and warmer
Them speaking Hungarian and us speaking English
somehow we knew wat each other were talking about
or perhaps not :P

maybe they were just saying that we are eating it the wrong way
or we were thinking they were referring to something else
hahahahhahaha

from our Langos booth we watched the market goes by downstairs
it's a weekday so it wasn't that busy

so CLEAN rite???
even cleaner than our supermarkets T_T

JS went to the toilet and I hated public toilets
he came back a short while later and I asked him how was it?
"AMAZINGLY CLEAN!!!!!"
-_-"
sure boh????

Budapest's Great Market Hall is divided into 3 floors
the ground floor sells fresh produce, 1st floor - cooked food and souvenirs
while the basement is a fish market.

I like the high ceiling which lets in natural lights
and also "air" this place

we spent an hour gawking at food
while ppl were staring at us coz it seems we were the only tourists around then

I like how Europeans are so "Green" with their basket when it comes to groceries shopping
no plastic bags were used
everything including meat were wrapped with paper and dropped unto their basket
which maybe be carried or pulled on wheels

perhaps the next time, we should capture the baskets/trolleys used
coz it comes in so many different variations, designs and colors
very interesting to look at

we went crazy over these dried paprika

I WANT!!!!!!!
at the beginning, we thought it was just some sort of decoration
or a marketing tool to shout that this stall sells dried chilies and Paprika
but these are definitely for sale

and we got ourselves a bunch of the hottest dried chilies that they have
Hungarian eats sweet chilies, spicy chilies, chilies with length and chilies just to add colors to their food

the number of chilies sold speak for itself
so many types of Paprika
I've alwiz thought there's only one type

after an hour of research, sight-seeing
we made a conclusion
Hungarians consumed mostly roots vegetables
they do not have many leafy ones

a lot of pork, they also sell only crispy chunky pork lards *the size of a piece of fried chicken*
a lot of cookies
bottles and bottles of Tokaji - sweet Hungarian wines with a noble rot
and tonnes of chilies
hahahahhaha

though we don't have the facility to cook in Hungary
the sights, smells and colors made us so excited :P
I alwiz look fwd to another market visit

Budapest Great Market Hall
Fovam Ter 1,
1118 Budapest,
Hungary.