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Heading to Hungary and wondering what you should eat and drink while you are there? In this video we take you through the delicious world of Hungarian food and drinks, from hearty traditional meals and comforting street food to famous desserts, wines, and local spirits. Hungarian cuisine is rich, flavorful, filling, and packed with paprika, history, and regional traditions that travelers absolutely should experience. We cover the must-try foods tourists should eat in Hungary, what locals actually enjoy, restaurant culture, food etiquette, and the drinks you should not miss when visiting cities like Budapest and beyond. Whether you are exploring ruin bars, relaxing at a café, visiting markets, or sitting down for a big traditional meal, this guide will help you eat and drink like a local in Hungary. Foods & Drinks Featured: Goulash (Gulyás) Chicken Paprikash Langos Stuffed Cabbage Fisherman’s Soup (Halászlé) Chimney Cake (Kürtőskalács) Dobos Torte Hungarian Sausages & Stews Pálinka Tokaji Wine Hungarian Beer Coffeehouse Culture Market Hall Foods & Snacks We also talk about portions, spice levels, tipping culture, meal times, and common food surprises travelers experience in Hungary. If you love honest travel advice, local food culture, European travel tips, and learning what people really eat when they travel, this video is for you. #Hungary #Budapest #HungarianFood #FoodInHungary #EuropeanFood #TravelHungary #BudapestFood #HungarianCuisine Filmed in Budapest, Hungary Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel. Copyright Mark Wolters 2026 Our Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Wolters World on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/woltersworld Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
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0:00
Seriously, if you're gonna eat langos, expect your mouth to get covered like this, whatever you get
0:04
But sour cream and cheese, way better than you're gonna think. But the sweet ones are still my favorite, but I had to get this one
0:11
But, yeah, it's gonna get everywhere. But it's worth it. Hey there, fellow hungry travelers
0:17
Mark here with Walter's World, and today we're here in Budapest, Hungary. And today we're gonna talk about what you should eat and drink when you come here to Budapest
0:24
Because you really will get hungry when you're here in Hungary. Yes, the worst Hungarian joke ever
0:31
Please don't ever say it to a local. Now, one thing you have to realize is Hungary is its own thing
0:36
Now, we're talking about topography, we're talking about the thermal baths, we're talking about the people, the language, but especially the food
0:43
The food is very much its own thing here. Because if you're traveling in from like Austria and Germany, Slovakia
0:48
or you're coming in from like Romania, Bulgaria, and you get here, you'll notice Hungarian food is different
0:54
And probably the reason why it's the most different thing is you're going to see And most of the stuff is the paprika
0:59
Yes, paprika. Not the paprika. I know you're thinking, Mark, the paprika, that spice my mom bought back in the 90s that's still sitting in her spice cabinet that we never use
1:10
No, not that kind of paprika. Paprika, the peppers, the peppers that are here, it's so much more flavorful than that dead spice sitting in your mom's spice cabinet
1:20
And they use paprika in so many dishes. It's so influential here
1:23
I mean, it's so influential. You'll see it as souvenirs. you'll see it as decorations i mean honestly but you'll see it in a ton and ton of food so
1:30
i just want to tell you paprika is going to come in a lot also sour cream will come in a lot and
1:37
believe me if you're thinking like that big hunky sour cream stuff where you plop it on it's like a
1:41
rock no it's more of a smoother sour cream it's more like cream than is like sour cream if you're
1:46
thinking back in the u.s so i know some people like i don't like sour cream but they end up loving the
1:50
sour cream here in hungary okay so the paprika and the sour cream really come into effect but
1:55
If you're looking at the dishes, my personal favorite is the chicken papryska
2:00
And basically what it is, is you have chicken that's cooked in this paprika sauce. It's got cream in it
2:04
Of course, there'll be a dalpa sour cream on there as well. And it's fantastic. And maybe you'll get it with galuska
2:09
And galuska are these little dumplings. It looks like little noodle-y dumplings kind of thing
2:15
They're so good. And when you mix the sauce up, that's one thing. Some people just eat the chicken by itself
2:20
And they eat the galuska, the dumplings, by themselves. No, you want to have the sauce going at everything
2:25
because, oh my goodness, that paprikashka sauce, the paprikashka sauce is just so good
2:30
And the thing is, it's not just chicken paprikashka. You want to have fish with it. My friend, she had catfish paprikashka yesterday
2:36
I mean, it was just a wonderful thing. So those paprikashka things, fantastic to eat
2:40
Now, you're like, Mark, come on. You're talking about Hungary and you're starting with paprika
2:45
Yes, I'm talking with paprika first because it's so important. But kind of the national dish, the one that everyone thinks of when they think of Hungary
2:51
is the Hungarian goulash. And when you're thinking of goulash, you're thinking, oh yeah
2:54
It's that big, thick stew I could eat with a fork. Yeah, it's the reason why they made hearty soups in America
3:01
because they wanted to have more of that Hungarian goulash thickness Wrong wrong wrong You have been lied to your entire life people Goulash here in Hungary is not a stew It a soup and it a soup that has beef it has onions it has yes paprika in it as well and it is really good
3:20
I mean, I love it when you get the bread, too. I mean, maybe it's a little rude to kind of soak your bread in it, but oh my gosh, you want to get every little morsel in there
3:28
But that goulash soup is so fantastic to have. And the thing is, they have tons of really good soups here
3:34
And Jocelyn, in the summertime, she's had peach soup. Yes, peach soup
3:38
Yes, you have cold fruit soups here in the summer. They're delightful
3:42
It's like melted ice cream. But how you wish melted ice cream would actually taste like
3:48
Not that weird melted ice cream flavor, but like, oh my gosh, this is what melted heaven tastes like
3:52
You can have that. But the other soup I really recommend you have is fish soup
3:56
And they have a fish soup that has, of course, paprika with it. And it can have a lot of different fish
4:01
that the one I had yesterday was a fish soup with catfish. Oh my goodness, it is so good. And if you
4:05
can get like, you can get a little like smaller bowl of it or the big bowl of it, you can have it
4:09
as a meal or you can have it like as a snack or as a starter. You can really do that because
4:13
honestly soup starter here are very popular. You can't really go wrong with that, okay? Now
4:18
if you want to have that Hungarian goulash that your parents told you about, well here it's not
4:24
like I said, it's not goulash, it's pyrkot. I know I'm butchering the language, but pyrkot
4:29
is basically that beef stew because it has the beef the paprika you know these kind of things
4:34
and what's nice about it it is that kind of like when i think about hungarian goulash my parents
4:39
made for me as a kid that's more what you're thinking about the thing is you can have it with
4:43
beef which is more traditional you can have with pork like i've seen with chicken out there so you
4:47
can have that so that's the more stewed one meaning there's not a ton of liquid with it all right now
4:52
another food you want to talk about when you're here is the fish they have a lot of fish a lot of
4:56
freshwater fish. Remember we're landlocked here but we have a nice big lake here. We've got all
5:01
these rivers here. We got just a really great like not seafood but river fish tradition here. So
5:07
that's why that fish soup is so popular because you have a lot of fresh fish here but the fish
5:11
you might be able to get. Trout, Xander, catfish. You can get carp though. Care for the bones of the
5:17
carp. But I found overall they do a very good job of filetting the fish or if they bring it to you
5:21
because we've had it where it's literally like here's like Jocelyn had the whole trout given to her. Liam had the fried zander and he loved it. I mean and also whenever you see when they say
5:29
tartar sauce don't think of it as tartar sauce. Think of it as a fantastic tasty sauce that goes
5:35
great with the little potatoes or goes great with the fish because a lot of people think tartar
5:40
sauce they just think oh it's just mayonnaise with some spices. No here it's a true sauce and
5:45
it's actually really really good. Now another dish you can get when you're here and this is one that
5:48
I love as well is the uh how do I explain it? It's basically filled pancakes like you have these kind
5:53
of thicker pancakes rolled up and they'll stuff it with stuff. Now I've had it where it's chicken inside with a
6:00
you guessed it, paprika sauce with it. It was sour cream over top, but oh my God, it was so good
6:05
Cut into that, getting the sauce, the shredded chicken in there, oh, it was so good
6:09
So you can have those pancakes as like a main course kind of thing or you can actually have this dessert so it might have like sweet cheese in it or might have some jam in it on there I mean they so good I don care when you get it You need to have those those rolled up pancakes stuffed pancakes Oh so tasty Now what about when
6:25
you're walking around town? Now you'll see a lot of little kiosks around town. You can grab little things you might see you
6:30
know, there might be a sausage stand, there might be other things out there. But I think if you're going to get something when
6:35
you're walking around, if you see langos, and langos, you'll see it like, Mark, that just looks like a fried hunk of bread. Yes
6:41
that's what it is. It's fried bread. Literally, they take the dough and they fry it up. It's like
6:45
a huge, I guess you'd say like donut. No, it's not. Don't think sweet donut. I think just a fried
6:49
bunch of dough like this. And then they'll put sour cream on tap, huh? And they put cheese
6:54
and they smoosh the cheese down on it. You're like, bread with sour cream and cheese? That seems
6:57
odd. Yeah, it took me a couple of visits here to like actually get the courage to actually have it
7:02
And then I had it. I'm like, oh my God, this is amazing. Like getting that savory one with the
7:07
sour cream and cheese or just with the sour cream, really good. And they got different toppings you
7:10
can put on there but honestly if you want to go to where you're not going to be like i don't know
7:14
if i want that sour cream get the sweet ones where they put like a jam on top of it it's so good
7:20
though i will tell you make sure you get some napkins when you do get your lungs not just like
7:25
the one they give you but take a couple extra because when you're eating that that sour cream gets all over your face that jam gets all over your face you know uh it's me it's it's yeah as
7:32
jocelyn said if you're like a baby elephant in the bathroom because the water goes everywhere
7:36
same thing happens when i eat especially when i eat langos and the thing is those langos can be
7:41
like a streetie for a snack they could be a meal of themselves when you're walking around
7:44
an affordable meal for themselves and or you can be a dessert sometime as well okay so that's why
7:50
i think it's really important to mention those seriously langos sour cream and cheese really
7:54
good or you can get with some veggies on there also well that's got also some other savory stuff
7:59
but you give them sweet stuff too so you can't go wrong make sure you get langos when you're here
8:03
they're really good okay i mean seriously if you're gonna seriously if you're gonna eat langos
8:07
expect your mouth to get covered like this whatever you get but sour cream and cheese
8:11
way better than you're gonna think but the sweet ones are still my favorite but i had to get this
8:15
one but yeah it's gonna get everywhere but it's worth it and if we're talking about desserts you
8:23
also have vrettes which i'm sure i'm butchering it's basically hungarian strudel so yes you could
8:27
have apple strudel or you could have so you like the cottage cheese strudel or you could have cherry
8:31
strudel lots of different strudels out there you could enjoy and honestly the right this you'll see
8:35
it at shops and they'll they'll sell you can just buy it in the shop and eat it that way which is
8:39
really nice those chimney cakes you know the chimney cakes everyone thought was for Prague for
8:43
like a decade no they're actually from here in Hungary and it basically is it's dough on the spit
8:48
and it's just rotating over the fire and it cooks it in there and you can get a lot of different
8:51
stuff on there I like to get it with cinnamon sugar that's more of the traditional one if you
8:55
want kind of like a touristy trappy thing if they try to put it with with you know ice cream and all
8:59
kinds of crazy toppings to add more money onto it. You can do that. It's tasty, but you want to get
9:03
the traditional one. You just have the chimney cake and then it just has like cinnamon sugar on
9:07
or maybe vanilla sugar on there, but it's just so good. Like that's one thing when you're walking
9:11
around, you can grab. So there's a lot of really great foods to have, but what are you going to drink when you're here? Probably the most famous drink like alcoholic spirit here is palinka and
9:19
palinka is just a fruit brandy and it is strong So do be aware of it Also it is not something you slam down you sip it because it can make you feel like you breathing fire okay so be aware of that there also hungarian wine i mean come on hungarian
9:34
wine is really good and actually once you come and you have the wine especially like bold reds
9:38
like you're like man i need to buy that hungarian wine when i go home do they do they even have
9:42
hungarian wine at home yes they probably do and so you have these these egri picave i know i'm
9:47
butchering it but but basically what it is is um like this bold red that you'll see it's all it's
9:52
going to be on all the menus usually the first red they list at restaurants and it's not expensive
9:57
okay they have other great wines you can have when you're here but that's that's kind of the go-to
10:00
bold red you might want to have for the dessert wine anything the toque if you see that like on
10:05
the label that's going to be like a dessert wine kind of thing so you can do that but they have other wines from that region too but honestly the wine here that's what you're going to get you can
10:12
get the beer but honestly this is more of a wine country than it is a beer country so go and enjoy
10:17
the wine when you're here but for non-alcoholic things i mean they have all the international
10:21
brands of soda you can get those when you're here but if you want to get like the local one bambi
10:25
is like a local soda that's here um you can try that there's also sometimes you'll see they have
10:29
like syrup in like in like bubble water so you have like mountain syrup which is basically like
10:33
a raspberry syrup and your kind of bubble water stuff but i would really call those things like
10:37
the lemonades here they have a lot of homemade lemonades with different fruits you can get that
10:41
which is really good and if you're here in the summertime it's super refreshing like i will
10:45
actually get one of those and the wine so i can kind of refresh myself and then go there and no
10:50
don't worry you can drink the tap water here no problem. Also here in Hungary when you're looking
10:54
for drinks yes you have the raspberry syrup stuff you can find that some places but honestly they
10:58
make really good lemonades with different fruits when you're here so uh if you're here on a hot day
11:05
grab one of these it'll help you cool off. Now some things I do want to tell you about when you're
11:09
coming to eat here in Hungary one if you want to get more bread you're probably gonna have to pay
11:12
for more bread just have a heads up for that. Service here I will tell you service in Hungary
11:17
is a bit slow. Now they will do the job and they will be friendly, which is nice, but it will take
11:22
some time and it's okay to kind of wave down your waiter. Hey, can we get the bill? Hey, could I get
11:26
another bottle of wine? Hey, could we order dessert? It's okay. Like don't like, but like, just like
11:32
contact, then they'll come, you know, but they really don't. It's not like they're over the top
11:35
trying to like kiss your butt all the time. They're just there occasionally. So it's okay to like
11:40
you know, make a little notion. They'll come over then order your stuff. So be aware of that. Now
11:44
In terms of eating times, lunch is like 12 to 2, dinner is like 6 to 9, so more like traditional like in the U.S. kind of things
11:50
It is not like Southern Europe where they eat way, way late, so if you try to eat way, way late, you might not actually have a place to go get dinner, so do be aware of that
11:58
So my friends coming from South America, there are no midnight dinners here
12:03
And when you go to restaurants here, it's customary to tip 10%, maybe 15% if it was incredible
12:07
And what you'll do when they bring the bill, you say add on 10%, they'll do that, you tap your card and go, and you're good to go
12:13
So I know I did not get all the fantastic food here in Hungary because honestly there's a lot of great stuff here
12:19
I know I found out there's a lot of the paprika, but there's so much other food
12:23
So tell me, what is some other fantastic Hungarian food people should have? Please put it down in the comment section below so we can have other travelers enjoy the fantastic food here in Hungary and the fantastic drinks
12:33
Anyway, I wish you all the best. I'll say bye from here in Budapest
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