Though I love the pizzas at Napfényes Étterem Vegazzi does really great pizzas too. I really recommend their 'lecsós' pizza. One of the most well-known traditional Hungarian recipes is 'lecsó' or 'the Hungarian ratatouille', though imo it's nicer than French ratatouille (sorry). It consists of tons of onions sautéed (you just can't avoid French tho, can you?) in sunflower oil, then the classic Hungarian pointy yellow peppers (‘TV' paprika, which is short for 'tölteni való paprika' which means 'to be filled', has nothing to do with tellies) and lots of tomatoes cooked together (the paprika / tomato ratio can change the taste of the final dish a lot, we prefer it with more tomatoes than usual, adding an extra bottle of organic tomato purée... french again). Seasoning is (guess what? drumroll): red paprika powder (not spicy-hot, though... but whatever floats your boat), plus salt and pepper. The only thing I don't really like about Vegazzi is the pizzas are a little on the dry side - something a bit of olive oil could cure.
We're currently stuck in Hungary (coronavirus situation), hence a short comment from my Hungarian bf Tamás: here are some things that we are defo gonna write to (+poke) them about: we wonder whether they are a co-op? Unfortunately, co-ops are not very popular in Hungary bc when the Soviets overtook the country, they forcibly nationalized all land and forced all agricultural workers into faux-democtratic and heavily corrupt co-ops... time to establish some real (that is, not top-down, but bottom-up) co-ops in this country! (like Gólya presszó in Bp: http://golyapresszo.hu/golya/tortenet/) Second question: do they have any organic plant-based meals? We think there would be a market niche for that... like basically anywhere (the legal differentiation of "non-organic" and "organic" produce is basically an euphemism for "poisonous" and "a bit less poisonous"... which is an outrage! All fruit & veg (+any plant-based food) should be organic, everywhere, not just the privilege of wealthy individuals who can afford to buy the more expensive, healthier stuff). BTW: We've recently learnt from a friend that most fruit & veg in Hungary is GMO-free (unless it comes from the US), so yay for that! Last, but not least: were the agricultural workers paid well, in a fair trade fashion? (probs not, most field workers come from the biggest ethnic minority in the country, the Romani people, who are subject to day-to-day (institutionalised) racism If you liked my review, you can follow me on @veganvstravel on Instagram or Facebook. I wrote a whole blogpost about vegan restaurants and eating out in Budapest here: https://www.veganvstravel.com/2017/10/best-places-to-eat-out-in-budapest.html
and here:
https://www.veganvstravel.com/2018/10/vegan-budapest.html
Go vegan!! :)
