Culinaria Italia

"Oh no, what, Italy again?" you might say, and I just nod cheerfully. As I am still waiting to have some time to visit the Greek deli, I have decided to focus on Buda, again. Now that I have been walking around Mammut in the past few weekends, I realized that there are tons of delicatessen shops inside and outside of the shopping center. This is the brief story of how I have found this particular store. I usually don't like Mammut, because for me it's very crowded and noisy, but as I wondered around yesterday, I found this huge sign pointing at a direction and indicating a delicatessen shop. That is my main problem with Mammut, that the place is so illogical and confusing, you just get lost wandering around the small corridors. But this time, I was lucky to find something fun! 

Culinaris

This week we'll take a little break concerning specific international cuisine and we'll have an overview of what we have learned and what is yet to come. Naturally, I found the perfect shop for that occasion! Culinaris is located in the very heart of Budapest, in Balassi Bálint utca, a minute away from our beautiful Parliament building. The characteristic of this colorful food store is that it offers delicacies from almost every national cuisine. It can be very handy for a gastro-geek like me to find everything at the same place and not having to fish specific ingredients from different delis scattered around the city. Let us now get carried away with the diverse tastes of Culinaris!

Asia Shop

Yesterday afternoon I decided to accompany my aunt to the big market on Vámház körút and she mentioned that there was a superb Asian delicatessen shop right next door, so I peeked in. Wow! There is nothing (and when I say it, I literally mean NOTHING) you cannot find in this enormous food paradise! I found it especially amazing, as this was the first shop that I haven't visited before, which is strange, because I have walked around this place probably more than a thousand times. With this, I welcome you to the diverse culinary world of Asia, and even more!

Easy Parmesan Risotto

This recipe is very simple and yet quite delicious. Risotto can be made a hundred other ways, but I think this is a good basis to start with and then we can get more creative. It takes less than half an hour to make it! 

Pomo D'Oro

The small delicatessen shop that is located immediately next to the roomy gourmet restaurant under the same name (Trattoria Pomo D'Oro) seems almost invisible to the eye in the busy city centre of Budapest. However, if the person who happens to be erring around decides to take a look inside, the little store reveals its array of Italian flavors and fragrances. All the people that I have spoken with said that Italian cuisine is not simply a field of gastronomy: it is a lifestyle; a way of experiencing and enjoying the savor of life as well as acknowledging a long history of tradition. Gastronomia Pomo D'Oro with its cheerful and skilled staff, hospitable atmosphere and a wide variety of quality ingredients completely corresponds to the challenge of smuggling the feeling of "Dolce Vita" into our otherwise gray and eventless life.