DInner at the Soul Cafe

Dinner at the Soul Cafe on Raday utca, not far from my hotel. I had a dish described as "chicken roasted in bacon with roasted apricots and potato dumplings." Roasted in bacon? Mmmmm. Sounds intriguing. The dish was very good. The "roasted in bacon" simply meant wrapped in bacon while being roasted, which is good enough in my book. The bed of apricots went well with the chicken, as chicken and apricots play well together. And we rarely get or eat fresh apricots in the states, as it seems to exist here mostly as a dried fruit or as a jam. The potato dumplings were more like puffy mini-dinner rolls rather than a spaetzle.

The Soul Cafe was a nice, small restaurant (less than 20 tables) on trendy Raday utca. And you know I'm all about eating trendy! Raday utca is billed in the tour guides as the street where trendy, hip Budapesters go to eat trendy hip food away from the tourist hordes who discovered their previously-trendy hip digs at Liszt Ference Square. In actuality, Raday utca is where trendy hip tourists go to eat in a place where they can think they've escaped the tourist horde at the previously-trendy hip digs at Liszt Ference Square. You know it's not for Budapesters when most people in there are speaking the English.

No big. My food was good. For dessert, I had a glass of Tokaji Aszú 3 Puttonyos, a white dessert wine made from rotten grapes. "3 puttonyos" is the third of five levels of increasing quality. "5 Puttonyos" is the "if you have to ask you can't afford" grade.