Went to the Csülök Vendéglő (Pig's Knuckle Restaurant) tonight for some top notch local food. It looks like a tacky Slovakian beer garden, but that's par for the course here if you want a down-home restaurant that rises above the norm. If you run into a place in town that advertises real Hungarian cuisine in a modern setting you're probably being taken.You can tell you are in for great food at a Hungarian restaurant by the side dishes, and they were great here. Virtually every vendéglő (casual restaurant) in Hungary has the same sides - paradicsom salata (tomato salad, usually sliced tomatoes in light vinegar and salt) and uborka salata (cucumber slices with vinegar dressing and a bit of sour cream) are the most popular. If these menu items strike you as more than an afterthought on the part of the chef, then the main courses are sure to please.
Standout items here are:
"Jokai" Bean Soup (with knuckle of ham, sausage and sour cream)
Deviled Carp (fish fillets with stewed onion, tomatoes & paprika, sour cream, oven-baked potatoes)
Pörkölt Csirkes (chicken stew over gnocchi)
Couldn't help but notice that the place was filled with hard-ass local characters that looked to be a world away from the poncified crowds that one sees in, say, the central part of Pest around Liszt Ferenc tér. There was a long banquet table in the back that was occupied by about 10 pugnacious-seeming guys who wouldn't have looked out of place at a pub in central Wales.
A good omen, I thought as we sat down - if you can't make smoked pork knuckle stuffed chicken to please these guys, you're definitely not doing it right.
