Spent a day of writing and wrestling with this blog, pounding it into shape. Then after a man's day of work sitting at my favorite cafe, Sirály, and working on this, I floated out around half-past six and made a sharp left down NagyDiófa utca towards my favorite bar, 6tus. Ordered a Unicum and pulled up at one of the cute Singer sewing machine tables to relax for a bit and have 4dl of Hungary's finest.6tus is the best place in town for a Unicum. There they keep the little glasses arctic-cold, which is the best vessel for this Hungarian fekete arany.
Unicum is the most confounding beverage. As a drink, is a perfect mirror of Hungarian people and their culture. It is, by turns: dark, murky, strangely bittersweet, edgy, doesn't mix with anything, hard to describe, and unlike anything else in Europe.
In fact, when I think of these bizarre complications of flavors and how it assaults your palate, I often wonder why the hell I ever drink the stuff.
But every time I find myself in a kocsma and I see that little round black bottle (the perfect packaging - it's definitely the 8-ball of the alcoholic pool table), I instantly order another one. And goddamn if I don't order up a second as soon as the last of the first hits my belly, happily licking the glass clean in front of the waiter as he waits to collect it. Hello again, Budapest!
