Product Description
Each individual volume is a true treasure trove of information: discover the wealth of specialities in the featured countries and their regions, learn about the traditions and distinctive peculiarities of the various cuisines--and be inspired to achieve your own sumptuous culinary highlights. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

very interesting
Love this book. It has history and cooking all in one. The recipes are awesome, and I'm part hungarian so I love trying all the recipes that my grandmother hasn't fed me.

Bought for a hungarian
I bought this for my Dad who is Hungarian.He lost alot of his old recipes and I thought this book might help him to remember.This book is very informational and a very good read.

Beautiful Hungarian cookbook
This is as much travel book as cookbook....really a wonderful combination for someone who is going to visit Hungary or just wants to learn more about the country and Hungarian food.

Just wonderful
I have the hardcover version of this book.Payed an obscene amount for it, but it was well worth it.The recipes are clearly described.I also own Horváth Ilona's book titled "Szakácskönyv," which seems to be very widely used in Hungary, but the recipes are harder to decipher.

Anikó Gergely's book is just spectacular.It has lots of fascinating background information, lots of beautiful pictures, and solid recipes for making authentic Hungarian food.I recently made Pörkölt Csirke (in an Emile Henry Tagine for the heck of it).It came out great.

My other favorite was Spenót which reminded me of the same dish my Mom made when I was a kid still living in Hungary.

If you want to see how obsessed Hungarians are with food, just do an image search on Google for "vásárcsarnok budapest".Keep in mind that this enormous building is in the center of Budapest.You can buy goose liver the size of an American football, or any kind of game you can think of, or fish, or paprika, or garlic, or sausage, salami, etc.If it's edible, they have it.

yvonne
If you are traveling to Hungary, this is a great book to look through. It will help you formulate ideas of places to visit, and help you create a lists of the foods and beverages you may want to try while there. This book is ideal for anyone trying to get in touch with his/her Hungarian roots. ... Read more

Product Description
I offer this book as a troubadour, leading his listeners to a mystical playground. There are stories to most recipes in this book, and they are not based on, or subjected to scientific research, but rather, whimsical in nature. Delightful reading and delicious eating was, is and will be, as it should, through the ages. Attila d' Hun's Storybook-Cookbook is a collection of multi cultural, ancient, authentic, original and contemporary recipes. The author hopes to inspire many inexperienced cooks to create delicious meals to impress friends and family members by reading the stories first. The association of the stories and related recipes, in this book, will go beyond Pavlov's classical conditioning theory. The stimulus will be at a higher conscious level, where the intelligent and curious inquisition will stimulate the reader's salivary glands and taste buds. Easy to follow recipes! Cooking was never so easy, and hopefully will never be the same! ... Read more

Product Description
This cookbook features nearly 100 easy-to-follow Slovak recipes, including such favourites as caraway seed soup, stuffed peppers, braided bread, and Christmas dumplings. All the recipes are adapted for the North American kitchen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Best of Slovak Cooking
If the author thinks this is the best of Slovak cooking he has not eaten great Slovak food.Sorry, I consider this book a waste of money.

Good Peasant Food
I must disagree with the reviewer from Amsterdam. I think this is quite a good cookbook. Though, if you're expecting Nouvelle Cuisine or modern fusion cooking, you will be disappointed. Slovak cooking is, at its heart, peasant food: hearty, filling, and unsophisticated...but good! Pirohy, dumplings, stuffed cabbages, pork dishes, poppy seed and nut rolls, and mushroom soup flavored with sauerkraut juice take me back to my Slovak grandfather's kitchen (my grandfather used dried wild mushrooms in his soup). My one criticism of the book is that, aside from the brief introduction, it contains no information on thecultural context of the recipes. Some personal anecdotes from the authors, and a bit more on the food traditions of Slovakia would be welcome.

not very good
This is not the best cooking book I have ever seen, there are not pictures at all, and some meal might be particular to the authors area in slovakia , the introduction starts with saying from slovak people, which is unknown from my girlfriend who is slovak... When I read this book, I felt like it was written very quickly, it does not seems to be written from someone who got the receipies from his grandmother.However, it gives a good overview of what they eat, I recommend the cabage soup, mnam !!!

A good basic cookbook
This is a good cookbook, with very easy to understand recipies with different variations of recipies like goulash, potato soup etc. ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive and fasinating collection of traditional recipes, including Hungarian goulash and sour cherry soup, sauerbraten, sachertorte and apple strudel. ... Read more

Product Description
For 32 years actress Katharina Schratt was friend, companion, and confidante to Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Written in 1905, Katharina's kitchen notebook contains over 200 recipes for soups, appetizers, main dishes, and a wealth of desserts, ices, and punches. It is a concrete remnant from the paradoxical world of turn-of-the-century Vienna. 15 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent from all perspectives, historical, biographical and cooking
A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I am usually disappointed in my recent cookbook acquisitions. This particular book is on loan from an Austrian friend, whose two brothers are chefs in Austria.

The book is outlines as follows:
1.Introduction:Katarina Schratt
2. Cookbook, 1905
3. Notes
4. Bring Vienna to your table.

Before I review the book, I must say that if you are on a diet, this is not the book for you. I think that you could gain weight just reading this book. However, if you are a fan of good food, especially desserts, WOW what a book!

The first chapter tells about the life of actress Katarina Schratt and her 32-year relationship with the married Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria and King of Hungary that was arranged by the king's wife. I had never heard of Katarina Schratt, but her life story is fascinating, and well worth a read.

The 1905 Cookbook belonged to Katarina Schratt for use in her own home, and was never meant to be published as a cookbook.If you are a very accomplished cook, you could follow her recipes.Otherwise, just move to the last chapter where the directions are much more detailed.

The modernized versions of the recipes from 1905 cookbook begin on page 132 of the book.These recipes are subdivided as follows:

Hors d'Oeuvres
Soups
Vegetables
Main Dishes
Egg Dishes
Desserts and Pastries

The directions in the modernized recipes are good enough to reproduce reasonable facsimiles of Austrian recipes even without a good knowledge of Austrian cooking.My exposure to Austrian cooking is based mostly on my knowledge of the cooking of Trieste in Italy (which was part of Austrian until 1920).Even with this limited knowledge of Austrian cooking I find the recipes easy to follow.

The book provides recipes for the standards:Spaetzle, Snowballs, Vanilla Crescent Cookies, Gugelhupf, Linzer Torte, Strudel,and Sacher Torte to name a few classics.

Reading this book makes me hungry.The dessert recipes, although a cardiologist's nightmare, are a gastronomic delight.

Overall, I would recommend adding this book to your cooking library if you love good food, history or biography's.The stories about Katarina's life make for a fascinating read.The recipes that she used in 1905 are a nice look into the past.Finally, if you love good food, and particularly dessert, you can't go wrong by adding this book to your cookbook library.I borrowed this book from a friend, but I will be adding a copy to my own library of cookbooks.

hungarian cooking
While lots of the cooking recepies outdated, the baking recepies still alive. I do not agree with the listings of so many gulash recepies, there are a lot bigger variety of the astro-hungarian cooking.Anyway I do love the book, there are many old treasures can be revived and used in the every day cooking. The baking is an other story. From the cresent recepie I was able to recreate my Grandmother's chesnut filled cresents, which she used to make for every Christmas. The walnut filling is missing some presoaked raisins, or without it the filling will be too dry. The linzer recepie will need more sour cream too, or the dough will be too dry.These are wonderfull old recepies, all should be treasured by all of us.

A wonderful culinary guide to Old Vienna
This book is fun to read on three levels. First it has a short biography of Katharina Schratt, the close friend and confidant of Emperor Franz Josef in 19th Century Vienna for over 30 years. This is a great story of a relationship that is legendary and inspirational - the original story of the Emperor and the actress. Following this are two completely different but complimentary cookbooks on 19th Century Viennese cooking. One is a translation of recipes used by Schratt and hand-copied into a notebook in 1905. These are brief and somewhat difficult for the modern reader to understand because they were never intended for publication and they are from a different time and place. To help the modern reader 13 pages of notes bring these recipes to life. Yet still, they will challenge all but the most experienced Austrian cooks. The second cookbook is called Bring Vienna to Your Table! and includes modern versions of many of the classic recipes of Old Vienna. In this section you will find all the famous dishes that make Viennese cooking world-renowned: strudel, Linzer torte, gugelhupf, stuffed cabbage, creamed spinach, rice sausages, goulash, tafelspitz, dumplings, spaetzle, and croustades. All the recipes are easy to follow. These are the real thing and not for those on a diet. Treat yourself to a little of Old Vienna and read this book. You may find yourself in the kitchen like I did with my mouth watering and ready to cook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good, authentic Hungarian cuisine
Here's a sampling of some of the recipes: Eggs in Aspic Munkacsy style, Tomato Stuffed with Fish, Fisherman's Soup, Hungarian Macaroni, Hungarian Veal Medallions, Fillet of Beef Budapest Style, Mutton with Cabbage, Stewed Sauerkraut, Scalded Lettuce, Strudel Dough, Layered Crepes, Brandied Apricot Jam, Plum Pastry and Ewe-Cheese Spread. The book includes color illustrations of many of these dishes; pictures are definitely an asset to any cookbook. Also includes a short biography of Karoly Gundel (with photograph). This book is smaller and won't take up too much space on your bookshelf.

The essence of Hungarian cooking
Although this is a small volume; the most basic recipes are included. It's a joy to have it on the shelves to refer to from time to time. A gem. ... Read more

Product Description
Flavors of Hungary is not only an outstanding collection of authentic recipes but also a bittersweet memoir of the author's homeland as seen through its unique cuisine. Though she and her family were imprisoned by occupying forces, her riches-to-rags tale of survival is deeply flavored with a gentle yearning for her native land and its rich culinary history. She warmly recounts her days in the family vineyards, the bounty of harvest, the festive winters in Budapest, and the first vegetables -- the primeurs -- of spring. The notes accompanying the recipes fondly recall Hungarian culinary traditions that add a special meaning to the dishes. Three generations of authentic recipes handwritten in a battered family cookbook make up this irresistible "old country" collection.

Some traditional favorites included here are the native Hungarian stews, or goulashes, fragrant with paprika; the kaposzata, or stuffed cabbages; the sweet and savory noodles; the traditional potato pancakes; the warm, crusty brioches; and the delectably sweet strudels and tortes. Rich with flavor and style, yet surprisingly simple to prepare, these are only a few of the more than two-hundred stellar recipes found in this collection. For enthusiasts of ethnic cuisine or for those who simply enjoy hearty fare, Flavors of Hungary affords a nostalgic tour through a sophisticated old-world cuisine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Excellent
This is a book that I bought several years ago and subsequently I lost.Itry to locate it in second hand books ever since.The recipes areparticularly tasty and well written.I am not very good with praises, butthe fact that it is the first time that I ever felt the need to share myviews on a book, might tell you something.

Favorite Hungarian Cookbook
I have gone through several copies of this book both through constant use and giving copies to friends who express an interest in Hungarian cooking.As a Hungarian and a cook, I find this collection of recipes both authenticand easy to follow.If you are to have only one Hungarian cookbook on yourshelf, this is the one.

Favorite Hungarian Cookbook
I have gone through several copies of this book both through constant use and giving copies to friends who express an interest in Hungarian cooking.As a Hungarian and a cook, I find this collection of recipes both authenticand easy to follow.If you are to have only one Hungarian cookbook on yourshelf, this is the one.

Favorite Hungarian Cookbook
I have gone through several copies of this book both through constant use and giving copies to friends who express an interest in Hungarian cooking.As a Hungarian and a cook, I find this collection of recipes both authenticand easy to follow.If you are to have only one Hungarian cookbook on yourshelf, this is the one.

flavors ofthe past
I own several hangarian cookbooks, and I think that this one is the best.Not only is it authentic but it also contains easy to follow recipes. almost all the ingredients are available in Israel. ... Read more

Product Description
Date of booklet is approximate. 61 pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best of all Bread Recipes
Most of the recipes in this book have been used sucessfully.Innovative methods make bread baking both fun and successful. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A little Hungarian Cookbook
Five stars for presentation.Darling little book that makes you wish there was more in it. (4"x5")Great for a small gift.It has some of the best known Hungarian recipes.

From the publisher's description
"Hungarian cuisine is renowned for its plentiful use of paprika. This charming volume presents a collection of classic Hungarian recipes, as well as a few wise words regarding the use of paprika. Paprika Chicken, Sweet and Sour Cabbage, Pickled Cucumbers, Sweet Dumplings and Apple Strudel. Each recipe is accompanied by a lovely full-color illustration." 60 pp. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great reference for Hungarian scholars.
I thought this book might serve as a four-language (fully inter-indexed)culinary dictionary, or rather as a French/English, English/French culinarydictionary, and found that it is only indexed by the Hungarian term, whichlimits its usefulness unless you are studying or translating Hungarian, inwhich case it would be extremely useful, though only indexed from theHungarian. ... Read more

Product Description
Despite its vast repertoire, variety, and recipes bursting with flavor, Hungarian cuisine is one of the most underappreciated and unknown European cuisines. There are few Hungarian restaurants outside the country so those who are interested in discovering Hungarian cuisine (and any food lover should be!) must go to Hungary to sample everything firsthand, prepared with real Hungarian ingredients–now by a new generation of talented chefs and winemakers. Despite the fact that last year more foreign tourists visited the city than ever before (36.6 million), there are still no guidebooks written in English focusing on Budapest restaurants and Hungarian food. Carolyn Bánfalvi has written the first culinary guide to Budapest, Food Wine Budapest. This book is a practical guide that contains the vocabulary you’ll need (one obstacle to discovering Hungarian food and wine is the difficult Magyar language); dozens of restaurant, café, and shop reviews; and descriptions of Hungarian dishes and wines. The Hungarian wine industry is young, dynamic, and relatively little known outside of the country, which makes sampling its wines deliciously adventurous. The book will ensure that readers have memorable eating and drinking experiences. Throughout Food Wine Budapest there are also sidebars providing local color and in-depth information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

the best of the Terroir Guides, and essential for any foodie whether traveling to Hungary or not
I bought this guide a couple of weeks before leaving on a solo trip to Hungary in the off season, November 2009.As it was my first time there, and I'm a huge fan of food and wine - this book became my bible for a few weeks.You just have to read the introduction to realize this book is written by someone passionate about their city/region and its culinary heritage who is keen on sharing their passion with the world, not just by a typical travel/food writer.It is extremely thorough, broad in scope from specialty shops to cafes to fine dining, history and evolution of the cuisine; history of the wine terroir and varietals; introduction to the culture and particular nuances of the city, translations, other small anecdotes that make the difference between a good experience and an incredible experience, especially when traveling there for the first time but also if its your 10th.I used this book to plan my entire trip around cafes in the morning, restaurants and shops for lunch and afternoon coffee, and finally dinner.I found all of the information, advice, and detail spot on.I'm now using it to plan my second trip to the Tokaji region this fall.

Delightful and real!
Carolyn Bánfalvi's book is like having a friend take you by the elbow (gently) and guide you through the maze of Budapest restaurants, markets, coffee houses and bars.I first checked out places I knew--accurate and without hyperbole.I also noticed that some bad spots were not mentioned at all.Brava!It is heavy to carry around--I'll just make a list of places I want to go.Excellent about the market halls.She captures the various spirits of the many places.

Stellar book! The best guide I have ever purchased
I stumbled upon this book while planning our first trip to Budapest. I couldn't put it down. It was a terrific read, very informative and packed with helpful information. Personally I appreciated the historical perspective of Hungarian cuisine. More importantly it was very helpful to understand the food and wine culture of Hungary. I immediately contacted Carolyn and set up a tour of the markets during my visit. While this is a review of the book, I can not say enough about the nearly all day tour. Carolyn took my partner and I through the Central Market Hall and then to a very contrasting market just outside the city. On our way back the metro went out of service. Carolyn scrambled to create plan B and we ended up at Castro Bisztró, a hole in the wall Serbian cafe that has become my favorite spot in Budapest.Carolyn's reviews of the bars, cafes and restaurants are dead on accurate. We have come to completely depend on this guide for all our food related needs in Budapest. We have made several trip to Budapest now as my partner teaches a college term there in January. Many of her students purchased the book after Carolyn took them on a student friendly tour and used it during their month in Budapest.We have also given this book to local Hungarians as a gift and they have come to cherish the book! I do hope a second addition is in the works as I have found several of the wine shops have gone out of business. Any food guide needs to be updated over time as places go out of business or move. I can't say enough about the book or Carolyn and her husband Gábor who operate [...] . During my last visit Gábor took me on a beekeepers tour, visiting a famous bee museum and a local apiary to meet a Hungarian beekeeper. You won't find a better resource or guide than the Bánfalvi's!

Great Read and Excellent Information
After 25 years in the wine business and years of food and wine travel I was astonished when, in preparation for a trip to Budapest, I orderedCarolyn's book and after its arrival found I just couldn't put it down.Her descriptions are so complete I feel like I've already been in Budapest instead of just anticipating my upcoming trip. As far as the absence of maps my suggestion is to buy a good Budapest map or just Google Budapest. This is absolutely the best food/wine/travel book about a foreign city I've read!

Insider information on the best food in Budapest
Carolyn Banfalvi has poured her passion and knowledge of food and wine into this book. It is packed with information including essentials on getting around the city, a select list of further reading and websites, an outstanding culinary dictionary and a great primer on the delicious Hungarian wines.

Even if you are not planning a trip to Budapest, it is worth reading for the information on soups, meats, dumplings, and palinka. The coffeehouses and sweets are documented to great detail. This book will not disappoint. It is a great investment on the rich food culture of Hungary. ... Read more

Product Description
Although all wine lovers have tasted Tokay Aszu, many of them probably do not know why it is produced only in this very beautiful countryside.The Tokaj Wines volume of Vinoteca series introduces you to this historically famous wine region and the centuries' old traditions of Aszu wine making. ... Read more

Product Description
The past and present of one of Europe's greatest and most mysterious vinelands is laid bare in this lavishly photographed and engagingly written homage to Hungarian wine and winemaking. With maps and listings of all Hungarian wine regions, grape varieties in use, and producers and their products. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A 'must' for any serious wine library
David Copp's HUNGARY: ITS FINE WINES AND WINEMAKERS is a 'must' for any serious wine library, especially as very few books on the topic explore Hungarian wine history in depth. Chapters pair full-page color photos with details on Hungarian wine makers and regional production and grapes, reviewing Hungarian history with an eye to revealing its major producers, the evolution of the industry as a whole, and its development in perspective of overall Eastern European history. ... Read more