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Visiting A Hungarian Organic Farm

September 17, 2014 by Zizi

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Salanova lettuce

I met the Heroes of Responsible Dining at spring time. They are a group of four friends and a couple of volunteers who believe that saving the environment can be fun! With the Heroes of Responsible Dining initiative they aim to promote responsible choices when eating out or at home. The campaign is organized by the Hungarian non-profit organization Ökológiai Evolúció Alapítvány.

They started a new campaing a few weeks ago about getting to know more and shaking hands with your farmer. Knowing your farmer isn’t about distance, it’s about relationships. Talk to them at the local farmers market, ask them about the vegetables and fruits – where they are from and how they are grown/produced. This is a great way to find out their growing practices and policies.

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Thanks to this campaing I had the opportunity to visit one of my favourite organic farmers, Mátyás Nemes and his family in Fülöpjakab. Hungary. It was educational and so much fun for me and I really feel like I get so much out of meeting my favourite farmer and visiting his farm. On the farm horticultural activities are carried out all the year round, by applying the methods of vegetative growing in green-houses of foil with minimum heating, and cold forcing of the plants in green-houses of foil. Hardy plants are grown on the fields from early spring to late autumn. Some 70-80 plant varieties are produced in a year, mostly for sale on the market of organic products.

Know your farmer, know your food!

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Mangalica breeding at a nearby farm (mangalica is an indigenous species of pig in Hungary)

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Ganoderma lucidum mushroom at a nearby farm

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Purple Salanova lettuce (my favourite)

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More lettuces…

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Kale heaven!

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Baking bread was the high point of the visit!

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Vegetarian Hungarian bean goulash

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The boss 🙂

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Filed Under: travel, Uncategorized Tagged With: environment, farm, Hungary, market, organic, travel, traveling

A Big Place of Heaven: Whole Foods Market – London

June 22, 2014 by Zizi

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I don’t remember when I heard about Whole Foods Market for the first time but it was a while ago. I knew I had to visit at least one store as soon as I can. This waited until June, 2014 when I traveled to London to Food Blogger Connect conference. To make the story short I visited a few stores in London and of course my favorite one was the Kensington High Street one.

At 80,000 square feet, the Kensington home is the largest of the 5 London shops, indeed the largest in the world, which means that they can offer you more of the things that you love. Features within their foodie heaven: coffee and juice bar; in-house restaurant venues including pizza & calzones, wok station, texas BBQ, burritos, & tacos with vegetarian and vegan options; omlette station with your choice of veggies and cheeses; made in-store pastries, breads, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and sweet bars; 3 salad bars, one hot bar and one soup bar with hundreds of meal choices; all-natural and organic produce; etc.

If you are in London, please do not miss this place! 🙂

Photo heavy post!!!

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Whole Foods Market – Kensington
63-97 Kensington High Street
The Barkers Building
London
W8 5SE
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/kensington

Monday to Saturday 8am to 10pm (restaurants close 30 minutes before store closes)
Sunday in-store browsing from 11am; sales 12 noon to 6pm; restaurants open 10am to 5:30pm

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Filed Under: travel Tagged With: FBC, London, market, organic, travel, traveling

#MyHometownGuide – My 5 Favourite Places to Eat And Drink in Budapest

March 14, 2014 by Zizi

 hometown guide

 Thanks to Fiji Water for sponsoring this partner post about my 5 favourite places in Budapest, Hungary. All the opinions written in this post are my own. Click on the image above to enter the competition and win!

*****

1. Szimpla Ruin Pub & Farmers Market (Szimpla Kert és Szimpla Vasárnapi Háztáji Piac)

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The beginning of the 21st century was an exciting turning point in the nightlife of Budapest: in the central area of the city new places were opened one after another in tenement houses and factory buildings doomed to destruction. These were equipped with rejected furniture (every corner there is a surprise like an old bathtub functioning as a sofa) of old community centres, cinemas, and grandmothers’ flats, bringing a retro feeling into these places. They were soon called ruin pubs and became popular very fast among the youth of Budapest and tourists.

Szimpla Kert is one the oldest pubs and in 2012 it became the world’s third best bar according to Lonely Planet public vote. The place has a unique charm that you won’t see anywhere else in the world. It also became a social venue especially when the farmers market opened its doors and it became quickly a local favourite. It’s a great place to meet Hungarian farmers and artisan food (cheese, sausages, breads, pastries, spreads, etc.) makers. There is always live music, children programmes and charity lunch (for meat eaters and vegetarians too) organized by the pub, the farmers and a non-profit organization so noone goes home hungry. The market is held every Sunday from 9am until 2pm.

Szimpla Kert és Szimpla Vasárnapi Háztáji Piac
1075 Budapest (7th district)
Kazinczy utca 7.
Phone: +36 20 5404891
Website
Ruin Pub Facebook
Farmers Market Facebook

2. Organic Farmers Market (Biopiac)

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My favourite farmer couple: Matthew and his wife, Maria

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Organic products are becoming more and more popular in Hungary. The organic market in Budapest is held every Saturday between 6.30am and 1.00pm in the park at the MOM Cultural Community Center, where farmers, agriculturists and vendors of pre-packed foods sell their produce in kiosks made of wood and thatch. It is said that this is the biggest organic farmers market in Central-Eastern Europe. There is a cafe inside the community center that has a huge terrace – overlooking the market – where you can sit down and eat/drink what you bought at the market. It’s a children friendly place with playground and baby changing room.

The community is very strong, farmers are very friendly and you can easily ask advice from them on how to prepare a special vegetable that is new to you. On average 40-50 vendors are present offering a remarkably wide range of products (that can’t be found anywhere else in Hungary) including, fruits and vegetables, dairies, breads, pastries, honey, smoked meat, sausages, bacon, eggs, jams, juices, cereal germs and imported organic products. Within the organic market only products of strictly controlled ecologic farm provenance can be bought. The authenticity of these organic products is controlled and granted by Biokontroll Hungária Nonprofit Ltd.

The smells, the colors are wonderful and the market’s energy is very filling, so visiting the organic market is highly recommended. It’s my favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning.

Organic Farmers Market (Biopiac)
1124 Budapest (12th district)
Csörsz utca 18.
Post about the market

3. Gozsdu Courtyard (Gozsdu udvar)

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Image courtesy of Gozsdu Courtyard

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Image courtesy of Gozsdu Courtyard

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Image courtesy of Gozsdu Courtyard

Gozsdu Courtyard is a walkway that runs between Király utca and Dob utca.  There are seven buildings with one courtyard spanning a block. You can tell that in the last century it was a beautiful arcade inhabited by wealthy flat owners who had balconies overlooking the walkway below. A few years ago it was restored and today it is a new fresh location of Budapest, a lively, social meeting point where many restaurants (with traditional Hungarian cuisine, Italian, Thai, etc.), trendy cafes, pubs, bars and nightclubs serve the guests.

From April until the end of October a design fair is held where artisans, makers come to sell their jewelry, paintings, crafts and food (honey, chocolate, cakes, spices, etc.).

Gozsdu Courtyard (Gozsdu udvar)
1075 Budapest (7th district)
Between Király utca 13. and Dob utca 16.
Website
Facebook

4. Ruszwurm Confectionery (Ruszwurm Cukrászda)

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The Ruszwurm confectioner’s is a magic from the past in the present in the Castle district in Budapest. It was founded by Ferenc Schwabl in 1827. The place named after one of the owners and managers, Vilmos Ruszwurm. Since 1990 the shop has been run by one of the most famous Hungarian confectioner family, Szamos. Nowadays the confectioner’s is one of the most popular sight of Budapest, the house and the interior (the counter made of cherry wood with mahogany inlay) are protected monuments.

The cream cake (krémes in Hungarian) is my favourite one here. It is made from real vanilla custard (mixed with whipped cream… Oh My, it’s a die for cake!) and sandwiched between very thin layers of flaky pastry and then dusted off with a layer of confectionary sugar. Cream cake is a pure naughty delight on all fronts. 🙂 Don’t miss it!

Ruszwurm Confectionery (Ruszwurm Cukrászda)
1014 Budapest (1st district)
Szentháromság utca 7.
Phone: +36 1 3755284
Website

5. Napfényes Vegan Restaurant (Napfényes Étterem)

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Goulash soup / Stuffed pickled cabbage and filled pancake a’la Hortobágy style

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Fake curd dumplings with soy yoghurt (balls of millet covered in sweet breadcrumbs served with soy yoghurt and powder sugar)

Being a vegetarian I wanted to show you one of the best vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Budapest that serves Hungarian traditonal food (and international dishes as well) vegan style. The restaurant is situated in a basement but in a beautiful atmosphere and with a pretty vaulted brick ceiling. After you enter the place you pass by the kitchen, smelling the wonderful aroma coming out of it.

They have daily menu (even on weekends) and also a’la carte. The self-serve salad bar always has a selection of fresh, mixed and spicy salads. Apart from their home-made desserts, they also offer a selection of vegan pastries and raw cakes. All of their dishes are made with purified water. Portions are pretty big so go there hungry. The service is excellent, waiters/waitresses are friendly and they speak English. It’s not located in the center but close to it so it’s worth the walk.

Napfényes Vegan Restaurant (Napfényes Étterem)
1077 Budapest (7th district) Rózsa utca 39.
Phone: +36 1 3135555
Website
Facebook

*****

Show us your favorite spots to eat, stay and play in your hometown and win a getaway to any of the US cities featured in Earth’s Finest City Guide! To participate, just upload an image of your favorite spot in your hometown to Twitter or Instagram with hashtag #myhometownguide and tell us where you live and what makes the image special and you will be entered to win automatically.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized, vegan Tagged With: Budapest, Hungary, market, traditional Hungarian

Weekend Crumbs

October 9, 2012 by Zizi

I posted my latest weekend crumbs back in June. It is high time for a new one. I took a lot of (surprisingly) photos this past weekend.

Saturday morning I took a friend of mine to the organic farmers market. I walked around with her because it was her first time at the market. Early morning the weather was sunny but the fall air was crisp and cool. We loved to breathe it in as much as we could! After the market she invited me for a snack at a close bakery.

In the afternoon I baked Emiko’s florentine grape bread. Although I over rose the dough, it tasted delizioso!

This weekend seemed like the perfect weather for organic farms visiting. On Sunday we visited two farms in Fülöpjakab, in the Southern Great Plain region of Hungary.

One of them was the Nemes Eco Farm (with  the two lovely owners, Mátyás and his wife, Marika). On the farm horticultural activities are carried out all the year round, by applying the methods of vegetative growing in green-houses of foil with minimum heating, and cold forcing of the plants in green-houses of foil. Hardy plants are grown on the fields from early spring to late autumn. Some 70-80 plant varieties are produced in a year.  The garden is open for visitors any time. For groups of visitors, lectures or presentations on organic horticulture can be arranged.

The other farm we visited was the Organic Mushroom Farm. The owner is Sándor Gyöngyösi  and he has been engaged in growing the mushroom variety oyster mushroom (+ shitakee) for 15 years. He also produces the famous ganoderma – a genus of polypore mushrooms. By taking ganoderma mushroom as a herbal supplement (only organic), you will get long-lasting reserves of energy, feel better and stronger and notice that your body is functioning more effectively and efficiently.

Autumn radish…

Kale heaven…

Oak leaf salads…

Bales of straw…

Mangalica pigs – a Hungarian type of pig, it has cute curly bristles…

Ganoderma mushroom…

Huge cauldron of bean vegetable soup…

Whole wheat bread rolls are rising…

Furnace baked whole wheat sourdough breads…

Well deserved lunch at the farm…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: farm, Instagram, market, organic, photos, weekend crumbs

Weekend Crumbs

June 25, 2012 by Zizi

Some weekend crumb photos about the organic farmers market and food we ate. We didn’t do much just relaxed, read books and watched movies. It was a perfect weekend after all.

Cute red raspberries and redcurrants…

Green veggie heaven…

Beautiful summer colours, fruits, vegetables… I always fell in love with summer markets’ colours and smells.

Every Saturday after the market we have a small indulgence at Brót Bakery: cappuccino and pistachio roll are our favorites.

There is a new waffel place in Budapest, called ‘Habos Gofri’, it means fluffy waffel. We checked the place out on Saturday afternoon. Our favorite was the chocolate whipped cream waffel. A-m-a-z-i-n-g and addictive…  We couldn’t stop until 3 waffels each. 🙂

Vegan hazelnut vanilla pancakes with fresh raspberries and maple syrup for breakfast on Sunday morning…

Bank of river Danube…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Instagram, market, organic, pancake, photos, weekend crumbs

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