The great Market hall of Nagyvasarcsarnok in Budapest
June 15, 2026
It was only two days into our visit to Budapest, and I was down for the count with a terrible cold. There was only one way forward.
Cancel the sightseeing. Make goulash.
I had tasted my first proper bowl only the day before, so the flavors and textures of the dish were still fresh in my mind.
Here in the US, we tend to think of Hungarian goulash as a stew with a thickened gravy, laced with a little paprika. The authentic dish was a revelation.
It turns out that Hungarian Goulash is a soup-like affair, flavored with an immense amount of sweet paprika along with marjoram and caraway, served with screaming hot paprika paste on the side. The root vegetables are chunky, but the broth itself is relatively thin. This is not to say bland, however. It was paprika-forward and richly flavored with a hearty stock that could have been made by someone’s grandmother.
So, Phil and I walked from our apartment in the old Jewish quarter to the market to gather ingredients. It was the day before Easter Sunday, the biggest family holiday in Hungary, and the place was absolute chaos. We reached for a bag of onions. A bundle of soup vegetables. Hot paprika paste, the real deal. Beef was on the list, but what was left looked pretty tired, so breaking with tradition, I opted for chicken.
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