Recommended Reading
Food and Wine
Food Wine Budapest
By Carolyn Bánfalvi
Written by Taste Hungary co-founder Carolyn Bánfalvi, this is the book that launched Taste Hungary! The first culinary guide to Budapest, CondéNast Traveler called it “the indispensable guide to Budapest.” The book covers Hungarian culinary history and traditions. It’s also a practical guide containing the vocabulary you’ll need to explore Hungarian food and wine; dozens of restaurant, café, and shop reviews; descriptions of Hungarian dishes and wines; and lots of local color. Despite its history, its vast repertoire, and its variety, Hungarian cuisine is one of the most underappreciated and unknown European cuisines. This book helps you get acquainted with it.
Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague (Revised Edition)
By Rick Rodgers
Prolific cookbook author Rick Rodgers is a wonderful guide to the legendary cafes of Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. Even if the recipes for such Central European treasures as Esterházy torta and Sacher torta will not be prepared in your kitchen (though in Rodgers instructions are clear and precise), anyone who loves these elegant cafes should still pick up this book for the fascinating history and anecdotes it tells about these historic places. Once second homes to writers and artists of all sorts, these cafes have played an important role in Central Europe for more than 300 years.
Hungarian Wine: A Tasting Trip to the New Old World
By Robert Smyth
Local expat wine writer (and Taste Hungary tour guide) Robert Smyth has been chronicling the Hungarian wine scene for years. This resulting book shows his excitement for what is happening here, and is a wonderful guide for both learning about Hungarian wine, and for visiting the regions on your own. This book can be used either as a travel guide, or a resource for finding out more about the history, the grapes, the regions, the technology, the traditions, and the people.
Zingerman’s Bakehouse
By Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo
Volcanic Wines: Salt, Grit and Power
By John Szabo
Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes
By Cortney Burns and Nicolaus Balla
Hungary: Its Fine Wines and Winemakers
By David Copp
David Copp writes engagingly about Hungarian wine, focusing on the winemakers, the places, and the special grape varieties. Gorgeous photography and maps bring the book to life.
Tokaj: A Companion for the Bibulous Traveller
By David Copp
In this volume Copp focuses on the magical Tokaj region. It’s a travel guide to the wineries and winemakers of Tokaj, revealing where to go, what to drink, where to eat, and what to see in the region. Our copy has been well worn from heavy use on many trips to Tokaj.
Tokaji Wine: Fame, Fate, Tradition
By Miles Lambert-Gócs
Miles Lambert-Gócs has written what is the most detailed resource on Tokaj wine in the English language. Organized in alphabetic entries, this encyclopedia of Tokaj focuses on the historical figures involved in this region, the places and vineyards, and the grape varieties and winemaking traditions. It’s a must-read for any student of this famed region, and it really brings the region’s past to life for modern-day readers.
The Hungarian Cookbook
By Susan Derecskey
This classic cookbook has been in print since the 1970s, and has stood the test of time. It’s a great resource for classic Hungarian recipes for cooks in America (and elsewhere). The recipes are mostly straightforward (like Hungarian cuisine itself). The only thing outdated in this book is the wine pairing recommendations, which seem quaint now that Hungarian wine has developed so wonderfully since then!
Culinaria Hungary
By Anikó Gergely
As part of a series of photo-heavy world food books, this comprehensive guide to Hungarian food covers nearly every aspect of Hungarian cuisine from onions and lard to descriptions of holiday celebrations and regional specialties. There are also recipes. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in Hungarian cuisine. Though there a recipes, it’s much more than a cookbook. Like all other books in the Culinaria series, this photo-heavy volume includes descriptions of everything from paprika and sausage to wine and pálinka. Armchair travelers will feel like they’ve been transported to Hungary, and those planning a trip to Hungary will surely be compiling a list of things to eat and drink.
A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a 19th-century Hungarian-Jewish Homemaker
By András Koerner
This book reconstructs the daily life in the household of the author’s great-grandmother, Riza. Koerner has brilliantly provided an entertaining and complete picture of life at the end of the 19th century for a Hungarian Jewish woman. He had a cache of family artifacts to work with, and he has also included recipes and drawings. Lucky for us readers, food was important in the household, and the narrative is brought to life by descriptions (and instructions) of the foods she served daily, as well as the special foods prepared for the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays.
The Cuisine of Hungary
By George Lang
Half food history and half recipes, this is the most thorough history of Hungarian cuisine that exists. It’s a highly recommended for anyone interested in Hungarian history or its cuisine. Written by George Láng, a charismatic restaurateur, food historian, and excellent storyteller, this is the book that we use as a nearly constant reference. Sadly the book is out of print, but used copies can be found from various online sources. We recommend picking up a few!
(Out of print! Used copies are available)
Transylvanian Cuisine
By Paul Kovi
Paul Kovi, who was a co-owner of Manhattan’s famed Four Seasons restaurant, was just as well known for his masterful tome on his the culinary history of Transylvania. Kovi went to university in Transylvania, and left after the Communists took over in 1947. The book took him years to research, and the result is a classic, combining masterfully told stories, well-researched history, and a ton of recipes.
(Out of print! Used copies are available)
Fiction
Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe
By Mattt Henderson Ellis
This novel, written by one of Taste Hungary’s writers and longtime Budapest expat, tells the story of a young American who ends up as a barista in Prague, resolving to recreate the cafe chain where he worked in Chicago by singlehandedly breaking into a new market and introducing capitalism to Prague.
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
By Julian Rubinstein
The wildly improbable, but true, story of a legendary Budapest bank robber. The book also tells the story of Budapest in the early-1990s, when it had a Wild West-like atmosphere.
Bridge at Andau: The Compelling True Story of a Brave, Embattled People
By James Michener
This historical novel about Hungary’s 1956 revolution is a great read, with tons of insight into the revolution.
Sunflower
By Gyula Krúdy
Krúdy, one of Hungary’s most prolific 20th century writers, is known for his gothic-fairy-tale-like prose. Hungarian food is closely tied in with the country’s literature, and perhaps no other writer captures the romance of the early-20th-century Budapest café society and the magic of Hungarian food better than him.
Life is a dream
By Gyula Krúdy
A collection of ten short stories by Gyula Krúdy.
Two Prisoners
By Lajos Zilahy
An epic novel that transports you to pre- World War Two Hungary and Russia, and follows through until the aftermath of the war.
Embers
By Sándor Márai
The Door
By Magda Szabó
This has been described as “a bone-shaking book,” a novel written by one of Hungary’s most revered writers.
Journey by Moonlight
By Antal Szerb
A Journey Round My Skull
By Frigyes Karinthy
The Adventures of Sindbad
By Gyula Krúdy
Skylark
By Dezső Kosztolányi
Travel
The 500 Hidden Secrets of Budapest
By András Török
Rick Steves Budapest
Blue Guide Budapest
by Annabel Barber
History
Budapest 1900: A Portrait of a City and its Culture
By John Lukacs
The story of one of the most important eras in the history of Budapest
The Battle for Budapest
By Krisztian Ungvary
The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II
Krisztian Ungvary
The definitive history of this devastating battle.
The Great Escape
By Kati Marton
Memoir
Fatelessness
By Imre Kertesz
The Nobel prize winner’s most famous novel is about the Holocaust from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy.
Nobody Knows The Truffles I’ve Seen
By George Lang
George Láng’s life story reads like a fast-paced screenplay. In 1946 he escaped from a labor camp and learned that his parents died in Auschwitz. He arrived in New York with dreams of becoming a concert violinist. Instead, he became the man who “creates restaurants”. He was a man filled with passion for everything that he did, and his humor shines through even when he was at his lowest.
Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America
By Kati Marton
