Monday

To continue my story of our Hungarian trip here is another thought.

Yesterday I noted that big name restaurant do not necessarily provide the best of whatever they provide. They probably are glitzy, they require reservation, they are probably crowded because people think those are the places where one has to be seen. They have vast menus but when it comes to quality it is not a certain thing that these are the places where the best food can be found.

This rule also applies to pastry shops. Budapest has more pastry shops than New York has pizza parlors. And believe me New York has a lot of pizza parlors.

There are some big name pastry shops like Gerbeaud, Ruszwurm, New York Pastry Shop and a few more I'm sure. But none of these has real quality merchandise. They cater to the tourist industry who wouldn't know what they are eating. The really good pastry shops are known to the locals and they don't want the wide public to know about them.

But we were lucky enough to discover a few and we took full advantage of this find.

We visited the Duna Park Cukraszda several times because we liked their product, the place and the friendliness of the staff. And also the wide selection of their pastries.

We were also lucky enough to find Daubner Cukraszda in Obuda, in the first district. This is a family owned pastry shop where people who know about them come from all corners of the city. Their pastries are superb, fresh and they have a very large selection.

There are also countless neighborhood pastry shops who would go out of business if their products would not live up to their clients' expectations. These stores also take pride in their products.

The big stores should learn from these smaller operators that their fancy designs are not necessarily cover good products.

Anyway it was a lot of fun to taste our way through the city, cholesterol not withstanding.