Gastronomy

Balaton wines

The notion of hospitality around Lake Balaton is intertwined with delicious dishes and wines. The choice of food within the region is really manifold.

The rich choice of fishes from Lake Balaton, the vegetables and fruits ripened by glittering sunshine together with the game stock of the surrounding forests guarantee a fascinating flavour diversity for the gastronomy of Balatonalmádi. A galore of delicious dishes bursts before our sight. The dishes of Balatonalmádi and its vicinity bear marks of the cuisine of Lake Balaton and the Bakony Mountains. (Stuffed Rib Pinkóczi Style, Fisherman’s Soup with Fish Bags, Pike-Perch Ferryman’s Wife Style, Breaded Pike-Perch of Lake Balaton, Bro-chette of Pork from Badacsony, Vermicelli with Grapes). The lakeside has something else to offer besides reputed dishes. From among our folk dishes, it was the fried dough [lángos], pancake, fruit strudels, potato and corn cakes that could become permanent favourites with holidaymakers. Fried and cooked dishes are perfectly replenished by fruits grown in the Lake Balaton area. Favourable soil composition and the long hours of sunshine periods lend an extraordinary tasty flavour of drupes within the region. Peach, plum, currant and raspberry are considered favourite local fruit desserts besides cherry and sour cherry. Walnut and hazelnut are mainly used as native substances for cakes and sweet egg breads. Ice-cooled water-melon is an indispensable accompaniment to holidays, even if it is not grown in the region, but it is sold everywhere in the high season. That‘s why visitors think of it as a fruit related to the lake.

Almádi belongs to the Balatonfüred-Csopak Wine Region. This very area of special climatic conditions is the home of wines like Italian Riesling, Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel, Pinot Gris, Blue Frankish, Merlot or Zweigelt. The bottled aroma of Hungarian fruits, i.e. the privately distilled brandy [kisüsti pálinka] recognised as a Hungaricum can be found in Vödörvölgy. You should taste the aroma of this unique area while having a pleasant dinner! Wines grown in the vicinity of Lake Balaton have a character of their own. Spending our time in front of a wine cellar, we can experience a special treat with all the organs of our senses, since the flavour of wines are matched by the beauty of the scenery. While looking through your glass you will see the lake bluer, the vineyards greener, while the white walled press-houses and the villages huddled at the foot of the hills become even more beautiful.

More and more events, festivals and wine-holidays are consecrated to the wine befitting its rank, and they offer an excellent opportunity of entertainment and recreation for holidaymakers. Wine-weeks have become regular together with various vintage festivals. Young wine samplings are held on Saint Martin’s Day, but quite a few visitors are attracted to the wine-holidays on Saint Vincent’s Feast Day.

Wine-growers keep comparing the ‘merits’ of their wines in local or regional wine competitions and in order to preserve and enhance the fame of wines, several Noble Wine Orders have pledged their vows. Nine Wine-Route societies organized their visitors-welcome wine-cellar row in our region.

Wines grown in the area of Lake Balaton are national market leaders among bottled quality wines. This fact is true both for the turnover of wine trade and those sold by public catering.

Wine regions of the area:
Badacsony Sub-region
Balatonfüred-Csopaki Sub-region
Balaton Uplands Sub-region
Balatonboglár Sub-region
Balaton Environs Sub-region

Most characteristic grape varieties of these sub-regions:
White wine:
Italian Riesling
Muscat Ottonel
Pinot Gris
Chardonnay
Red wine:
Zweigelt
Blue Frankish
Merlot
Cabernet

Curiosities:

Blue Frankish and Zeus grape varieties can exclusively be grown within the Badacsony Sub-region. The Pearl of Csaba is a specialty of the Balatonboglár sub-region, which is the earliest bottled wine in Europe. The ‘Cserszegi fűszeres’, one of the favourite, spicy wine-grapes of Keszthely was created in 1960, which gained national reputation in the last decades.

Balaton wines | Dishes of Lake Balaton

Dishes of Lake Balaton

Delicious dishes and wines have from the beginnings been an inseparable component of hospitality around Lake Balaton.

Dishes of Lake Balaton – An Introduction to the Gastronomy of the Area

The courses of the region are really versatile. The lake offers different fishes, the forests in the vicinity proffer a lot of games and the gardens of good soil contribute with excellent and tasty fruits for the fine atmosphere of public catering. The work of chefs is crowned by the diligent wine-growers, who produce the famous Balaton wines as the fruit of their toil and provide them for our table.

All these things harmoniously complement our stay near the lake, let it be bathing holiday, active recreation in the open air, healing in the thermal waters or even the new-fashioned fondling, i.e. a wellness-holiday. Even the sailing fellows frequently visit restaurants near the quays once they feel like eating or drinking something tasty.

Priority is due to the fishes among the courses of the lake, and foremost of all is the ‘king‘, i.e. the pike-perch of Lake Balaton. This predatory fish belongs to the Percidae, perch family and weighs up to 9-10 kilograms with the size of 120 centimetres. Its flesh is snow-white, crispy and boneless, so pure and tasty that it is not by mere chance to have occupied the topmost place in the menus and bills of fare for centuries. The classical way of its preparation to oven-fry the gutted whole fish and serve it with some garnish of neutral taste in order to let its uniquely noble flavour predominate.

Among fish dishes a special mention must be made of the Balaton-style Fisherman’s Soup. The description of the classical fisherman’s soup was first put down in the 1800s and exactly round Lake Balaton. According to the cooks of the region the fisherman’s soup is the tastiest if it is cooked from more fishes. Slices of carp or silure are cooked in the dense, tasty fish soup full of paprika and is served without pasta. Its sole complement is a slice of fresh baked bread and a glass of excellent wine from the vicinity. Quite a few settlements organize a cooking competition to decide on the expertise of the masters of fisherman’s soup.

It is worth tasting game dishes near Lake Balaton. Roe deer, hind and wild boar from the vast forests of the Bakony Ranges, Keszthely Hills and the Hill-country of Somogy, rabbits, pheasants and partridges from the large meadows find their way to the tables of restaurants. Just a bite of an appetizer: stewed venison slices in red wine with cranberry sauce and potato balls, or spine of rabbit in Espagnole sauce and dumplings.

One the famous dishes of Lake Balaton ‘was born’ in Balatonfüred at the beginning of the 20th century. The Palace Sanatorium of Füred kept a nationally noted table at around this time run by master chef, Sándor Csáky. He crowned his quarter of a century long career with grilled sirloin cutlet filled with Hungarian ratatouille with paprika [lecsó] thickened with egg and served in paprika-sour cream ‘jus’, which had soon found its way to bills of fare of the restaurants round the lake, and then to the ‘posh’ restaurants of the country.

Another dish known all over the country is a special bean soup connected to the person of our great novelist, Mór Jókai, which had become his favourite food during his stays in Füred.

The lakeside provides us not only with ‘reputed’ food. From among our folk dishes, it is the fried dough [lángos], pancake, fruit strudels, potato and corn-cakes that have become permanent favourites with holidaymakers.

Fruits grown around Lake Balaton are excellent complements of our cooked and baked dishes. Favourable soil composition and the long hours of sunshine periods lend an extraordinary, tasty flavour of drupes within the region. Peach, plum, currant and raspberry are considered favourite local fruit desserts besides cherry and sour cherry. Walnut and hazelnut are mainly used as native substances for cakes and sweet egg breads.

Ice-cooled watermelon is an indispensable accompaniment to holidays, even if it is not grown in the region, but it is sold everywhere in the high season. That‘s why visitors think of it as a fruit related to the lake.

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