Europe we LOVE YOU: day 2// Vajdahunyad Vár: Vajdahunyad Castle

Just behind Hero's Square we explored this "castle" (it was built in the late 1800's for a celebration so was never really used as castle per-say)
It's surrounded by a moat, quite picturesque, and the building inside the walls are mostly museums now, with the exception of the chapel.

 These crazy love birds kept trying to kiss for every picture we took.

I made everyone try some of my favorite Hungarian chocolate while we were out and about this evening, dark chocolate with creamy pineapple filling, sounds weird, but super pleasing.

Europe we LOVE YOU: day 2//Hősök Tére (Hero's Square)

Such an iconic spot in Budapest.  I have lots of memories running by or stopping by on a Preparation Day with the other missionaries serving in the city.  Sometimes the elders even brought their (very loud, like bullet shot loud status) Hungarian whips to whip them on the square.  It was fun to see it again, so beautiful. And note to all those who visit, climbing up in a skirt is harder than I anticipated (hence the laughter in the picture below). Oops.

Liège Waffles.

Kevin loves podcasts and he's recently gotten me into podcast listening too. A shared favorite podcast, The Sporkful, recently had an episode: "The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Belgian Waffles"  that we listened to while we were driving our family from Utah to Texas.
Let's just say it makes you feel lied to if you've only ever had pancake mix plopped into a "Belgian waffle maker".
So, after listening to that episode, Kevin began to scour the internet in search of authentic Belgian waffle recipes you could make at home, the two types talked about in the podcast are Brussels waffles and Liège waffles. Kevin thought the Liège sounded best so that's what we tried.

Two things to note; first, they really are quite delicious, the large sugar crystals makes for a really nice chewiness and the flavor and density were SUPER pleasing to me. Second, plan a timeframe like you'd plan for a bread dough, with two separate rising times.
The first time we had them (a batch makes quite a bit so we froze the extra, I'm sure you're not supposed to do that but it thawed just fine for us) we just served them with powdered sugar. The second time we shared them with some friends with ice cream and fruit, both types were delicious to me.  Enjoy!

Our recipe mainly came from this blog post (I've included their recipe with our minor tweak below too):
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2015/05/liege-waffles/

Liège Waffles
Heavily tweaked from the excellent Gaufre de Liège Recette Blog and the copious notes of Not Martha

I’m pretty sure these waffles can be described with a Zagat-style collection of every one of my dessert trigger words and phrases: caramelized, chewy, burnt sugar caramel, stretchy, buttery, reminiscent of a croissant, doughnut and brioche at once. But don’t let that convince you; try them for yourself. I did my best to streamline the ingredients and processes in a way that would make these doable but also uncompromised in flavor and texture, making them two ways: one with a countertop rise followed by a long nap in the fridge and one in the reverse, in hopes to accommodate all of our schedules. While the process could be sped up further by skipping the cold overnight rise, you will be absolutely bowled over by the depth of flavor (and aroma, swoon, of the steam releasing from your waffle maker alone) that comes from giving the yeast more time to develop. Finally, I did not try this with instant yeast, but have found in other recipes that you can replace one with the other, but that instant yeast takes a little longer. However, you do not need to warm the liquid.

Makes 16 thick waffles, just about 4 inches across each.

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk, whole is ideal
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
2 tablespoons raw sugar, brown sugar or honey
1 packet (7 grams or 2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
2 large eggs, ideally at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 2/3 cups (460 grams) all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon coarse or kosher salt
14 tablespoons (200 grams or 7 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
*1 1/3 cups pearl sugar (see Note at end for sources) 

*WE USED 2/3 cup SUGAR IN THE RAW IN PLACE OF PEARL SUGAR SINCE IT'S SO HARD TO FIND AND OUR WAFFLES WERE ALREADY HALF MADE AND RISING... (2/3 cup since it's smaller and thus can pack in more than the pearl sugar)

Make dough: Warm milk and water together to lukewarm, or between 110 and 116 degrees F, and place in the bottom of a large mixer bowl. Add sugar and yeast and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes; the yeast should look foamy.

Whisk in eggs and vanilla, then stir in all but 1 cup flour (you can eyeball this) using a spoon or the dough hook of a stand mixer. Add the salt and mix to combine. Using the dough hook of a stand mixer, add the butter, a spoonful at a time, thoroughly kneading in each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed before adding the next until all of the butter has been mixed in. This is always my least favorite step in brioche because it feels like it takes forever to get that butter worked in, but it pays off in a stretchy, layered dough, promise. Add remaining flour and knead with dough hook on low speed for 5 minutes, or until glossy.

Set dough to rise twice: You can let the dough rise two ways, first at room temperature and then in the fridge, or vice-versa:

For room temperature first, cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 2 hours; dough should double. Stir with a spoon or spatula to deflate into a mound, re-cover with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge overnight, or up to 24 hours.

For fridge first, cover bowl with plastic warp and leave in the fridge overnight, or up to 24 hours. The dough will not look fully doubled when you take it out. The day you’d like the make the waffles, bring the dough back to room temperature for 60 minutes, stir to deflate, and let rise again for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

To cook the waffles: For both methods, on the day you’re ready to make the waffles, knead in the pearl sugar. It’s going to seem like way too much for the dough, but it will taste perfect once cooked. Divide dough into 16 mounds. If it’s rather warm and greasy, you can return these balls of dough to the fridge while you cook them off, one or a few at a time.

Heat your waffle iron — I use a deeper Belgian-style one here, which is ideal, but I’d expect these to work with all types — over medium heat. No need to oil or butter if it’s nonstick in good condition. Place first ball of waffle dough on grid and cook according to waffle maker’s instructions. Cook until deeply golden all over, which will take approximately 5 minutes, then carefully transfer with tongs or a fork to a cooling rack. Remember, they’re loaded with molten sugar; they’re very hot. Repeat with remaining balls of dough, adjusting temperature of waffle iron as needed to get the color you want. You’ll likely find that the waffles look more caramelized and glossy as you go on, as bits of melted sugar stay behind and gloss the next waffles; this is the best part.

Keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven if you plan to eat them right away. As the waffles cool, they will harden and you will likely think “what a ruse! What a terrible recipe!” but the hardness comes from that melted sugar firming up, and will soften again when you rewarm them. These waffles should always be eaten warm.

To serve: You can serve these any number of ways: with ice cream or whipped cream, Nutella and/or sliced fruit but I adore them plain and always warm. There’s so much flavor, they don’t even need a dusting of powdered sugar to feel finished.

Keep leftover waffles, should such a thing exist, in the freezer. If you’re making the full batch with the express intent of freezing them, you might want to cook them to half-a-shade lighter, so that when they’re reheated in a 200 degree oven, they won’t get too dark.

Cleaning up: As you make more and more of these waffles, the melted sugar might pile deliciously up on your waffle iron. As I mentioned above, I’ve fallen in love witha waffle maker with removable plates and sure didn’t mind the ease with which I cleaned this up. But don’t fret if you’re stuck with the well, stuck, kind, even if it’s coated with hardened caramel because warm water melts sugar, 100% of the time. Thus, a rubbing even a non-abrasive soaked in warm water back and forth over any sugar-hardened bits will dissolve them.

Europe we LOVE YOU: day 2// Szent István's Bazilika (St. Stephen's Basilica)

On our trip I was surprised over and over again by the massive scale, elaborate and rich designs and general splendor of the churches and government buildings. And conversely I was drawn to the  details, with such huge structures the little details were almost always surprising to me. So much thought, effort and money, and the more elaborate the better. You just don't often see similar patterns in new construction. 

I'd forgotten, being back in the States for years now, how different (and rad) old construction can be.

Perhaps my very favorite detail in this basilica isn't structural.  It's the kézi munka found on some of the altarpieces. 

It a traditional hand-made vibrant flower and pepper lacework that Hungarians make and it is beautiful. Beautiful. 

(I may or may not have brought home a little shift dress for sister with kézi munka on it.... I have a cherished piece made and given to me by a woman I had the chance to get to know and teach while I was serving as a missionary framed and hanging up in my family room. I have a couple other pieces I purchased too (tablecloths, etc...) but I'm too afraid to get those out with three babies living in my house.  Lace tangent.... If you ever get to go to Hungary, be sure to look for it in the markets or better yet from a sweet néni selling her own work.)

Europe we LOVE YOU: day 2//August 25th//Budapest

Parliament Building.

So I started our trip feeling pretty haggard, as I mentioned in the last post, since I hadn't slept for 48 hours in essence.

On the blue line heading into Budapest our first morning.

subway map.

But we made it to Budapest. We got a 24 hour "csoport jegy" (group ticket) for all the public transportation from a BKV (public transport) counter in the airport and then headed out to the curb to look for our bus that would then take us to a metro station where we were boarded the "blue line" metro and road it all the way into the city to Déak Ferenc Tér. This the a hub metro stop where you have access to all the other metro lines. It is also the metro stop that I lived right off of as an LDS missionary for the time that I spent serving in Budapest itself.
It was SO AMAZING to be back, just as I hoped it would be. It felt, in a way, like I'd never left, it was that familiar.

Blue line stop.

Blue line typical escalators.

One of the many long red line escalators.

I forgot how much I loved everything, the buses, the people, the language, the smells (yes even the bad ones), the nénis (a term that means aunt but is used for all the older women), the villamos (lightrail), the mile long escalators (not really but they are insanely steep and long), the smell of baking pastries coming off EVERY SINGLE metro stop.

Princess Pastries.

We were pretty starving by the time we got into the city. And when we spotted a new Princess Pastry shop inside the Déak Ferenc Tér stop (for those who know, this is in addition to the one at the top of the metro station, before you ride the longer escalators out) and stopped to buy some pastries.  They were just as good as they'd always been. And eating túró again was really nice too. (this is a curd-like creamy/cheese substance that is often sweetened and used in desserts. for me it was an acquired taste but many love it right away. and I absolutely love it now.)

We met our "landlord" for our stay, Ádám, at his mom's art gallery, around the corner from the stop and just across from where we'd be staying. We couldn't check in until 2 pm but arranged to drop all our bags off there until then. This is when we found out the lift in our building was broken and that our water heater had broken...we received refunds for each day because of it but the hot water and lift would have been nice too... We found apartments through airbnb for all of our living accommodations and it suited our needs and pocketbooks VERY WELL. We'd highly recommend it.

He sent us in the direction of an Apple store on Andrássy Út nearby because my phone had basically shut me out when we were in the Budapest airport.  One of the people there was (thankfully) able to get it worked out for me and we were on our way again.

We headed from there to the nearest metro stop, this time we took the "red line" to the Széll Kálmán Tér stop that would let us off at Moszkva Tér aka the stop for the LDS mission home.  A very memory-evoking ride for me.  We were sad to see the square was completely torn up beyond recognition for renovation. And I had to snap a shot of  Chinese place Kevin and I ate several times with our district when were both missionaries. When people find out we met serving together on our mission we assume that they assume things (if you know what I mean) so he good-naturedly tells everyone we had our first date at this restaurant while we were serving.

The Chinese restaurant from our "first date" story.

When I was serving in the city I worked as part of a special group called the "outreach group" a group of girl and boy missionaries that works solely with young single adult age people.  All of our lessons, weekly free English classes we taught and Outreach activities were at the mission home.  The mission home in Budapest is unique in that is a several story building that housing, an LDS chapel (two floors), the CES floor (the area for young single adults//18-30 years old), the mission office floor, and the mission home (top two floors). A busy building.
We got to the building and a couple of elders were coming out as we were heading in.  Not only did we want to see the place again, "memories...!", but a good friend of my youngest brothers is currently serving in Hungary and we brought a package from her family that we needed to drop off (shipping is insanely expensive). We also had to pass along some contact info for a relative of an acquaintance of ours from our church in Texas who was hoping to have missionaries meet and get family history info from her half-sister who lived just outside of Budapest.
It was CRAZY how many memories came flooding back. Everything seemed to spark it.  It looked and smelled exactly the same.  The bathrooms. The lesson rooms, the chapel. All of it.  So much to remember. We took Annie and Cole on a full tour of the place (excepting the mission home of course), met a couple missionaries including the brand new office couple.  Since Kevin and I ate most of our traditional Hungarian food in the homes of Hungarians and the only real Hungarian restaurant we knew had gone out of business when WE were in the country we asked the elders if they knew of any good Hungarian restaurants in the city. They recommended a brand new one right near Moszkva (again for those who know, across the street from the Mammut) that had a napi menu, meaning that they offered one meal each day and it changed every day.

LDS Mission Home/Office.

one of the rooms on the church levels

the private garage behind the building. 

leaving the mission home.

We were ready for some real food so we headed over to Kiss Péntek. And we completely lucked out their meal for the day was Paprikás Csirke (pepper chicken, when I say pepper though, I mean the spice we see here, paprika. It is THE SPICE of Hungary, in fact if you get the good stuff in the states you'll see it's from Hungary too, they don't use it as a garnish like we do though, it's what makes their sauces red.) served with their traditional pasta, nokedli. It was really really delicious. We were feeling pretty dead at this point but we had more time before we could check into our apartment.

paprikás csirke

So we headed back on the metro to get back to Déak Ferenc Tér because I hadn't gotten to see my old apartment building yet.
*It was SO NICE to be able to fully utilize public transportation while we were in Budapest, we were ALL OVER THE CITY and were able to do and see so much because we could get everywhere fast.  For those unfamiliar with Budapest, if you visit, it's pretty darn "user friendly" in my opinion and I would say getting a pass while there is a must.
It was fun to be indulged in telling tales of my time living in the city while we checked out my apartment building and took pictures.

view of the street I lived on, facing the metro stop.

my apartment building.

upward view of my apartment building, we lived on the top floor.

me and my building.

view of the street towards Fashion Street.

We still had more time so we decided, since it was just around the corner that we'd do Szent István Bazilika: St. Stephen's Basilica (more here) until we could check into our apartment.  We had decided at this point that we would take a brief nap to see if we could revive ourselves a little bit.  We were full on loopy zombies at this point.
I knew the basilica was beautiful but I'd forgotten just how beautiful and big it was.  I forgot how ornately buildings of worship used to be built. (For all the "big item sites" we visited on our trip I'll be doing separate posts for them. I'll add links as soon as they are done. So that's all I'll say for now.)

outside view.

one inside view.

We staggered out of the basilica to meet back at the gallery to get our stuff and head to our apartment. It was the very last floor, of course, and in true Hungarian style, each floor had two flights of stairs to reach the next one.  We did SO many stairs this trip.  We were again grateful we only had carry on bags.
Our apartment was SO Hungarian.  And the views, I still can't get over the views.  It was amazing.
We took a much needed nap and all woke up feeling so much more ready to head out again about dinner time.

rad wall in the lobby of the building we stayed in (I didn't even count these stairs).

a room with a view.

We jumped on the metro again, this time the "yellow line", the oldest line and completely adorable in my opinion.  Many of the must see sights are off of this line.

yellow line.

riding the yellow line.

We headed first to Hősök Tére: Hero's Square, it was as beautiful as ever. (more here)

Hero's Square.

Annie and Cole + Hero's Square.

Then as dusk was setting it we went to check out a site I had somehow missed for the most part when I was living in Budapest before, then as dusk was setting it we headed to Vajdahunyad Vár: Vajdahunyad Castle. It was beautiful as were the church and museums inside it's walls.  (more to come on that) We took a peek at the Széchenyi fűrdő (bathhouses) trying to decide if we wanted to head back the next day but found them to be cool structures with lots of pools, so we didn't go back.

Vajdahunyad Castle.

Then we got back on the "yellow line" and jumped off quickly to see the exterior of the Opera Ház: Opera House(more to come), since it was still summer break for the company and nothing was being performed, too bad too, because the interior is INCREDIBLE (like straight out of Phantom of the Opera down to the red plush paneling and curtains) and seeing the opera (which I got to do while there as a missionary was like less than $10 a ticket).

This is how all the stops on the yellow line look. Love it.

The Opera House.

We were hungry again at this point so we headed back towards our apartment and ended up on Andrássy Út getting some kalács-es (chimney bread, it's cooked rotating on a cone-shaped rod so outside is crisp and the inside is soft and then while hot dipped in cinnamon and sugar, crushed nuts, coconut, chocolate sugar, or vanilla sugar and it is AS GOOD as it sounds). Then we found a Turkish resturant that served gyros-es. (I fell in love with gyros-es on my mission and haven't found a place in my part of America that even comes CLOSE to the ones you get there.)
I got a plate style (which means it's served over a bed of french fries and Kevin got traditional wrapped in a pita.  It was every bit as good as I remembered, the cream and spicy sauce were AMAZING. We also got my favorite ever bottled water, Szentkirály and Kevin's favorite ever Citrom Fanta (citrus).

Our gyros dinners.

best water ever.

After dinner we went to see Parliament building(more to come) and the views from Parliament of the city divided by the Duna River.  Ah so beautiful.  It's not hard to fall in love with this city.

View from Parliament.

We ran in a Spar (one of the grocery stores) to get some breakfast foods for the next day. And of course while we were there we HAD to get our hands on some TúróRudi (a Hungarian treat, chocolate covered "rods" of túró. Just the sight of the this section of the store made my heart happy.

best part of the grocery store.

We headed home, exhausted again and, after all the stairs, caught one more of the amazing views from our windows before passing out.  Such a fun and exhausting day.

the wind on the escalators can be amazing.

nighttime view from our apartment.