This week we rented a car and Kuah drove us 2 and a half hours to Lillafured. Hungarians drive on the right side of the road so that made the driving easier. We hit some traffic but overall it was smooth sailing.
We started off stopping at a trout restaurant, Vendeglo A Pisztrangoshoz, for lunch. Their motto is “Life is too short to eat only average food!” Their specialty is fresh fish and here’s their history.
In 1932 the Royal Hungarian Forestry Directorate built a trout farm in Lillafured. The family that runs the restaurant started managing it in 1982. The secret to the fish’s great quality is crystal clear spring water and the best quality fish feeds. Their products have won first prize in the finished fishery product catagory and 3 National Agricultural and Food Industry Exhibits.
At the restaurant they make everything themselves and utilize their own smoked fish and plants from their garden. The restaurant itself was really calming with lots of plants and a relaxing atmosphere.
Kuah started with a fish soup, croquet, Bearnaise sauce and trout skin chips. Then he had a sturgeon filet with truffle, kohlrabi and asparagus. I had a carp fillet paprikash, agnolotti, salsa. It turned out that the angnolotti were ravioli with smoked trout. I really enjoyed my dish. Kuah enjoyed his vegetables more then the fish. I usually don’t drink anything but water however, the waitress said they had homemade strawberry lemonade. I tried a glass and it was really refreshing, not too sweet or tart.
For desert we shared the Hungarian sweet cottage cheese noodle pie, coulis, sabayon, fruits. I thought that the cottage cheese pie didn’t have any flavor on it’s own but was good with the sauces and fruit.
From there we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Palota (Palace Hotel). It is a luxurious hotel located right next to Lake Hamori and it said to be one of the most romantic places in Hungary.
We checked in and were happy to see we had a bottle of champagne, fruit platter and box of chocolates in our room. We had completely forgotten we had per-ordered it (benefit of ageing) making it a nice surprise. The suite was beautiful with a bedroom and sitting room. Then we went to explore some of the hotel grounds and found a waterfall and nice little stream to walk along.
The one negative of the room was that it was super cold the first night. I called down to the front desk and they said they couldn’t do anything about the temperature but send up extra blankets. Kuah turned off our heating vents completely, which seemed to be blowing cold rather than warm air, and that helped as well.
The second day we started off with the hotel breakfast that was included. Kuah really enjoyed the breakfast, especially the scrambled eggs with onions and smoked pork knuckle, and decided to have a huge breakfast and skip lunch. Then we went out exploring. My favorite part of the day was walking on the forest path by the lake. It was shady and green with lots of signing birds. We had to climb over a few trees in the path but otherwise it was easy walking.
Kuah and I were also really excited to take out a rowboat on the lake. However, we found it to be much more laborious than relaxing. We thought we’d be able to row to the center of the lake and then drift but the current was strong and kept taking us to the bank in no time. Also we thought we could take turns rowing but it ended up having to be all Kuah.
On the way back to the hotel Kuah got a happy surprise when we ran into one of the Hungarian Rally Teams and their car. So we stopped for a few pics and a quick chat.
We had planned to go on the forest train ride and chairlift but unfortunately both were closed on weekdays. So we had a relaxing few hours before dinner. The dinner buffet came with our room. I enjoyed the turkey stuffed with apricots and prunes. I hope to make it for my family when I get back to the US. I think they’ll all enjoy it.
We started the next morning with the breakfast buffet and then were off to the Miskolctapolca cave baths. These were fantastic. I’ve been in caves before when traveling and they always have this dank smell. The cave baths had no bad smell. Maybe it was because they had no bats! The first area included the entrance into the caves. The bath wound around the cave in almost a circle. The water in this bath was the coolest at 30C. There were several smaller baths in different sections of the caves with warmer water as well. It was great fun to explore the caves and relax in the different pools. The waters are also supposed to have healing effects so Kuah and I should feel like were in our 30’s when we wake up tomorrow.
Not surprisingly Kuah found the perfect restaurant for us to end our road trip, Vegallomas Bistro & Wine. The atmosphere in the restaurant was very relaxing and homey, in an upscale way. Kuah had a spinach stew with podagraf herb and forest greens followed by beetroot ravioli filled with pumpkin, blood orange-taragon butter sauce. The ravioli dish was really nice with macadamia nuts, apples and a fresh flavor. The presentation of it was beautiful. I had a dish that was similar to a large pirogi. It was stuffed with chicken and came in a light cream sauce. The whole time I was eating it I was thinking how much Mom would love it.
Then we each got a dessert. I had a chocolate cake with blueberries, chocolate sauce and Kuah had a Floating island, orange egg, white foam. Kuah’s dessert was light and fresh with a fun texture. My cake was more of a mouse dish than a cake. It had several different kinds of chocolate in it which combined for a rich deep complex flavor. Although I prefer cake to mouse it was really enjoyable. I especially liked that it had different flavors of chocolate in the different layers.
From three we drove back to Budapest and turned in our rental car. All in all it was a super fun and relaxing road trip.
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