The Culinary Delights of the Old Continent – Eat Out Like Locals in Europe

Any capital, large city and small town in any country in Europe has restaurants that offer gourmet and gourmand visitors the best of fine dining, but the visitors who want to get to know local cuisine should take a deeper dive. Any capital and large city has places that serve specialties that somehow stay hidden from foreigners, that are hearty and unforgettably delicious, that use the best and the freshest of local ingredients and have a long history, too. Here are some such dishes to try while travelling across Europe – meals that will reveal to you an entirely new world and meals that are certainly memorable, tried and tested by seasoned travelers, such as Captain Ulysses of Ulysses Travel.

Mouthwatering Specialties that Only Hungarians Know How to Prepare

While most tourists visiting Hungary have heard of the country’s world-renowned goulash, pancakes and layered cakes, there are lots of other dishes that deserve just as much praise, but are much less known:

• Mátrai borzas szelet – the literal meaning of the name is unkempt slice from the Mátra, a mountain range in northern Hungary. The dish consists of a spectacular slice of pork cutlet coated with eggs, flour and breadcrumbs, topped with mashed potatoes, sour cream that you won’t find anywhere outside Hungary and grated cheese;
  
  
• Főzelék – the term denotes a wide range of vegetable dishes, usually consisting of a vegetable variety cut into small cubes, boiled, then transformed into a creamy delight with some flour and spices, a heavenly main dish for vegetarians and a delicious side for fried sausages or breaded meat.

The place places to try both dishes are marketplaces – prepared in small kiosks or in large quantities inside the main building, by people who really know what they are doing.

Budapest, Hungary - a food-lover's paradise

Belgian Dishes that You Must Try

Waffles, beer and chocolate are the foods that come to mind when it comes to Belgian cuisine, but the dishes that you could enjoy in this wonderful country are way more interesting than that:

• Carbonade flamande – Belgian beef is superb, tender, light-colored, flavorful, just perfect for stewing in brown beer. The dish contains some sugar for even more of that delightful, caramel flavor, and mustard for a little zing;
  
  
• Eels and rabbits – Belgians have a taste for meat varieties that are uncommon elsewhere. Eels prepared in herbs is one example, the other is rabbit stewed along with prunes and beer.

These dishes are served in fancy restaurants as well as in small eateries at the edge of towns – wherever you find them, they will be delightful.

Hearty Czech Dishes that You Will Never Forget

Czech cuisine is commonly known as one centered on meat and potatoes, topped with heavy, flavorful gravy and Czechs know how to work with sirloin, pork chops, indeed. However, Czech cooking is much more than that – here is some proof:

• Česnečka – this garlic soup is special and unlike the similar dishes from other countries, Česnečka is prepared with eggs for added creaminess and served with small pieces of cheese or fried sausage crumbs for even more heartiness, just perfect for cold winter evenings;
  
  
• Moravský vrabec – the name of the dish means Moravian sparrow, but it is, in fact, a pork dish, so the little feathered creatures are completely safe. The dish originating in the eastern part of the country, but widespread and appreciated everywhere, the dish consists of marinated, roasted pork shoulder, stewed and flavored red or white cabbage cut into small pieces or grated and bread dumplings.

Both dishes are best prepared in small, local eateries – just take a walk in the town or city that you are visiting, find a place that has checkered tablecloth and serves fresh beer on the tap, you will love it.