Piknik Szendvics: Adorable Hungarian Finger Sandwiches

Ben — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:54:27 +0000

I was lucky enough to be in Budapest recently and set myself to see what kinds of beef stew, paprika inspired sandwiches they were cooking up. After walking around for a few days, descending into withdrawal I finally found my fix: Piknik Szendvics (Budapest, Haris köz 1)! Now, I don’t speak Hungarian, but I’m pretty sure they named their sandwich shop “Picnic”, which is perhaps the most adorable name for a sandwich ever. In the states, most sandwich shops have a bunch of pre-made ingredients set out and you pick which ones you want and your get a big roll full of fillings wrapped in waxed paper to take away and chow-down. They certainly do things differently here; All the sandwiches are already made and most are un-toasted crostini: little, artfully prepared fillings sitting on a slice of french bread. Instead of just throwing fillings on, they make them look pretty. Seriously, pretty sandwiches: take a look, they have an online gallery (click on ’szendvics’ on the left). Who wants some ‘Libamájpástétomos molnárka’? Yeah, I have no idea what that means either. The small sandwiches are either 140 or 190 forin (about $.85), so they’re pretty, incredibly cheap. The big ones are 320 forint (about $1.50), also incredibly cheap. It’s like tea-time, all the time!

Faced with this overwhelming variety and a very limited stomach capacity I decided to try a few of the most outlandish ones I could find, while avoiding anything blended: roe, mussels and salmon (just in case the others were gross). They tasted a bit dry and cold though some of the original ingredients shined through. The roe tasted like salt, thankfully, while the others just tasted cold and a little chewy. They’re not great and I have a hunch they’d be a lot better toasted with tea and an British accent.

A few days later I tasted a ham sandwich at the beautiful Gerbeaud Cafe. This sandwich is what I was expecting: a dainty affair with a toasted roll and some ham. Not to filling, not too messy and not too intense, just a perfect little snack to go with a few coffees. Yum.

High complexity, but mostly mediocre quality ingredients:

See the spread:

Gimmie those little guys:

Roe and Salmon un-toasted crostini:

Mussel crostini:

Ham sandwich @ Gerbeaud:

Simply Sandwiches » crostini

Piknik Szendvics: Adorable Hungarian Finger Sandwiches