You’ll need more than the odd lángos every now and again to keep you going into the wee hours throughout the Sziget Festival. Luckily for your tummy, the island offers whole heaps of food, from Hungarian to African, from veggie to meaty to fill your grumbling belly and cure your self-induced sickness in no time. Here’s our little selection of festival must-eats and must-drinks – enjoy!
Hungaricum Village
You don’t have to wait until Uncle Sándor finally pops the question to find yourself in the middle of a big fat Hungarian wedding. Everyday from 5 p.m. you can rejoice in a lakodalom (country-style marriage ceremony) in the Hungaricum Village, with a procession of folk dancers in richly adorned traditional dresses (these happy folks will also teach you a few moves later on), a market with all sorts of handmade products as well as workshops where you can learn how to tie your hair in a bun or decorate your skin with Magyar folk motifs.
As for food, here’s your chance to sample such Hungarian specialties as harcsapaprikás (catfish stew with lots of paprika), Mangalica pork stew, premium grey cattle beef, strudels (it’s not all about goulash, you see…). And if you’re super-brave, try pacal stew – but do yourself a favor and don’t ask what it’s made from until you’ve finished your dish. For drinkie poos, visit the wine and fröccs garden and sample some darn good nectar straight from the Hungarian hills!
For Veggies
Your safest bet is the Bio-Vega bar, offering humus, grilled vegetables, fried vegan sausage, vegetable kebabs, fried noodles, spinach and vegetable bakes and more. Get your five-a-day at the greengrocer’s stall (crammed with all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables, yum) and have a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice. All this, plus vegetarian pizza, oh-so-good Hungarian pancakes, jacket potatoes, falafel, panini and the ultimate festival food, corn on the cob!
Other Curiosities
Batteries running low? Then make your way to the eco-friendly Green Garden where you can idle away for hours with a cuppa Fair Trade coffee. Open all day!
Also, bang next to the Afro-Latin Stage, you’ll find a little market, full of authentic African, South American, Moroccan, Indonesian and Thai goodies as well as the Afro Bar and Jamaican Cocktail Bar with hammocks to sink into. All this, plus henna, reggae, capoeira, belly dancing, samba, hookah and much, much more.
FUNZINE recommends: Töki pompos
This is Hungary’s answer to pizza – a piece of bread dough baked in a kemence (brick oven) and usually topped, in true Hungarian style, with sour cream, cheese and bacon plus garlic and onions! A killer breath weapon but absolutely delicious.