Hungary Can Appease All Kinds of Appetites

Hungarians call the dark red and robust wine of Eger “Bull’s Blood,” and it’s as apt a phrase as any for describing the strength and dauntless courage shown by the citizens of this city in north-central Hungary when they repulsed the Turkish sweep northeastward in the 16th Century.

In 1552, with all of Europe nervously watching the Ottoman Empire’s relentless wave of conquest, 2,000 men and women of Eger holed up in the town’s castle fortress, and held off 12,000 Turks in a series of fierce and bloody battles.

While Bull’s Blood is Eger’s most noted wine, the entire Eger Valley is a colorful panoply of vineyards clinging to the hills. Innumerable cellar-taverns are carved into the chalk cliffs, and signs saying Bor Vasor (Wine for Sale) seem to hang from every farm doorway in the countryside. A favorite pastime of locals is to meet in these long, cool and intimate taverns for an evening of sampling the local product with abandon, gypsy music and songs.

Turkish attacks on Hungary throughout the 16th and 17th Centuries were relentless and in 1596, Eger finally fell. Yet all the mayhem, bloodshed and destruction seems very much at odds with the beauty and tranquillity of Eger today. It is, after Budapest and Sopron, Hungary’s most historic city, with 175 monuments, baroque palaces, churches and other handsome buildings important in its history.

Eger is also a major center for Hungarian folk art, with the nearby towns of Mezokovesd, Szentistvan and Tard particularly noted for their embroidery and other traditional handicrafts. But Eger’s incomparable attraction is still just walking its narrow streets and basking in the beauty of its lovely old buildings and many squares, including the town’s spectacular minaret marking the northernmost advance of the Turkish drive into Europe.

How long/how much? Give Eger a day or two. It is also an excellent center for forays into the Bukk hills and valleys, which are speckled with charming little villages, or down onto the stark and endless plains of the Puszta. Lodging costs are unbelievably inexpensive, and dining on colorful and piquant Hungarian food costs a mere pittance.

Getting settled in: Hotel Senator Haz, at the center of the Old Town section, is a fetching small place of but 11 rooms, with an attractive lobby filled with deep leather furniture and large pots filled with flowering miniature fruit-trees. Bedrooms in this 18th-Century house near the town castle are fresh and neat, linens crisp and bright green shutters frame the windows.

The Minaret, another small hotel nearby on Minaret Square, is cut from the same bolt as the Senator Haz: contemporary bedrooms, TV, mini-bars and fine views of the town castle from the back rooms. It’s also a mite cheaper.

Hotel Flora, 3 years old and just outside Old Town, caters to the Hungarian weakness for spas with underwater massages, sauna, solarium and other curative measures. It’s a big place for neo-folk architecture, with tennis court and lots of other family-oriented activities.

Regional food and drink: Hungarian food is the best in central Europe by a couple of leagues in our book, thanks mainly to the liberal use of the country’s traditional fresh red, green and yellow peppers, which are always loaded with flavor but not always spicy. Yellow peppers, scrambled with eggs, make a breakfast fit for royalty. Or ask the morning chef to whip up a batch of lecso : red peppers, onions, tomatoes and sausage scrambled with eggs, no less divine.

Fresh peppers also figure into porkolt , a pottage of pork, beef, mutton, poultry or game stewed with peppers and other spices. And chicken paprika, made with peppers, is right up there with stuffed cabbage and goulash among Hungary’s favorite dishes.

In addition to Egri bikaver (Eger’s Bull’s Blood), try the honey-colored Egri leanyka (Girl of Eger) and the world-renowned tokays, either dry or semi-sweet, from just up the road.

Good local dining: Restaurant Talizman (Kossuth utca 23), in a cellar at the foot of Castle Hill, is run with a great deal of friendly enthusiasm by Laszlo Marosfalvi and his wife, Katalin. It’s a wood-paneled place, simple, with paper napkins, but the kitchen really knows its way with Hungarian food.

Try the goose with cabbage and basil ($3.15) or the grilled goose liver with potatoes ($4.15). A venison ragout with potatoes goes for $2.35, and the house specialty is the Talizman plate: tenderloin steak with onions, chicken breast braised in butter, and fried duck liver and sausage in tomato sauce, all for $3.15.

The Weisser Hirsch (Klapka Gyorgy utca 8) is another cellar just around the corner from Hotel Eger. An evening meal at the White Stag is like dining in a hunting lodge, with wild boar, deer, chamois heads and game birds covering the walls, game dishes blanketing the menu.

Start with caviar, wild boar soup with sour cream or a Hungarian hunter’s plate of dried meats, all about $1.50; then a cassoulet of goose with red cabbage, leg of wild boar, fillet of stag or venison. The cassoulet is $2.75, all others just below $5. Dinner only here.

Restaurant Mecset (Torony utca 1) is in the shadow of its namesake minaret, a small and intimate room with carnations on the tables, hanging green plants and soothing classical music adding to the ambience. There’s a plate for two at Mecset that gives you cold sliced beef with mustard and onions, chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, baked goose liver and pork cutlet garnished with vegetables. This princely spread goes for $5.60, and the desserts of crepes or numerous pastries are about 75 cents.

On your own: Start with a walk up to the town castle and then down to Dobo Stvan Square, the city’s medieval marketplace, and a look at the lovely Church of the Minorites (Franciscans) and the statue to Eger’s defenders in 1552. The church, inside and out, is a beautiful example of late Baroque architecture.

By all means, make a late-afternoon or evening visit to the wine cellars of Szepasszonyvolgy (Valley of Beautiful Women) on the edge of town and join locals in a carafe of wine and, perhaps, a few songs. We stopped in at Kodmoncsarda, where the best local wines are about $2 per carafe.

GUIDEBOOK

Eger, Hungary

Getting there: Fly KLM, Swissair, Delta or SAS to Budapest, then take a train or rent a car for the 77 miles to Eger. An advance-purchase, round-trip air ticket to Budapest is about $1,026, the Eger train fare about $9 round trip.

Accommodations: Hotel Senator Haz (Dobo Stvan 11; $33-$46 double B&B;); Minaret (Harangonto 5; $34 B&B; double); Hotel Flora (Furdo utca 5; $42-$46 double B&B;); Hotel Eger (Szalloda utca 1, $46 double B&B;).

For more information: Call Hungarian Hotels at (213) 649-5960, or write (6033 W. Century Blvd., Suite 670, Los Angeles 90045) for a brochure on northern Hungary, including Eger, plus a map.