Szeged étterem, Szeged, Hungary

It was quite evident that this blog should not start unplanned. Not with a shitty restaurant that I just have stumbled upon while traveling. And if it happens to be in Szeged, where I am living now, let's start with the restaurant that gave its name to the town. Or maybe, it was the other way around. Who cares?

I tell you, I had quite bad feelings about this restaurant. I knew it got its name back in the communism and it had awful music at its terrace. And this feeling did not get any better when I was on my lonely journey to my table. As there was nobody to escort me there, and the restaurant was filled - with empty tables.

Fortunately, I was assigned to a lovely, smiling waitress instead of the chavette who greeted me at the door. The menu was very long - as it is usually, I mean in Hungary. Surprisingly, only the Hungarian standard Dreher beer was on the brew, so I went for this. Choosing the foods, I made little effort: I went for safe stereotypes.

The starter was the obvious fish soup with paprika, Halászlé. They offer the choice of having a small portion (starter) or a bigger one (main dish). I really appreciated that they gave free bread with it, it showed good will. Just as the soup itself. It was made in a very international way, with good spicing, only very softly hot. The fish was perfectly cooked and well cleaned of fishbone. It was evident that it was dropped in the souped only after it was already cooked with some less good looking parts of the fish - and it is good. What is not so good, if you can tell it by the taste of the fish. And I could. All in all, the halászlé was a good average experience.

Chelsea chicken was the Blues' choice on the menu. It is basically chicken breast stuffed with bacon and cheese inside, and then deep fried. Well, the idea is rather traditional. So was the garnishing: french fries. The taste was rather international. You may think I use this word as a bad adjective. Yup, you may be a bit right. All the main dish would have been this boring without one thing: pickles. The cabbage salad that was on the side of the dish was just awesome. The sourness of it was just perfect, the intensity of the taste was astonishing. I dare to say it was fucking good.

If I have to summarize the whole lunch I had at the restaurant I should say nothing less and nothing more than a simple good. Of course, you will never get fond of thing you just call good.