Cha Xiu Bao

Breakfast Report from Budapest: Raking the Kozponti Vasarcsarnok (Central Market), 4 times!

I am very ill-rounded as a traveler in that all I love to do is to eat, eat, and eat when I travel abroad. Don't get me wrong, I do other things. I even like to do other things. But when asked for what I love to do when travel, that's it. Everything else is dispensable filler with minor consequentiality. Like most of you, I design my trip centre around food.

Needless to say, knowing that there are hundreds of food stalls at the mezzanine of Kozponti Vasarcsarnok (Central Market of Budapest) -- and all open in the wee wee hour of the morning just send thrills of pleasure through and through me. Perfect spot to make up the first half of my day before I hit the famous Gerbeaud Kavehaz.

A Taste of Tokaj

I want to share with you one of my proudest photosets to date.

It just shows how nature works wonder to create such a beautiful wine from Tokaj; how mankind trying to protect their grapes from the harm of the migrant birds with big birds; and how the grapes that's awful to eat ends to be what we know as the King of Wine by some of the best wine makers in the world!

Looking at the eyes of the birdman you can see his trust and love to his falcon. What a proud man this guy is with his bird resting on his arm! In return the loyalty of the bird towards his master couldn't be more apparent. Man and bird, 2 hearts that beat as one.

I hope you can also sense the passion of Mr. Szepsy to his grapes. The man himself is very soft spoken but you can totally feel the glow of one of the most respectable wine makers of our time when you're with him. Warmly, he tells me the ups and downs of his vineyards and his career, the bad and the good years of the wines in his cellar like we've been known each other for many years.

The journey from Budapest to Tokaj takes about 3 hours but I must say every second of it is well worth spending now looking back. It shows me once again what magic of food/wine can bring to me. The wine inside the bottle is simple -- yet, there's no end of the knowledge and wisdom with it. The interwoven of the people, culture, history and memory behind never fails to fascinate me.

Thank you, Mr. Szepsy, thank you for all this!

[You may also glance the pictures here in thumbnail mode]