Budapest, Hungary -- Day 1

The first night in town, we were pointed to St Jupat's for supper by the locals who run the inn we are staying at. Unfortunately, showing up at 8pm meant that we got turned away with what was, as it turned out, a standard catch-all phrase -- "We're full."

After feeling bummed out for the duration of the walk home, we decided to look up the all you can eat, all you can drink Mongolian BBQ that J had visited on a previous trip to Budapest. I had an OJ and J had a sangria, which in retrospect were not the best choices. The BBQ itself was pretty darned good, though the service was rather spotty. The wait staff may have been overwhelmed by the 2 large parties taking up a good 2/3 of the restaurant at the time, but there was no excuse for the grill guys.

I thought the marinated horse was actually the best meat there. It was tender and moist, without being mushy and gross. Some of the meats, most notably their chicken, was dry and stringy. Others were so soft that they had almost no texture whatsoever, dissolving into mushy goo in your mouth without even giving you the opportunity to chew.

The mixed vegetables were good, but a bit sparse. Compared to some 20-30 bins for variously prepared meats, the singular bin for vegetables left me feeling very sad. The squash was superb hot off the grill though -- toothsome, juicy, and deliciously squash-y -- and I decimated their supply in short order.

Overall, it was a fun place to visit, but it didn't quite leave me feeling like I'd want to come back for more. Oh -- the ostentations wank-fest about international politics being conducted at the table behind us by a bunch of kids who didn't seem to have any experience working for their own cash and paying their own taxes made the meal alternately more amusing and more irritating.