Central European recipes
Central European cooking is soup, dumpling and pastry country. The cheap end of it — the milk-bar and canteen end — is where most of the good everyday dishes are, and they reheat better than almost anything else in Europe.
Six recipes from Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Austria, each with a budget note.
The recipes
Apfelstrudel
Viennese apple strudel with a pastry you can read a newspaper through.
Svíčková na Smetaně
Beef in a silky root-vegetable cream sauce with dumplings.
Gulyás (Hungarian Goulash)
A soup, not a stew — paprika, beef shin and slow heat.
Lángos
Deep-fried dough with garlic water, sour cream and cheese.
Pierogi Ruskie
Potato and curd cheese dumplings with fried onion.
Żurek
Sour rye soup — tangy, smoky, and traditionally served in bread.
The Milk Bar Handbook
Six Central European recipes are free here; the guide holds fourteen, set in the five-country context the recipe pages leave out — menus, venues, bills, receipts, currencies and protected names.
Fourteen Central European recipes, and the menus, bills and labels of five countries.
- Fourteen Central European recipes with metric and US measures
- Five-country coverage: Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria
- Menu and venue language, from bar mleczny and hospoda to kifőzde and Beisl
- Bills, receipts and the five currencies in play
Travelling more widely? The Complete European Table holds all seven expanded guides — 495 pages across 7 guides, one-time purchase.
Get all 7 guides — $45