Tucked away in a former parking lot on Kazinczy Street, Karaván is a cherished Budapest oasis for the partygoers of District VII, offering a variety of mouthwatering, carb-rich snacks to calm our drunken stomachs. The street-food court closed during wintertime due to the cold weather, but now that the weather is warming up, downtown’s most popular street-food center is open again, and features some new vendors offering diverse handheld dishes.
The selection of Karaván changed in many aspects since our last visit; while a few food trucks left the court, six others joined the scene. The kiosks of Zing, Karaván Bar, Paneer, and Lángos Máshogy remain, but here we take a look at the newcomers.
1/6
Nyakleves
Despite our initial expectations, Nyakleves offers full main courses of traditional Hungarian cuisine, like Transylvanian Székely cabbage and goulash, served in bread bowls. Their dishes are tailored to the tastes of foreign visitors, but even we locals were impressed by the Székely cabbage. Everything is well-seasoned and bears intensive flavors, and the bread bowls’ crust is soft, as opposed to many similar eateries where it’s more reminiscent of dry plywood. The owner prepares everything in a home-cooked style. In the summer, Nyakleves will also offer lecsó (pepper stew) and paprika chicken seasonally. In addition to the larger dishes served in bread bowls (1,800 HUF), those with a smaller appetite can choose the ever-changing daily special (3dl, 600 HUF) – at the time of our visit, this was mustard pork ragout soup, with fried onion or soup pearls.
2/6
Las Vegan’s
For vegans, it’s challenging enough to find meals that are prepared without animal products, and the difficulty level only increases when it’s late in the evening. However, Since December the vegan street-food kiosk Green Paradise, originating from YoGastro in Atma Center, ensures that no herbivore remains hungry when roaming Kazinczy Street after one too many shots. Their main profile is hamburgers, which can easily deceive even carnivore onlookers. Moreover, the seitan burger – served with cucumber, grilled red onion, broccoli sprouts, vegan cheddar cheese, tomato, and hamburger sauce (1690 HUF) – is misleading by flavor, too, as the seitan patty, made from wheat flour, tastes very similar to chicken meat. The sweet and spicy soybean burger is served with a soybean patty, jalapeño, corn salad, and tomato chutney (1,490 HUF), while the Indian chickpea burger comes with a chickpea patty, curry sauce, fried onion, arugula and tomato (1,690 HUF). They also have vegan fried-cheese burgers and carrot burgers (both 1,390 HUF), raw vegan cake (750 HUF), and chia pudding (550 HUF).
3/6
Vespa Rossa
Vespa Rossa brought authentic Italian cuisine and the flavors of Venice to Karaván. While traveling around in Italy, the truck’s owners studied the local gastronomy and developed their recipes with the help of an Italian chef. All ingredients are brought from Italy, from the Parma ham to the pasta, in order to ensure the most genuine experience. The Bolognese ragout is cooked for eight hours, and the carbonara is made with eggs, just as it should be. In addition to the pasta dishes of various flavors (1,500-1,700 HUF), the kiosk also offers square-cut pizza slices in sizes “L” (1,000-1,800 HUF) and “XL” (2,000-3,600 HUF).
4/6
The Street Buffet
The food truck of The Street Buffet might seem like it offers Mexican cuisine, even though it’s more of an odd hybrid: in addition to nachos and tortilla, we can also order pierogis here. The chicken tortilla rolls here don’t have any corn, beans, or spicy sauce in them, as we’d expect; instead, these ingredients are substituted with bacon, which works surprisingly well. The flat bread is made of plain flour instead of corn flour, too, breaking another Mexican tradition – and getting away with it. The tortilla rolls come in variations of feta cheese and arugula, meat, or tuna (890 HUF), while in the case of the chili-bean version, the chili con carne is served in a separate bowl, with the tortilla on the side. All fillings can be ordered in fried pierogis, as well, which shows a strong Russian influence.
5/6
Kürtős Legenda
This new kiosk offering classic Hungarian chimney cake is located right at the entrance. The cakes come in flavors of vanilla, walnut, cinnamon, cocoa, and coconut, and cost 1,200 forints apiece. We tried one dubbed “Szerencsi Pettyes”, which, thanks to the dark-chocolate adornment, proved to be a unique and delicious dessert.
