For the past three years, Budapest's epicurean experts behind Delibaba dedicated all of their gastronomical knowledge toward reinventing the simple sandwich, with no ingredient considered taboo for possible insertion between two slices of bread. Up until recently, these delicious creations were only available for catering, but in response to popular demand, a newly opened shop now offers individual sandwiches made with local specialties. The offers are constantly changing, and the Delibaba dreamers never run out of ideas.
Let's admit it – the sandwich is
one of the best inventions
in the world. Of course, we're not talking about typical sandwiches with too much butter, tasteless cheese, soggy ham, and lots of ketchup on a stale
slice of bread. A
real sandwich can replace a whole meal, because it is perfectly composed and put together with hearty foodstuffs that are loaded with flavor.
This is what
Delibaba Sandwich Workshop
had in mind when they launched
their catering business
three years ago. After attracting a cult following, this
August they they opened their own shop in the heart of downtown Pest,
to the delight of many locals and city-center employees. Of course, Delibaba still supplies food for parties and meetings, but now we can buy individual
sandwiches
instead of having to buy 200 at a time – and we are
very happy about this.
Since
sandwiches
are ultimately a food of convenience, most people do not think of
buying them
as a particularly
enjoyable experience (some might even have
a panic attack because of bad memories), so anyone
who starts a business of this kind must offer something special. Fortunately, the creative team behind
Delibaba
has a great deal of experience in fine dining and gourmet ingredients, so by using that knowledge towards creating high-caliber sandwiches, they seem to have the magic that will bring them victory by making imaginative types of
sandwiches
that would never occur to anyone else.
The
Delibaba
sandwich specialists
believe in constant change, so the menu always presents
four or five novelties
in addition to some
all-time favorites that are requested all the time. There is no need to try figuring out
a system as to how Delibaba introduces new offers
–
they simply
work with the freshest ingredients that are available at any given
moment, and they make what the three
owners have a
taste for.
We tried sandwiches in three varieties: eggplant paste with tomato and onion, foie gras with cider vinegar and onion jam, and pork with chutney and paprika paste. The only limit of the playful combinations is the creators' imagination. The prices always depend of the size of the sandwich, so
we can eat a small one for 350 forints or a large one for 790 forints, and we can also
have slices of fresh-baked cake for 390 forints. They are also willing to alter
recipes based on suggestions or requests.
It is really important that the bread
is crunchy on the crust and fluffy in the middle, while still being
solid enough so that
the sauces do not drench the whole sandwich. The breads are the only ingredient that not made in the shop, but are instead
delivered fresh
from the nearby
Jacques Liszt
bakery.
In the near future, we can also eat soups and salads here, and they also want to develop a jar-takeaway system, because if somebody likes the pepper stew offered in the shop, why couldn't they also eat some later in the day?
Delibaba
Address:
1051 Budapest, Nádor utca 19.
Opening hours:
Mon-Fri 8 am -3 pm
