We did not know it when we arrived, but we were to eat our way through Budapest. It was easy to avoid all the American chains and the tourist traps with "authentic Hungarian specialties." Instead, we found a decades-old, elegant and trusted dining room called Napfenyes, with a vegan menu that recreates authentc Hungarian specialties without the meats and fats. It's in the downtown centre, just three blocks in from the Erzebet Bridge over the Danube, amidst all the glorious and elegant architeture of empires past. The restaurant still has evening live entertainment (plays, song, dance, readings), too. A real cultural and food institution. So our visit to Budapest was not the typical tourist visit.

Elegant intersection	Gracious building

Transit, even from the airport, is free for seniors. If asked for your ticket, you just show your passport instead, and off you go. So we did, exploring this very diffferent European capital. It is one of great blessings of European states that they have kpet their individual character, and you can generally tell them apart just by examinging a photo for five seconds. So with Budapest, whose design elements run to glossy, colorful wall and roof tiles, and Art Nouveau elements for elegant decoration.

Art Nouveau detail	Blue Ceramic tiles	Gleaming ceramic roof tiles of the City Market

Just three blocks north of the great indoor central city market Nagysarnok, with its three floors of stands, street food vendors and endless sweets, is a genuine hole-in-the-wall of a restaurant that made our trip. We made a point of coming back the next day to try even more and make sure it wasn't just a fluke. Deszka Restaurant seats all of 20. It's a former, tiny retail space, where customers are now what is on display in the full sized windows. The menu is so different, it's hard to know where to begin. For one thing, they pick the ingredients for their appearance in the composition: what range of colors, for example. The food combinations run as wildly as your imagination will allow, like silver dollar pancakes with peanut butter sauce and carrot purée with radishes. Or bagel, beetroot infusion with seasonal berries, homemade pesto, French-crusted goat cheese, thyme infused pear, pumpkin seed oil, seasonal marinated vegetable and pomegranate. All on one glorious plate of mismatched old tableware. Unforgettable, much like the stairs up to the washroom, which are little more than boards sticking out of the wall. A great, great find on Veres Palne 31. Unfortunately, no evening service.

Brunch @ Deszka	Pancakes & PB, Deszka-style

By far the best bakery was Artizan, the storefront of the President Hotel, north of the St. Istvan Cathedral. You can always tell a great bakery from a block away, as people are lined up in the street, patiently waiting for their turn at the counter. We bought a bunch of stuff, ate it in a nearby park, and went back for more to take home to the apartment, if that tells you anything.

Artizan Bakery scene	STEEP funicular tram

Yet another great restaurant was Vendiak. A huge and varied menu, with every dish a masterpiece of presentation. Truly memorable. We also came across our share of bad signs, of course. One giant wall mural extolled the virtues of products "Made in Hungaria." And we'll leave you with a plaque on a restaurant wall, admitting to the qualities of the food there. And the Deszka Menu, our favorite place.

Truth in advertising	Deszka Menu