Bad Gastein
There are several more or less pretentious hotels in Gastein, but perhaps the most reliable for feeding purposes is the Badeschloss; it is rather old-fashioned, but good of its kind. It was formerly the palace of the Cardinal Bishops. The hot-water springs, discovered in A.D. 680, have their source close to the hotel.
Budapesth
The most distinctive feature of Hungarian cookery is the use of paprika, the national pepper. A Goulache, as it is usually written on menus, or Gulyas as the Hungarians call it, is a ragout in which the pepper plays an important part. The Paprikahuhn is a chicken stewed or baked with the pepper, which is very pleasant tasting. Pork served with a sharp-tasting purée in which cranberries play a rolé, and other combinations of meat and fruit, brought together very much as we Britons take red current jelly with hare and mutton, are all part of the national cookery. The entrails of animals are used to make some of the dishes; pork, from the innocent sucking pig to the great wild boar, veal, pickled or fresh, and calves lungs in vinegar are all treated as national dishes.
The wines of the country are well known to all Anglo-Saxons for some of them, the red wines, Erlauer, Ofner, and Carlovicz, are exported in great quantities. The white wines, Ruster, Schomlayer, Szegszarder, and others are equally drinkable, while Tokay is of course a king amongst wines.
Of restaurants in Budapesth there are but few to be recommended to the wanderer. Both the Ungaria and the Koningen von England have restaurants where one can order a dinner which is expensive however simple it may be, and where one may listen to one of those gipsy bands which are now to be found in most of the London restaurants and in some of the Parisian ones. The best restaurant not attached to an hotel is Palkowitch's, the National Casino, which is the "smart" restaurant of the town. A Hungarian gentleman, wishing to give a friend a good dinner, takes him to the Casino Club, and this is the style of meal and wines that he will get. I am not responsible for the spelling of the menu, which is that of the club steward:—
| Somtoi. | Gulzas Clair. |
| Eteville 1868. | Fogas de Balaton à la Jean Bart. |
| Château Margaux 1875. | Cuissot de Porc frais. Choucroute farcie. |
| Moet 1884. | Cailles rôties sur Canapé Salade. |
| Tokay 1846. | Artichauts frais. Sauce Bordelaise. |
| Silvorium 1796. | Turos Lepeny. |
| Baracrkpalinka 1860. |
There is a fairly good restaurant near the landing-place on the Margarethen Insel.
N.N.-D.