Hungarian food is autumn-coloured and warming in a way that makes central European winters navigable. Gulyás (goulash) is not the thick beef stew that most of the world calls by this name but a soup — red with paprika, with beef cubes, potatoes, and flat csipetke dumplings in a broth that should be eaten with a spoon. Lángos, the fried dough sold at every market and festival, topped with sour cream and grated cheese, is the street food that Hungarians eat without irony in large quantities. The Nagy Vásárcsarnok (Great Market Hall) in Budapest is the place to understand Hungarian ingredients: strings of dried paprika, goose liver in every preparation, Mangalica lard, and Tokaj wine from the northeast. Pálinka — fruit brandy distilled from plum, apricot, pear, or quince — is consumed at breakfast in older Hungary, a habit that the younger generation has mostly abandoned but the country has not. That's where it gets good.