Budapest's cathedral of produce: paprika, salami and pickles downstairs, tourists eating lángos upstairs.
The Nagyvásárcsarnok opened in 1897, one of five covered markets built to bring Budapest’s food trade indoors. It is the largest, and its steel frame — by Samu Pecz — was ambitious enough that Gustave Eiffel is sometimes wrongly credited with it. The roof is Zsolnay tile, restored after decades of neglect and war damage, and the building reopened properly in 1997.
The ground floor
Produce, meat and dairy. This is where you buy paprika, sold in cloth bags and tins, in grades from édesnemes (sweet noble, the standard) through to erős (hot). Buy the tins rather than the decorative strings of dried pods, which are for looking at.
Also here: Pick and Herz salami from Szeged and Budapest, Túró Rudi in the dairy cabinets, pickled vegetables in enormous jars, goose liver fresh and tinned, and honey, including acacia, which Hungary produces a great deal of.
Be aware that the stalls closest to the main entrance charge tourist prices. The same paprika is meaningfully cheaper thirty metres further in, and cheaper again in the basement.
The basement
Fish, pickles, a small Asian section and a supermarket. It is where locals shop and it is worth going down.
The upstairs gallery
Souvenirs — embroidery, tablecloths, wooden things — and a row of food stalls. This is where lángos is sold: deep-fried dough, traditionally rubbed with garlic and topped with sour cream and grated cheese. It is good and it is not health food. There are also stalls doing goulash, stuffed cabbage and sausages in a plastic tray.
The food up here is aimed at visitors and priced accordingly, but the lángos is legitimate and worth queueing for.
Hours
Open Monday morning for a short day, Tuesday to Friday until early evening, Saturday until mid-afternoon, and closed Sunday. Go in the morning, when the produce is fresh and the aisles are working rather than performing.
