Autumn Truffle Hunting In Hungary

You may normally associate truffles with Italy & France, but truffle hunting happens in Hungary too! Such a pleasant surprise it was for me to learn the wonderful countryside of Hungary is actually a powerhouse for truffles, and as close as the forested outskirts of Budapest there’s an abundance of one of the most expensive foodstuffs on the planet.

Let me say on my first ever truffle hunting outing I didn’t really know what to expect, especially given we were really not that far from downtown Budapest! With no snorting pigs in sight, as it's a myth they are good for truffle hunting, our small team of various dogs lead us on what was for me a step or two into the unknown.

This Tuesday morning in Sherlock Holmes type weather we carefully took a stroll through the woods with our leader talking to the well trained four-legged truffle sniffers. For me the anticipation was a bit like, "is this really going to happen?", then bingo our group of 10 or so folks found a truffle, then another one, and another, and more. Its not quiet as exciting as white water rafting, but not far off! :-)

It’s amazing that these earthy, pungent morsels of amazing flavour - with a smell a bit like beetroot I'd say - are just lying around below the soil surface. With all our prize winnings collected up, we headed off to enjoy a Triffla Zing Burger - made with organic Angus beef, goose liver, plum and truffle jam, crisp green leaves, rosemary mayo, and a poppy seed topped bun.

What a fab way to start a day! So good I have to keep the truffle hunting location secret, but you can contact Triffla the event organisers for more info. Also I can add that you can easily find Zing Burger restaurants all around the city, the one we went to is by the Allee Shopping Mall in district XI.

Words and photos by Russell Skidmore for XpatLoop.com
After an extensive career in advertising as an Art Director & Creative Director in London, Paris and Budapest for leading agencies, he transferred the skills and knowledge gained to his own successful company covering wedding, event, PR & portrait photography. Visit Russ's Facebook page here.