We’re breaking our pre-holiday break (don’t ask) to let you know that the now-annual “Great British Christmas Market” is now running at the Big Market Hall (Központi Vásárcsarnok) in Pest. Organized by the Kaledonia/Caledonia and the British Pantry, the sale includes lots of delicacies and other delights from the Brit-szigetek, and runs until tomorrow (Saturday) at 14:00. See you there!

If you like Hungarian food and wine and food and wine events, you may be facing a major dilemma this weekend, because two major fairs are taking place simultaneously on opposite sides of Budapest.

On the one hand we have the second edition of the Hungarian Handicraft Flavors Fair at Millenáris park in Buda, which features the “handmade” eatables and drinkables of 100 artisanal producers from around the country. Check the video above for a look at last year’s event.

Meanwhile, across town at HUNGEXPO is the Ízek és Borok (“Tastes and Wines”) show. Traditionally reserved for folks from the trade, this year’s event is the first to be opened to the public at large.

Hard to say which is more enticing, so if you have the time and a good appetite, you might as well go to both.

More than one otherwise knowledgeable local foodie has asked me what happened to the venerable international food store widely known as the “Ázsiabolt” (“Asia store”), which a few months back suddenly cleared out of the fantastically cramped and cluttered space it occupied for the better part of a decade in the basement of the Vásárcsarnok. Answer: It closed for a bit but then reopened in a new and only slightly less cramped and cluttered space a few dozen meters away on the corner of Vámház körút and Pipa utca.

You can be forgiven for walking by the new digs of Ázsia Bt., as the entrance and store-front are almost comically confusing (it shares an entrance with a used clothing store or something like that). But it’s all there, and more: A staffer I briefly spoke with said they had essentially doubled the number of meters of shelf space, allowing them to add hundreds of new items while giving each a bit more breathing room. Check it out.

We’re back, and with a bundle of new things to chew over. Or in this case, both new and slightly warmed-over.

First, while we haven’t yet been there in person to check it out, we just confirmed via phone that a long-awaited new outlet of Vapiano finally opened a few days ago in the MOM Park mall in Buda. Since one of the key value propositions of fancy dining chains like Vapiano is to be utterly consistent, there’s probably nothing we can say about this one that we didn’t say in this review of the first outlet in Budapest a few years back, other than that it is supposedly an eye-popping 500+ plus square meters in size, and that it makes a nice companion to the neighboring Paulaner Brauhaus.

Meanwhile, while we’re on the topic of new corporate chain Italian offerings in Buda malls, we were recently surprised to see several different artices in the local press announcing that “Hungary’s first” Kono Pizza had opened in the Mammut I mall, also in Buda. But we went and checked it out (left) and, sure enough, it’s the same “pizza in a cone” they were selling at WestEnd a couple of years back, before that one closed. Actually, to be truthful, we sort of enjoyed our Kono Classico this time around, and would be tempted to say it’s the best mall pizza in a cone you can get in Hungary, except according to the company’s website a new location has just opened up in the Pelikán Mall in Szolnok.

While “MBT” does enjoy a certain reputation for gruff candor – which no doubt helped in the initial success of the Alexandra Étteremkalauz – he, like some other big-name food writers in this town, is said to routinely work as a “consultant” to some of the same restaurants he is responsible for critiquing on behalf of readers. Which raises what is often euphemistically called “the appearance of impropriety,” if not the specter of lethal putrid PR contamination of the sort that led to the recent bust-up of the local edition of Decanter. On the other hand, no matter what happens the GaultMillau étteremkalauz will still be better than the “Best of Budapest”…

Owner Géza Ásós was quoted by the press as saying that the new joint – called Kira – will focus on serving traditional Roma/Gypsy dishes, including “Gypsy cabbage with hen” (cigány tyúkos káposzta), “chicken back with dowry” (csirke farhát móringgal), “duck neck with pasta cut with a knife” (kacsanyak késsel vágott tésztával), and, we imagine, some of the other standards of Hungarian Roma cuisine. (Read more about them here.) He also said the restaurants other aim is to “keep prices low.”

Interestingly, the chef of the place is apparently not Roma. However, we can only assume that the “authentic, genuine Gypsy folk music” Ásós promises will be played by musicians who are.

Nearly 40 of Hungary’s best restaurants – including Chateau Visz, Costes (pictured above), Kistücsök, Onyx and Nobu Budapest – are auctioning off dinners for two to help the charity organization Saint Martin Pediatric Emergency Medical Service Foundation. Bidding can be done on the auction’s website until October 31. Bidders who don’t win any of the offered items but offer to “roll over” their bids to charity will participate in a draw and can win a Saint Martin’s Day goose dinner. Good luck!

While we’re on the topic of special event dining, recently-launched reservation website TableFree.hu is running a “Restaurant Days” promotion from October 31 until November 6. Several dozen Budapest restaurants – including some of the best – have signed on to providing set menus for either Ft 3,000 or Ft 5,000. While you have to register to take advantage of the offer, you don’t need to log in to browse through the menus you have the option to dig into if you do sign up. (Click on the little icons next to the names of the restaurants.) Check it out.

Next Friday, October 28, Hungarian gourmand group Lucullus BT will hold one of its celebrated dinner events at the somewhat recently-opened U26 restaurant located on Budapest’s Eiffel tér. The event is entitled Bisztronómia Felsőfokon, or “Bistronomy on the Highest Level.” So what, you may ask, is Bistronomy?

Well, according to Wikipedia, it is the “trend of combining basic bistro decor with quality cuisine.”

Somewhat confusingly, the U26 seems to be officially called the U26 Bisztronómia Fakultáció, or “U26 Bistronomy Elective,” as in a course you can choose to take at college.

Also somewhat confusingly, the décor of the place, while sleek and minimalist, doesn’t seem exactly “basic.”

Anyway, according to the people at Lucullus, U26 chef Dániel Bernát is one of Hungary’s most talented young chefs, and the menu being prepared for the evening (which may or may not include things like in the above pic nabbed from the joint’s Facebook page) promises to be an interesting mixture of Hungarian and French. Or, in any case, interesting.