The last time we checked in with them, the members of the Lucullus Baráti Társaság were having a low-key Indian meal. But the most recent feast organized by Hungary's leading culinary group was anything but low-key. Last Friday the Lucullus celebrated its fourth birthday with a massive Chinese dinner at the Új Lanzhou, the group’s favorite restaurant. And it was a meal to remember. It was at a similarly monstrous dinner at the original Lanzhou Étterem in District VIII that Lucullus got its start, and they’ve been eating well ever since. Since that first night at Lanzhou they’ve had meals cooked by everyone from ambassadors and housewives, to memorable meals that they’ve cooked themselves, like csirke paprikás at the North Pole and camel meat tarhonya in the African desert.

The Lucullus went all out for this meal, which rounded out to 21 courses by the end of the night, served family-style on the lazy Susan. There was a lecture in the beginning on something like Hungarian and Chinese cultural similarities, but everyone at our table was too busy sampling the lychee and sorghum pálinka to hear any of it. (The lychee was sweet and tasty, but the sorghum smelled like rubbing alcohol, and tasted worse). There was a Chinese singer at one point, and a Hungarian singer towards the end. One of the highlights was the dramatic noodle making demonstration by one of the Új Lanzhou cooks, who in seconds created a mound of thin noodles by stretching a pile of dough using nothing more than his hands. According to Lucullus' Gábor Turóczi, he’s the only one making noodles like this by hand in Budapest, brought straight from China to work at the restaurant.

As the photos show, the meal was phenomenal. At the end of the dinner - while we were waiting for the cake to arrive - a few people headed into the closet-sized kitchen for a cooking competition of sorts, where they created dishes that were meant to show the similarities between Hungarian and Chinese cooking. The kitchen, by the way, really is as small as it looks in the photo, and amazingly turned out food for the 70 or so people there that night without a hitch. Despite the 21 courses that were consumed, by the time the cake finally arrived at around 11:00 p.m., people (at least at our table) were already digging back into the leftover cold duck gizzards. The cake, which was baked by a young Hungarian baker and delivered to the restaurant, was almost like a ginger tiramisu - an excellent end to the meal. The next Lucullus meal won't involve nearly as much food - it's their traditional end-of-the-year cocktail party on December 28 at Barokko Club & Lounge, where food will take a sideline to drinking.

Here’s the meal in photos, just in case you are a glutton for punishment:

Soups:

• Hot squid soup (csípős tintahalleves)


• Meatball soup with glass noodles (üvegtészta és húsgombóc leves)

Appetizers:

• Cucumber and glass pasta salad with mustard seed oil (Uborkás üvegtészta mustármagolajban)


• Szechuan salad (seaweed salad) (Si-Chuan saláta)


• Hundred-year egg with scallion tofu (Száznapos tojás zöldhagymás tofuval)


• Sweet and sour pork ribs (édes-savanyú oldalas)


• Shanghai chicken leg (Shang Hai csirkecomb)


• Home-style Chinese potato salad (Házias kínai burgonyasaláta)


• Tofu noodles in soy sauce (Tofu tészta)


• Marinated beef (Pácolt marha)

Mains:

• Duck with onions (Hagymás kacsa)


• Pig’s feet with yellow beans (Sárgababos sertésköröm)


• Duck gizzards “Gan Guo” (Kacsazúza “Gan Guo”)


• Peking style pork (with pancakes and leeks) (Hagymás sertéshús pekingi módra)


• Chicken legs “Dong Jiang” (Dong Jiang csirkecomb)


• “Grape fish” (sweet and sour grass carp) ["szőlőhal" (Édes-savanyú amur)]


• Grilled mutton Lan-Zhou style (Lan-Zhou-i grillezett birka)


• Bok choy with garlic (Fokhagymás kínai zöldségek)


• Fried rice “Yang Zhou” style (Pirított rizs Yang Zhou módra)

Desserts:

• Sweet taro with sesame seeds


• Ginger cake