For those lamenting the shortage of cheese outlets and not willing to go all the way to Kecskemét, we might have found salvation. As an appetizer, I managed to grab this under-the-counter snap of the home-made dairy products stand at the photo-free zone that is the Fény utca market – despite the hoards of menacing security guards.
The stall can be found boldly advertising “Juhtúró” (soft ewe’s cheese) among the small-time kolbász (sausage) and szalonna (pig fat) sellers that occupy the “őstermelők” (farmers’) corner of the market nearest the ramp leading up from Moszkva tér. And although the lines are long and sometimes impatient, we have been able to find out that all the cheese, butter and milk is home made and brought to market every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is quite an impressive selection, too, from hard goats’ cheese, camembert-a-likes, mozzarella and pungent matured cheese to cream cheese infused with herbs, the obligatory tejföl (sour cream) and the Slovak smoked speciality of parenica. Interestingly, prices are rarely displayed or questioned, which suggests that even Hungarians don’t mind paying a little extra for something local, farm-made and delicious – especially when they remember the prices displayed at the specialty import cheeseries elsewhere in the market.
