The old adage goes that if you want good Chinese food, look for the places where Chinese people eat. While kínai büfék seem to crowd every Budapest district, you never see Chinese folks eating in them. That's because they are crap. You want to eat what the Celestial Empire eats, you take the 28 tram from Blaha and head out to the Four Tigers Market, AKA the Jozsefvarosi Kinái Piac (Follow the directory link for a map and directions via public transport.) This is where all of Hungary (and much of the region) buys its cheap underwear, "Atidas" sneakers, fishing tackle, and dancing baby doll lamps, all crated in from suburban Beijing and wholesaled out of the huge warehouses of the former Aluminum factory. The Four Tigers piac is a sprawling cardboard and sheet iron metropolis whose legal status is certifiably dodgy, with rumors of control by various mafias, political heavies and security firms as thick in the air as the delicious aromas of Asian cookery that bring us there at least once a week.

A side effect of being only slightly more legal than a Somali Warlord's fiefdom is the strict restriction on taking photographs. If the thick-necked security guards catch you, they confiscate your camera. Kids, don't try this at home. As such, the market exists as a legal nether zone, entirely free of municipal controls, including, thank the Buddha, kitchen inspections. If you are squeamish about restaurant hygiene, stop reading this right now. If you don't care about dining on dirty picnic tables standing in puddles next to garbage cans behind a row of railroad packing containers as long as you can get authentic Asian noodles and dumplings, continue. You have been warned. (Note: We have never gotten ill from eating here twice weekly for five years...)

But the real reason to visit are the lunch shacks in the back of the market and hidden around the warehouses. The best are located along the shipping containers in the back of the market behind the middle entrance gate. A string of about six Chinese and Vietnamese lunch shacks offers some of the best Asian food in Budapest. Most offer huge rice plates for Ft 600. The dishes have no real names - you just keep pointing at what you want and it gets piled on top of rice. The soups and dumplings hit the spot with the expat Beijing crowd, and here the Szechuan noodles are served by people with real Szechuan accents.

[Coming Tomorrow: The Dumpling Lady]