With a menu full of interesting Hungarian street food, this tiny Juhu eatery takes you on a vicarious culinary holiday straight to the food markets of Central Europe.
By Raul Dias
One of the last places we flew to just before the pandemic clipped out travel-happy wings was to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. And while this beautiful Central European city may be better known for its grand architecture and for the serpentine Danube that bisects it into the Buda and Pest sides, there is something to be said about the city’s food as well.
Redolent with copious amounts of the de facto national spice of smoky paprika, the goulashes that we indulged in were just as memorable as the spit-roasted kurtoshes and deep fried langos. Perfect snacks to munch on on a chilly winter's day. So, imagine our delight when we chanced upon Kurtosshhh, a tiny (and dare-we-say numerologically-savvy!) eatery in Juhu that claims to serve Hungarian street food. Albeit with a twist.
With barely enough room for a couple of people to sit at its wooden tables and chairs, with a cosy mezzanine level housing a single table, we realised that dining in at Kurtosshhh in these days may not be such a great idea. And so, we picked up a couple of dishes that came packed in regular aluminium foil containers and paper boxes.
The eponymous kurtosh that is the eatery’s flag bearing dish is a conical spit cake that’s also known multifariously as a chimney cake, a baumstriezl in Germany and a trdelnik in the Czech Republic. Generally served in its sweet avatar, all dusted with sugar and cinnamon, at Kurtosshhh you can also try a number of savoury iterations; ranging from grilled vegetables to cottage cheese filled ones. Out eight-inch tall chipotle chicken kurtosh (Rs.189) was composed of a buttery, blistered dough that we were told was made with a mixture of 18 secret flours. It held forth creamy, well-seasoned succulent bits of chicken with diced onions and peppers.
Served in individual rings and piping hot, the sweet cinnamon trdelnik (Rs.189) was decadently more-ish, all doused in chocolate and caramel sauce. We also tried the open-faced grilled cottage cheese kartoos kurtosh (Rs.229) that was quite different in taste and texture from its conical cousin. And while it may seem similar to a flatbread, the deep fried langos topped with molten cheese and olives, all dusted with smoky paprika (Rs.199) took us straight back to Budapest’s Central Food Market Hall where we had tried langos for the first time.
We decided to wash all this down with the thick and creamy safrany kulfi shake (Rs.169), served in the now-ubiquitous mini milk bottle. As a parting shot, we decided to succumb to a cliché and called for the chicken goulash rice bowl (Rs.249) which, though quite tasty and satisfying, fell a tad short in the authenticity department, missing that all-important paprika hit.
Well, I guess we'll just have to go back for a more genuine one—both to Kurtosshhh and yes, Hungary too!
AT: Kurtosshhh, Shop 12, Juhu Ruturaj CHS, Juhu Tara Road, Santacruz West.
DELIVERY: Swiggy and Zomato
TIME: 11 am to 11 pm
CALL: 9321055321
(An edited version of this review appeared in the 13th January 2021 issue of the Mid-Day newspaper, India on page 16 https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/mumbai-food/article/hungary-tide-23155492)
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