International Pizza Pie Incident: Lángos, aka Hungarian Pizza, Three Ways

 Because a little tiny bit of fried pizza never hurt anyone ...

Welcome to the second International Incident Party, in which food bloggers from around the world put their own spin on a different dish each month. For April, we celebrate the birthday of the Incident Crew's founding member, Penny aka Jeroxie, with variations on the theme of pizza pie. (For full details and info on how to participate, check out her post about it here.)  

I must admit that when pizza was announced as the theme, I initially felt a bit stymied. You see, though in general I don't tend to be overly didactic or rules-y about cuisine, pizza, to me, is a simple and beautiful thing. It's a plain New York-style pie, with no toppings other than a modest amount of mozzarella cheese, maybe a bit of fresh basil,  and that beautiful, tangy tomato sauce. That's how I always used to order it in Brooklyn, and that's how I make it at home.

I wanted to  break out of my own pizza preconceptions and go a completely different route for this party, but what to do? Well, my quandary was instantly obliterated during my trip to Budapest, where I tasted the delectable lángos, otherwise known as ... Hungarian pizza! Bingo.

Hungarian Detour: Two Frantic Food-Filled Days in Glorious Budapest

 Stealing a peaceful moment in bustling Budapest:

Where Vienna is order, Budapest is frenzy. If the Viennese tend to be slightly undemonstrative and reserved, in Budapest emotions seem to bubble to the surface, where they spill over. While German (at least to this Western eye and ear) seems logical and somewhat decipherable, Hungarian Magyar is nearly impenetrable. It's closest linguistic relative is, after all, Finnish.

All this is to say that in my too-brief two-day stay, I fell completely in love with this strange, hectic,  and beautiful city.