Saturday, May 28, 2016

YummY! - Good Hungarian Food Buffet @ Trófea Restaurant Budapest

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YummY!

Jotaro's Food Review

Good Hungarian Buffet @ Trófea Restaurant Budapest

Budapest, Hungary - October 2015

Looking for a reasonably priced place to eat while you are in Budapest? Trófea Grille Restaurant is a worthwhile place that offers buffet with a wide range of Hungarian cuisine at very reasonable prices for the quality of food that they offer.

Look at these prices - it's for all you can eat from a selections of almost one hundred dishes, most of them Hungarian cuisine with some Japanese fare. The menu changes slightly from day to day.
The prices at time of this blog is:
Weekdays Lunch (Monday-Friday): 3,899 HUF (approx. USD14-00)
Weekdays Dinner : 5,499 HUF (approx. USD19-50)
Friday Dinner, Weekends and National Holidays : 5,999 HUF (approx. USD21-50)
A fantastic deal, isn't it! Especially so after seeing the food shown below.

To add to that, what you pay also includes for unlimited rounds of champagne, beer, wine, soft, drinks, mineral water, coffee and cappuccino. In fact as they were a few of us, a whole bottle each of wine and champagne were sent to our table!
The wines are the house reds or whites for the day; other hard liquors and finer wines can be ordered ala carte.

STARTERS

Soups (from L to R): Husleves Meat Soup, Pumpkin Soup, Miso Soup, Halaszle Fish Soup.

An assortment of crackers .....

..... to go with their selections of cheeses.

My favourite - Foie Gras. The ones served here were very good - thick, tasty and presented in a flower shape sitting on a toast with some garnishing atop. These are the ones on my platter where are have included some olives and crackers. Yes, the goose liver pate is already served with a small piece of toast, but I like these with the crackers too. In fact, I like them so much I went for a few rounds!

Preserved meat cuts and meat loaves, in this selection there were some sushi too.

Fresh salads. I was surprised to sea some pineapples too as over here in the temperate lands, these can be rather expensive. The pie nuts were good, crunchy and tasty to go with the salads.

Mixed salad. The broccoli served with creamy sauce was my favourite.

An assortment of pickles.

MAINS

These are some of the mains at the buffet counter. The range is more than what is shown here (the lighting was dim, so some of the photos did not turn out well and are not shown here).

The staples included rice too.

Golden Noodle & Strawberry Cottage Cheese Dumplings.

Chicken Breast with Broccoli Cheese, Duck Ham with Steamed Cabbage, and Smoke Roasted Chicken Drumsticks.

Deer Stew with Woody Mushrooms, and Stuffed Cabbage with Smoked Ribs.
The cabbage was very good, adequately soft with a light sauce, it went very well with the heady aroma of the smoked ribs.

Green Mussels with Basil Tomato Sauce.

Venison Burgundy Style, Lamb Stew, and Barbecued Veal Ribs.
The venison was slowly cooked in red sauce and came out quite tender with the strong meaty aroma reduced. The stew was great with a good spicy flavour. And of the three I liked the veal ribs best; tender and the barbecuing had brought out the essence of the veal.

Beef with Vegetable Cream Sauce, and Tripe Stew with Trotters (you won't see whole trotters here, they had been sliced into smaller pieces).

Fajitas Chicken Breast, and Pancake ala Hortobagy Style (Hortobágyi palacsinta).
The pancake, a traditional Hungarian food, stuffed with chopped meats and vegetables. It was very nice and one of my favourites too (meaning I went more than a couple of rounds of this).

There was also a grille section right at the centre. Point out one's choice to a waiter and he will put it in a platter and send it to a couple of guys who will grille it on hot plates.
A wide range of meat and some vegetables were available:
Gyro Chicken Breasts, Tandoori Chicken Breasts (yes, Tandoori!), Chicken breasts with chilli and sesame seeds, chicken in barbecue sauce, pullet with Hamburgi sauce, Gypsy Roast, Dijon Pork Medallions, Shark meat, ice Tuna, Tilapia, African Catfish, cuttlefihs, mushrooms, etc.
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There was a wide selection of desserts and fruits too; I particularly liked this one, I can't rightfully recall its name. It's a creamy rolled bun filled with sweetened fruits and nuts. Very soft and bready.

Here's some photos of a couple of my rounds:

Foie Grass with grilled pork medallions...

Cabbage rolls with barbecued veal ribs. Looks real appetizing don't they? They were!

... and some bubbly wine to top off the meal!

We came out well fed, well sated with an introduction to some Hungarian dishes which we had not tried before. It was definitely a worthwhile meal, a learning experience too.

TROFEA GRILL RESTAURANT, CITY

H-1061 Budapest, Király u. 30-32, Budapest, Hungary.
Tel: +36-20 9998797 / +36-12 700366
Webpage: http://kiraly.trofeagrill.eu/en
Note: They have several outlets, to view other outlets webpage: http://www.trofeagrill.eu/en
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Tr%C3%B3fea-Grill-Restaurants-Budapest-212922265548484/

Hours: Monday to Friday - 12:00 pm to 12:00 am / Saturday & Sunday - 11:30 am to 12:00 am
GPS: 47.499908, 19.059457
(Click here for Google Street View)

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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Sites : Jui Tui Shrine Phuket

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Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Jui Tui Shrine Phuket (Jui Tui Tao Boh Kaeng)

Phuket Old Town, Phuket, Thailand - April 2016

The Jui Tui Shrine may not be that well know to tourists who visit Phuket. Built more than a 100 years ago in 1911, it was originally located at Soi Romanee in Phuket Old Town and was relocated here after a fire many years ago. To me it is also one of the more recognisable Chinese temples in Thailand. Sitting elevated above road level, with its distinct bright entrance archway and an adjacent intricate red tower, it is easily distinguishable; and is an interesting place in Phuket to visit. Jui in Chinese means "water" and Tui means "white mortar"; in the past a white canal ran in front of the old shrine.

THE ENTRANCE

The main entrance archway, with green end hip ornaments contrasting against the red tiles and eaves, give a peep into the main pavilion with its slightly curve red ceiling joists Both structure are not overly elaborate and their Spartan architecture hints of some Japanese architectural influence.

A look of the double-tiered main entrance archway from the inside. Two golden dragons sits facing an iconic sun on the upper ridge. A total of sixteen jade green ornaments sits on the roof hips. Two deities, one on each side, stand guarding this entrance.

A close look at the jade green ornaments, They are stylized leaves, curling inwards. At the intermediate hip ends are small statues of deities.

A look at the elaborately designed entrance tower. Entrance towers are seldom seen in Chinese temples. This is actually a fire-cracker house used to light fire-crackers in during celebrations.

A front view shows the placement of this tower at a very distinct position. It was added recently in 2011.

The Firecracker Tower has a large red square body with a double tiered roof. Intricate gold carvings lined the surface bordered by dark green trimmings. Four dragon columns sit at the corners, with the golden dragons curling round the red columns with bright blue waves.

A bottom up view of the Firecracker Tower shows the intricate workmanship that has been put into it.

THE MAIN TEMPLE PAVILION

The main temple has a typical layout with a smaller roofed entranceway in front of the prayer halls. to it's left is a large hall for worshippers to congregate.

The hall has red column headers that looks similar to those of Japanese temples.

This shrine hold an annual vegetarian festival in which many locals participate, and the large hall comes in useful as the temple does get rather crowded during the vegetarian festival and other ceremonies.

Colourful flags precede the entrance to the main temple hall.

The two roofs of the main hall has ridges that curl skywards and end with a sharp jagged edge. It's simplistic yet elegant.

The entrance roof to the main hall - the ridge wall is made more intricate by green bamboo mini columns.

The entrance foyer to the main hall, a dragon joss-burner urn sits right in front.

The entrance foyer roof.

Joss-burner at the entrance foyer. The fierce dragons will scare off any evil spirits.

Horizontal banners hang form the ceiling of the entrance; these are uniquely white in colour with colourful motifs dragons, deities, etc. embroided on.

The main prayer hall has three altars; a main one at the centre and two secondary ones on the sides. Jui Tui Shrine is dedicated to Tean Hu Huan Soy, the god associated with performing artists and dancers (The Chinese Opera regards him as their patron). His statue take up the central position of the main altar.

Behind the main altar table is an altar for other important deities and standing slightly elevated is Kuan Im.

A closer look of Kuan Im, this one has her carrying a child. Childless couple would come prayer to her and hope for a child soon.

ANCILLARY BUILDINGS

Within the compound there are a couple of ancillary smaller buildings, one is a shrine and the other a hell-notes burner.

The burner building has unique weave/lattice patterns on it's walls, the design is graphical one that is seldom seen in Chinese temples. Another uniqueness are the "lion" heads that adorn the gable ends of the roof.

A closer look of the roof.

A couple of green dragons adorn the gable wall of another building.

STATUES

Many statues are placed within the temple, shown here are statues within the compound:

Two stone lion guardians guard the entrance to the main temple hall.

A close look at one of the stone lion guardians.

A rich royal blue porcelain lion, this is a small one that sits at the entrance of the small shrine at the right of the main temple.

The following are the four deities that stand vigilantly guarding the entrance to the main prayer hall (There are two other guards at the entrance arch, but against the morning sunlight, my photos of them did not come out well):

JUI TUI SHRINE
Soi Phuthorn, Ranong Road, Phuket Old Town, Phuket, Thailand.
Hours: 8:00am to 8:30pm
GPS: 7.88324, 98.38338
(Click here for Google Street View)

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