Ancient Chinese Secret II

Nefrit Kínai Étterem
Budapest XII.
Apor Vilmos tér 4.
Tel: 213-9039

It's a Friday evening in the fall and ladyfriend and I push ourselves to get in a run at Normafa before it gets dark. My brainstorm is that on our way home we get some beer and Chinese takeaway, and use our newly acquired 'sporks' to have dinner on a park bench in our friendly little neighborhood around Böszörmenyi út. As for the food portion of the equation, I'd been eying the Nefrit Chinese restaurant up the street for some time. Here was our chance to get a taste, hoping it was not going to resemble any of the slop one is exposed to at most Kinai büfé in Budapest.

It's sad really what sorry food most Chinese immigrants have brought to Budapest: usually greasy and swimming in a gloppy gluten sauce, sitting all day in a steam table. We're hoping the Nefrit is nothing like this.

We feel a bit self conscious walking into the Nefrit in our running clothes, because it has a sort of nouveu riche but tasteful sense of formality about it. The clientele were nicely dressed Asian businessmen. The staff welcome us in.

We order conservatively: 2 hot and sour soups, 1 order of fried rice, 1 main (tofu) and one salad.

The hot and sour soup is full of tofu, pork and 'zing'. It came in huge bowls and we're nearly full after finishing them. Then came the flavorful smoked tofu with celery and the salad consisting of bamboo, tree mushrooms and cucumber. Each dish was prepared precisely, had nice color and all of the flavors were distinct. We had a lot of the delicious food left and the waiter obligingly wrapped it up for us.

Our second visit to Nefrit, however, turns out to be the ultimate nightmare. There's a banquet going on upstairs and we have to wait longer for our food, but that's not the big problem. After we start eating I feel a burning sensation in my chest; meanwhile, my sweet dining companion gets so dizzy and panicky as if she's going to kick the bucket. I figure out that there's enough MSG ('izfokozó' in Hungarian) in the food to take down a rhino. I call the owner to the table to complain and he just shrugs it off: "That's in all Chinese food," he says, smiling.

And speaking of MSG, be sure to check out this interview on the public radio show The Splendid Table, which attempts us to give us the skinny on this toxic substance that can be found in nearly everything. Ugh!