Sour cherry soup at Salföld in Hungary

On our recent holiday near Lake Balaton in Hungary, we ventured away from the lake a little to the picturesque village of Salföld, where I had a chance to try this Sour Cherry soup. We found a pleasant village restaurant with a large garden called Pajta Galeria on the edge of Salföld. I spotted this soup on the menu along with the more typical savoury goulash soup and in the spirit of enquiry thought I’d give it a try.

This article may contain affiliate links that provide commission on purchases you make at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cold, sweet fruit soups like this are a typical Hungarian dish for the summer months and although cherry flavour is very popular they can also be made with whatever fruit is in season such as blackcurrants or apricots. Rather than being eaten as a desert, they are normally eaten as a starter before a savoury main course.

I decided to eat my salad first and the soup second, as it was rather like eating a very liquid fruit yoghurt with whole cherries hiding at the bottom of the bowl. Very nice, but a strange sensation if you’re not used to the idea of a soup being cold let alone fruity.

The village of Salföld is well worth a wander round too as it’s on the edge of the Káli Basin, an area of natural beauty that is part of the Balaton Uplands National Park. At the far end of the village we found Salföld Manor, which is an old farmstead with traditional buildings made into a small show farm and heritage centre with a herb garden and exhibition of old photos, rare breeds of farm animals to stroke and horse-carriage rides. It looked like a great place for families with younger children, but we were looking forward to our late lunch and turned back to the restaurant instead of going in.

I suspect that the village has been made into a bit of a showcase, as many of the traditional thatched buildings looked as though they had been renovated over the last 10 years with freshly plastered and whitewashed walls and new thatched roofs, with the odd tumble-down cottage in between to compare what the village was probably like before. Although we drove to the village, there are some very pretty cycling routes through the vineyards to the village, with the reward of a drink and a meal at the Pajta Galeria’s pretty garden at the end.

If you like creamy fruity tastes then do try a cold fruit soup if you see it on the menu in Hungary – the most difficult decision is whether to have it as a starter or a pudding.

Visitor resources

Balaton Uplands National Park Website
Hullam Hostel in Révfülöp where we stayed nearby

More fun in Hungary

Folk art and Paprika – my souvenirs of Budapest
Memento Park – Icon’s of Budapest’s communist past

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

Click to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, news and reader offers