Lángos, The Most Ancient of Hungarian Street Foods

Although its popularity has spread to neighboring countries such as Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania, it remains Hungary’s identity in terms of national street food. From Budapest to the smallest village, you’ll find it everywhere.

The Lángos path throughout history

It is as old as bread and was originally the result of leftovers of the ancient grain. Generally, when making bread there are small clumps of dough that stay behind on the sides of the kneading bowl. For the hungry, these tiny clumps were baked and ready to consume long before the bread was ready for the table.

Furthermore, bread was not baked every day in those days. They’d bake bread maybe once a week, or every five days. By the time it was the day to bake, there’d be no more bread left and so the tiny clumps became a popular meal for the day.

What we enjoy today varies slightly from the original recipe. Firstly, it no longer is made from the tiny clumps of the ancient grain. Secondly, towards the end of the 1950s, Lángos became a popular addition to restaurant menus with a slight variation here and there. Lastly, today it is a must to stop at a street vendor and order from their many varieties of which cheese-garlic-sour-cream is the most popular variety.

Course: Main | Cuisine: Hungarian | Serving: 4 persons | Time: 80 minutes

More about Hungarian Cuisine:

Recipe | How To Make Lángos

Ingredients

350 ml lukewarm water
25 g yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
500 g flour
1 tablespoon oil
plenty of oil for frying

Toppings

garlic
grated cheese
sour cream

Instructions

Heat the water in a pot until it is lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast and the sugar, then wait until it rises. Mix the salt with the flour in a bowl, then pour in the water with the risen yeast, and knead it all into a dough. Let it sit for an hour.

Rub some cooking oil into your palms and tear tennis ball-sized pieces from the dough, molding each into a disk shape. Fry each piece in plenty of hot oil. A few minutes on both sides is enough to make them crispy.

Place the fried lángos on paper towels and cover each piece with generous amounts of sour cream and grated cheese. According to preference, garlic can also be rubbed onto the top of each piece prior to adding the sour cream and the cheese.

- Hungary Today