Dipless

Making a day trip to Budapest and not trying Hungarian goulash may be an insult to Hungarian culture, but not being a goulash fan, I could not care less, especially since the spare ribs looked very nice on the picture.

Yes, the menu of Red Pepper features professionally produced pictures for every dish, as well as lists their names in seven languages. Located in the very center of the city (near the square that today was the location of a Christmas market), it is a highly tourist restaurant with no thrills, but friendly and very efficient service. It also seems to have an endless supply of tables: as I was eating, more and more people were arriving, yet the waiters never turned anyone away.

Used to be served spare ribs with one, two or even three different sauces, I was quite shocked to realize that Red Pepper’s BBQ ribs did not come with any dip, not even with plain old ketchup. That was even stranger because French fries were provided as a side dish, and no one in Austria would dare serving fries without ketchup or mayonnaise.

The first rib I cut off the edge of the rack was extremely dry, making me crave for a dip even more. However, as I was progressing, the meat became noticeably tenderer. It was as if the sweet honey-based topping (which looks like dark chocolate on the photo) was softening the meat. It is also possible that the ribs stayed in the oven for too long and got thoroughly baked at the edges, while maintaining juicier meat in the middle.

At the end, I was quite enjoying Red Pepper’s ribs. The fries and the small corncob were pretty useless, but the ribs got better the more I ate them. I still believe that a simple dip would have improved the dish substantially, but as goulash alternatives go, the ribs at Red Pepper were not bad at all.