Goose leg with purple cabbage by Kistücsök Food & Room

Some passionate wine producers backed by Hungarianwines.eu created Kadarka Day, an online and offline campaign to celebrate this beloved grape variety on and around 20 November. This year we invite Kadarla lovers to share their favourite food pairings with Kadarka, whether it is a simple wine bite or an elaborated plate. The food pairings will be uploaded on KadarkaWineDay.com. Let us share a recipe from Kistücsök Food & Room, a legendary restaurant in Balatonszemes.

A legend on the south shore of Lake Balaton

Kistücsök has been the lighthouse in the darkness, the hope for many restaurateurs in Balaton region, proving that the area can attract people outside the touristic season.
Balázs Csapody was in his twenties when he took over the restaurant, and within about three decades he made his dream come true. Once it was a tiny house selling fish dishes made of fresh and local ingredients, and now it is a contemporary eatery and hotel – with dishes made of fresh and local ingredients, including obviously fish dishes. Kistücsök (literally “Little Cricket”) is a family project, Balázs’s wife and son are involved along with his sister, his sister’s husband (the chef) and their sons. Would you like to see how they work? Book a table in the “Chef’s Room”, where you can witness the whole cooking process.
More about Kistücsök Food & Room

On Kadarka Day (20 November) Kistücsök will offer Kadarka wines by the glass: Garamvári Szőlőbirtok: Kadarka 2023, Heimann & Fiai: Kadarka 2020, Németh János Kadarka 2025, Vida Péter: Petit Bonsai 2024,

Goose leg with purple cabbage & pomegranate by László Jahni chef

– Place the goose leg in a 10 per cent salt solution and leave it to rest in the fridge for 4–6 hours. Then cook it in goose fat (enough to cover the leg) at 75–80 degrees Celsius until tender. This takes approximately 12–14 hours.  Roast in a hot oven at 220 degrees for 10 minutes until the skin is crispy.
– Grate the red cabbage, season with salt and squeeze out the excess liquid. Sauté in caramelised sugar, preferably with a red wine that is high in acidity. Season with finely ground pepper and pomegranate seeds.
– Serve it with “dödölle”, a Hungarian type of noodles. Fry the “dödölle” in a hot cast-iron pan with goose fat until crispy.

Ingredients for 1 person:

500 g goose thighs
goose fat (enough to cover the thighs)
10 g granulated sugar
150 g red cabbage
0.1 pomegranate
5 cl red wine
cooking oil, salt, pepper (to taste)

Lokál 47, the new restaurant and wine bar of Kristinus Wine Estate

“…we are waiting for you with a small plate concept, local ingredients, biodynamic wines and lots of love, for lunch, dinner or just wine tasting.” So where does this immense amount of love come from to the southern corner of Lake Balaton? Let us explain!

From fancy estate to devoted biodynamic farmer

It was about 12 years ago when we first tasted Kristinus wines. They were nice but mediocre, however the estate looked glamorous and in every step they made the look and the stylish swirling of the wines seemed to be more important than the wine itself. Then the management changed, Florian Zaruba took over. Then, as he spent more time in the vineyardwith his beloved dog, among the local folks and vineyard workers, he started to change. He realized that the way they had worked was not sustainable, wearing gas masks during spraying cannot be normal. So he started to convert the estate into a fully biodynamic property (read our previous interview with Florian Zaruba).
Now the estate is thriving, butterflies and cows live in perfect harmony, love is really in the air. What is more, not only the vineyards have been filled with life, but also the wines. Kristinus wines are far more to be mediocre, they have personality, they make you feel to be alive.