Singaporean’s national hobby is having good food so apologies in advance if the following blog post shows this predilection… Below are pictures that show the way to an excellent Italian restaurant known as Cezar (Caesar) Restaurant. Along the way, there are many other things that any foreigner living or studying in Kecskemét should take note of for one’s convenience and daily living. It must be noted that this series of posts takes reference from the Kodaly Institute since that is where we study, live & play. Here goes:

Kodaly Institute, the Best Pedagogical Institute in the World
(Sorry for the shameless promotion of my alma mater, I do that a lot…).

Leave the Kodaly Institute & turn left.

Vincent’s, the Best Cake in Town
Turn right at the corner, keeping church on your left. Vincent’s is just a few steps away (on your right). This is one of the most important places for Kodaly Institute students… because Vincent’s has some of the best pastries & sweets (desserts) in town. Most cakes costs c.a. 500HUF. Drinks like tea & coffee range from 400-600HUF depending on what you order. Red wines are also available. Free Wifi is available & connection is generally quite solid and fast. In summer & autumn, sitting outdoors can be very enjoyable, although you might have to occasionally contend with falling leaves adding extra spice to your cuppa.

Rossmann, Parfumera & Other Monthly Necessities
Turn Left after Vincent’s and head towards the park. You should see a fountain there in the middle. Head towards that. Diagonally to your right, you should see a small fountain with a frog in it. When the weather is good, lots of people play chess around here. Head towards the frog fountain. Walk past the frog fountain and cross the small yellow cobbled street. You should see Rossmann in front of you. Unlike Singaporean supermarkets, the supermarkets here don’t always sell pharmaceutical products such as bandaids, monthly necessities for women etc. Rossmann sells all these. Another chainstore that sells such stuff is “DM”. Do keep a lookout for it!

Spar, The Super Supermarket
Keeping Rossmann on your left, head towards the bigger street. You should see the following building. The best supermarket (especially if it keeps in stock my favourite Dilmah Early Grey tea) in the vicinity is here. All hail “Spar”.Soya Milk, cheese, fresh meat, roasted chicken, pork etc. can be found in the Spar building. There is a nice restaurant here that has nice ice-cream. On the second floor, you can buy clothes, gloves or winter wear if needed.

The Freshest Vegetable Shop in Town
Keeping Spar on your left, continue on and you will come to one of the best, freshest vegetable shop with the widest selections in town (I’ve tried everything else in the vicinity… this one is really still the best). I usually go to the vegetable shop to buy fresh fruits, mushrooms and eggs before heading to Spar to pick up whatever else I may need. I would recommend buying your eggs here at the vegetable shop… sometimes, supermarket eggs come cracked or stick to the paper cartons. At the vegetable shop, you can buy single eggs or in boxes of 10. Just say Tojás, Tiz darab, doboz (literally eggs, 10 pieces, box) and they will give a carton of 10 eggs.

Keeping Spar on your left and vegetable shop on your right, you’ll see this view:

Open Market, Back to Basics
Turn left walk straight and you will see what is known as the ‘open market’ (like the ‘wet markets’ of Singapore). Here, ‘freelance’ sellers peddle their wares at competitive prices. No frills, fresh, cheap & good. “Langos” is a fantastic Hungarian snack that is like Singapore’s 油條 (fried dough fritters), round like a pizza, but with optional stuff on top such as sour cream, garlic sauce, ham & cheese. Tastes very good. Do explore these as well.

Cezar Restaurant, Italian Pasta & Pizza
Keeping open market on your left, walk straight ahead until you see a parking lot. In the distance is an excellent Italian Restaurant known as Cezar (Caesar) Restaurant.

Food here is pricier (1000+-2000+), takes long to wait (can be 1-1.5 hours!) but pasta portions are huge and tastes fantastic. A typical pasta can feed two people (Typical Asian male appetite like mine). You can consider asking for Kisadag (smaller) portions that are halved.

B-Pont, Photocopying Madness
Facing the restaurant, turn to your right and just a few steps away is B-pont. This excellent shop does colour printing, in A4 & A3, thesis binding etc. It services a nearby college and quality is pretty good. My thesis was about 100+ pages and each black & white piece costs 10HUF (student rates). (The closest & next cheapest one is the ‘paper shop’ near the Kodaly institute at 15 HUF, we usually go there for our daily uses… stay tuned for more directions in future blog). Colour printing is of course more expensive and each A4 pieces costs 150HUF (but think there’s also student price discount also). Thesis binding (leather cover) costs 2000HUF. The guy at the counter doesn’t speak a word of English (why would they? They’ve got plenty business from the locals), so it might be advisable to get a native speaker to write you a note in Hungarian, or if you’ve been smart enough to get yourself a mobile phone from T-Mobile and/or Vodafone, call for backup.

All righty! Hope this helps. Stay tuned for the next one. 🙂

Addendum:

Ristorante Italiano Cezar: Opening hours Mondays-Saturdays, 1200-2300hrs, Sundays 1200-2200hrs. Telephone: 76/328-849. Address: 6000 Kecskemét, Kaszap utca 4. N.B. This restaurant is not to be confused with its branch Zöldfa Étterem és Pizzéria (that one’s also called Caesar, that is very close to the Kecskemét Train Station, 6000 Kecskemét, Nagykorosi utca 46. Opening Hours: Monday-Sunday 1200-2300hrs). Food here is also very very good.

B Pont: Opening hours Monday-Friday, 0800-1700hrs. Telephone: 76/329-480. www.bpont.hu