After making our way (yes, we cheated and bought the lift passes) to the St Stephen Basilica Dome, I took in the varied architecture around the city. Our guide Magdi pointed out to us on many of our walks, that the city is a mish mash of architectural styles, some Art Nouveau, next to Barouque with a Communist style concrete building squeezed between. From the top of St Stephens, this cacophony of styles is quite noticeable as are all the red roofs. I mentioned that the mixture along with the red colors reminded me of the goulash and and other local foods made with the ever-present paprika and my brother in law, N said "it's the Goulash City!"
After hoofing around the city for 2 days, it was fun to come up and have a birds eye view; indentifying landmarks and buildings we had visited.
Here is a traditional Hungarian Goulash we enjoyed at a restaurant called Pest-Buda, (Fortuna Utca 3) in Buda's Old Town on our first day in Budapest. All of the food we enjoyed that day was described as "Grandmas home style Hungarian kitchen", and all of it was orange or red! I think of warmth, when I see red and orange, like the hot paprika peppers used in the cuisine, but when I look across the city's red roofs, I also saw warmth and hospitality we experienced here. And that is the feeling I leave with after visiting this "goulash city". A feeling of hospitable local people, laughing as we mangled their language, helping us find our way on the public transit, and especially when serving us the wonderful food and drink we enjoyed in the city.
(And to be sure the food is not all paprika based or red! We found many wonderful restaurants and cafes representing every ethnic possibility as well as traditional food!)