A few weeks ago, I visited a very chilly Budapest. It felt more like a ski holiday than a city break, but thankfully, the hearty Hungarian food warmed us up. Hungary’s national dish is goulash, but I was more drawn to another regional classic, chicken paprikash. Both have the spice paprika, or red gold as the locals call it, in common. In markets, dried red peppers hang in bunches on string or are ground into colourful tins. The spice was brought to the country by the Ottomans in the 1600’s, but became popular in 1879, after a devastating flood in the city of Szeged. The ruler at the time, Emperor Franz Joseph I, promised to rebuild the city better than before. When he returned four years later, he was taken to a paprika spice mill and the spice became symbolic with revival and continues to be celebrated.