ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an ethnography of place at the same time that it is concerned with the epistemological aspects of place interpretation. The massive structure, Kzponti Vsrcsarnok, or Central Market Hall, in Budapest built in the nineteenth century, and reminiscent of a train station in its span, is filled from top to bottom with stalls offering produce, fish, fowl and meats, breads, pastries, eggs and dried noodles. The market is a meeting ground, a tourist space and local place, a sign of Hungarianess in the material culture of the architecture and the food, but it also appears as familiar, offering basic food stuffs. As an exemplar of the prosaic side of Hungarian culture, the Central Market Hall offers an ostensible glimpse into the authentic for foreign visitors. Within Budapest there are six original market halls, the Central Market Hall on Fvm Square, and five district halls at Rkczi Square, Klauzl Square, Hunyadi Square, Hold Street, and Batthyny Square.
