During the cold war I zig-zagged across the iron curtain and found myself one day in Buda- Pest the next day in Prague, the next day in Leipzig. I complied this pan central european beef stew by trying to take the best of each region. Then I Americanized it a bit, but mainly because the Hungarian agent I stole the last bit from threatened me with a fate worse than death should he ever taste his great grandmothers goulash Stateside. I contemplated killing him quietly, but decided to just tweak the recipe. His name was Alton something...anyway...