Goulash Triestino (Italian Trieste Beef Goulash) The quickest way to understand goulash in Trieste is to compare it with the dish it descends from. In Hungary, gulyas is a soup: thin enough to eat with a spoon, the beef sitting in a great deal of paprika stained broth with potato floating in it. Cross to the Italian side of the Karst and the same name means something else, a dense, almost dry stew whose sauce has been reduced until it clings to the meat. That change is not an