Final Note on the Food from the Recent Trip

Something that surprised me a bit was that the food in Prague was really amazing. Not so much the pastries, but since my pants still fit post-vacances, I am sort of grateful that everywhere we visited did not have outrageous baked goods.

I will say that finding lovely vegetables in Vienna in the winter was not a hugely successful mission. One thing about the French, they are meticulous about produce. Even though they love their meat and poultry, and are happy to have the protein take center stage, they would never stand for sub-par vegetable accompaniments. As such, the mushy broccoli and the wilted lettuce that sadly accompanied some the schnitzels and wieners in Vienna would have given a French person serious pause.

However, the saurkraut was good. That is a vegetable, right?

But in Prague, we really ate at some delicious restaurants that seemed to be wholly committed to freshness. For some reason, I found this doscovery to be a pleasant surprise. Memories of my prior trip conjures up meals that were heavy on the beer and french fries. Although I was 21, so maybe that had more to do with my dietary proclivities at the time than with the regional offerings available.

I wish I could tell you the names of the places at which we ate, but as my command of the Slavic tongue is abysmal, the names just did not stick with me. They were both recommended by our very nice concierge at the Hotel Imperial, where we stayed.

The first dinner we enjoyed was at a gorgeous little place, tucked away on a side street near the Charles Bridge. One whole wall of the restaurant was made of horizontally stacked books--pages facing in. It was really original (to me) and, as a voracious reader, I just loved it. They offered us an amuse-bouche of potao leek soup, and a bread basket wth four types of bread (a dark seeded rye, a fluffy sharp-cheese flavored roll, a sourdough crusty, and a brioche-type roll). We both had salad for appetizers--mine was rocket with thinly sliced pears and hazlenuts, accompanied by large hunks of the most creamy gorgonzola, and drizzled with basil pesto. I would not have imagined basil pesto would work on that salad, but it was so good. My husband had a barrata cheese (like mozzarella in flavor, but fluffier) and oven-dried tomatoes over mixed greens. He had lamb that literally fell from the bone which was accompanied by a cucumber relish and veggies, and I had salmon with a shitake mushroom butter sauce. My obsession with butter aside, I was actually a tad skeptical about this sauce on salmon. But, my word, let me say that it was heavenly. They brought a sampling tray of tiny desserts, none of which were too impressive, though the carrot cake with white chocolate icing was quite decent.

The next night we ate at a place that seemed to be in the 'hood. At least the road was bereft of other humans, but it was conveniently right behind our hotel. We were really cold, so it seemed that the potential for being mugged was less consequential than finding a reliable source of heat STAT.

The restaurant turned out to be this barn-like place and was very charming and rustic once inside--shabby-chic decor with a roaring fire going. I had a salmon tartare with a tomato pistou and my husband had beef carpaccio with rocket which was dotted with large semi-soft croutons to start. Then he had rabbit (sorry, Amanda!) topped with this potato-stick like web, fried bacon (only a small quantity of that so I think his arteries survived), atop a roasted tomato sauce and a mound of potato celery puree. I had a grilled goat cheese under a nutty crust accompanied by a mint, pear, and mixed green salad. The only disappointing part of that meal was the creme brulee we ordered for dessert. The top was burnt sugar perfection, but the "creme" below was a thick, grainy custard that was just not delicious. Oh, and he had a Pilsner Urquel and I had a Czech wine--pretty good, but maybe a tad too sweet.

Don't you love how critical I am? Like do I think I am Emeril or something?

We also ate at a "typical" Czech place for lunch one day, but I was not exactly adventurous with their native cuisine. The suggestion was to try the traditional dish of "goulash" but since no one could tell me exactly what was in this mysterious goulash, I steered clear. Sorry to disappoint those people on the edge of their seats to hear the goulash review.

The biggest surprise for me was that we were able to eat this amazing food at pretty decent prices. True, Prague is not the cheap place it was ten-15 years ago, but to eat as well as we did in Paris would have meant foregoing heat and internet for three months in order to pay for the resto bills. And the freshness of the food was just amazing to me, but maybe I was nust naive in my expectations.

In terms of what we ate in Berlin and Amsterdam, we had some pretty scrumptious meals in those cities too. A particular standout was an Italian place in Amsterdam called Casa di David--the spaghetti carbonara rivals that made by our friend Vince (who makes incredible Italian food as he lives in Rome and is a great cook), and the atmosphere and service is amazing. It is located on Singel 426, right on a canal. Even despite the ridiculously rude guy from Jersey (note to Phil: you are a deplorable dining neighbor and calling the Italian waiter "Giuseppe" was not funny) who presided over the table next to us, we just loved the place.

In Berlin, we really liked this place called Kaffee Mitte (near the Weinermeister Strasse) which had incredible coffee, desserts, sandwiches and salads. The clientele was this artsy mix of locals of all ages. It had this really great coffee-house energy, yet it somehow avoided having that granola-y, "you can only really feel like you belong in here if you wear hemp and hack" vibe. I loved it and I sort of wanted to move in.

Except then I would have to live in Berlin, and such an idea receives a definite "No way, Jose!" from this duck.

To wrap this series of riveting food-intake up, we are trying to try as many "local" places as we can. And we try to eat and drink things that are typical of the regions we visit (obviously, we are not successful at this endeavor all the time), and I have to say that leaving the food of Paris had me nervous about the prospect of finding other cuisine that I would enjoy as much. But we really ate some delectable food in some unexpected locales.

We are going to Bruges in a couple of weeks. As you can imagine, I have one thing, and one thing only, on my mind regarding that trip: Belgian chocolate. Yes, please.