Well, suprisingly so, the food in the Czech Republic was actually one of the highlights of visiting that city. Yes, as in much of eastern Europe, most of the menus featured heavily on the protein and starch side of things and light on the vegetables. But, it was delicious and I've never been one to shy away from a few dumplings. As a side note, z knedliki on a menu means with dumplings, so if you are trying to decipher a menu, learn the words for the meats and I guarantee that you will find it with z knedliki following it.
RESTAURANT MATYLDE
On our first night, luckily, we found restaurant Matylde on Belehradska street, one block away from the IP Pavlova tram/metro if anyone is actually trying to find this place someday. It was exactly what we needed. First off, they have a very nice house wine, both red and white, from Moravia and they pour you a cup FULL for about $1.40. So, off to a good start already. Danielle, as is her way, went straight for the pizza section of the menu, but I will have to say, found one of the best pizzas I've had in my life. First off, great crust, which is the most important part of any pizza, but also a great assortment of toppings: blue cheese, caramelized onion, salami, and potatoes. Divine. I had a ridiculous bargain of a meal...half of a roasted duck, perfectly crispy skin, delightfully moist interior, seasoned right, served with traditional bread dumplings (surprisingly light), and red cabbage. It was, as fans of Gavin and Stacey will appreciate, IMMENSE. On top of that, it cost me $12. We were both too stuffed for dessert, but they did have a blueberry tiramisu that looked pretty solid for you sweettooths out there. www.restaurant-matylda.cz/
ZVORNAKA
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| Steak Tartare |
On our second night, we ate at a restaurant called Zvonarka. I had ordered a traditional appetizer called (in translation anyway) "pickled cheese." It is supposed to be slices of camembert marinated in oil, garlic, chiles, & spices, served with pickled peppers, shaved onions, and greens. As we were tourists, our waiter instead brought us just a "cheese tasting" which while good, was not anything I haven't eaten 1000 times. Also, his attitude was basically "well I bought this, so.....". I have heard this attitude is common in restaurants in Prague, from Praugians (maybe not a word, but ah well). Either way, we ate it and moved on to the main course. I had traditional potato dumplings, with bacon, caramelized onions, and sauerkraut. The dumplings were akin to very large spaetzle, cooked in brown butter, and were delicious. They also came out to about $5 a plate. My wife had the steak tartare, which was very traditionally prepared with onions, mustard, and all the usual condiment suspects with the somewhat bizarre addition of ketchup. It was tasty, but I don't think that it will be remembered fondly. It was tartare made with ground beef, which as we all know, is the only type of beef that can cause E.Coli poisoning. Well, in fairness, I cannot 100% say that this was the cause, as the symptoms take a while to set in, but my wife spent a few (5) miserable days stuck in the apartment while I scoured the city for pharmacies open on the weekends. We actually had to stay in Prague an extra three nights for this and, unfortunately, had to spend only one night in Budapest (although we did try a great restaurant there which I will let you in on soon). For all concerned, if your steak tartare is chopped, not ground, it is 100% safe to eat. For the record, I have safely eaten ground steak tartare many times, but contracting E.Coli is a risk if you do. www.restauracezvonarka.cz
KOLKOVNA
Next up was lunch at a great traditional Czech restaurant, Kolkovna, on (fittingly) Kolkovne Street, which was recommended by both our friend Dave, a native of the city, and Daniel, from whom we were renting the apartment. It is just a few blocks away from the main square with the astronomy clock et al, but is just far enough away that the locals will go there, and you won't get ripped off by eating in a tourist trap. There is a fun looking market/food stand area in the square that smelled great, but after doing some currency conversion, I realized that I would be asked to pay $20 for some roast pork and potato salad, so we moved on. We finally got to try the pickled cheese dish here, and I have to say, it was well worth the wait. The cheese is as I said, more marianted than pickled, but it was delicious. The creamy camembert, fresh shaved onion, and pickled/spicy peppers were a great combo. We also tried a very simple tomato & onion salad. It was nice, if unremarkable. At the very least, they were nice fresh tomatoes. Sticking to more traditional dishes, we ordered, and thankfully split, the svitchkova for our main course. It is sort of akin to Czech pot roast, and was recommended by our pescetarian local friend as the only meat dish he misses from his childhood. The meat is cooked in a creamy mushroom gravy, topped with cranberry chutney, and topped again with a pastry-garnish-like swirl of savory whipped cream. You mix it all together as soon as it hits the table, so this is all for presentation, but it was.....unique. It is served with, you guessed it, dumplings. The meat was tender, juicy, and well seasoned, the sauce good, the cranberries a pleasant surprise, and the dumplings yet again pleasingly light (for dumplings). Not the lightest lunch ever, but a very good one. The only real negative would be that the bartender poured the worst beer I have had in recent memory. It arrived at the table only 3/4 full and 1/2 of that was foam. Thankfully they're cheap, but still. If you're a PROfessional bartender, learn to pour a freaking beer. www.kolkovna.cz
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| Fried cheese deliciousness |
Since this was around the time when my wife became violently ill, this is where my sit-down restaurant experiences in the city ended, but I did try quite a few items of street food while searching for the aforementioned pharmacies. Don't worry, all of the street food was "en route" so to speak, so I didn't abandon my wife so I could eat fried cheese....for too long anyway. While there are many choices for streetfood, only two really stuck out as something "Czech" or original. The first would be "parek v rohliku", which would simply be a hot dog. It is larger than it's street cousins in the US, and a bit more spicy, both of which are good. It also either comes with fresh brown bread, or wrapped in a sort of pastry dough, both of which beat the wonderbread buns of the US. As always, spicy brown mustard, NO KETCHUP, and away I went. Quite delicious for about $1.25. Second up, would definitely be "smazeny syr". Smazeny, I believe, means "fried," and syr means "cheese" (well either cheese, or this particular kind of cheese). That pretty much sums it up. Imagine mozzarella sticks, just with a little more flavor, and made into a 4 inch wide patty, deep fried, smothered in tartarski (tartar sauce) and served on a big thick roll. It is a delicious, greasy, guilty, ball of fried wonder....and is also about the heaviest thing I have ever eaten. I am not skinny, not a small eater, and have never counted a calorie in my life, but about 3/4 of the way through this thing I think one of my arteries closed and I started thinking about the fact that I had just eaten about 1/2 lb of cheese...fried. So I took a few more bites and admitted happy, sated defeat.
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| Herman with the real deal |
The only additional piece of gastronomic info I have about Prague is that apparently evil Americans stole the name Budweiser from local Czech brewers. The story I got was a little hard to follow as it was in semi-English, and seems to really raise passions (read voices) about the subject, but it goes something like this. There is a town somewhere called Bud (or Budvar, the var might mean valley, not really sure) and there they make Bud-veis-er, which somehow translates to beer from the area around Bud. Anyway, American beer execs went there way back in the day, liked the beer, liked the name, and according to local legend stole it all. Apparently, you cannot buy the two beers in the same country (except England) as everywhere has chosen a side in this battle. I, myself, would have to say that the story doesn't quite wash with me, but the beer does exist here and is MUCH better than its' American counterpart. However, it is not one of the best Czech beers; Urquell, Starompramen, Kruskovice, and Gambrinus are all better, and the beer here is CHEAP.
Anyway, that about sums up my culianry adventures in Prague. Overall, a great city for food and drink if you stay away from the tourist traps...and the steak tartare. Happy travels.
"In Prague, pork is king. Welcome to Porkopolis, the land that vegetables forgot" ~Anthony Bourdain
"Prague is the Paris of the ’90s" ~Marion Ross
