Prague Blog - Day 1, Evening - Eat Like a Czech

This evening we were lucky to be able to get two spots on a fantastic tour with Prague Food Tour. Leona and George were wonderful guides.

We were instructed to meet our tour in front of the National Theater at 5 pm.

The National Theater

We arrived early (of course) and waited for somebody to show up. Right before 5 a smartly-dressed young woman came walking up holding one of those retractable pointers with a roll stuck onto the end. Somehow I knew this was our guide.

We ended up with a group of 8, plus the guides. We walked across a bridge to the other side of the river where we found the Cafe Savoy, our first stop.

Old Town from the bridge

The Castle District

Liittle shiny tags were put on the tram wires to deter swans from electrocuting themselves

The Cafe Savoy, opened around 100 years ago

Here we learned about snacks.  The Czechs eat open-faced sandwiches similar in appearance to the smorrebrod we had in Denmark. The sandwich toppings were quite different. People in land-locked countries apparently don't eat that much fish.

Goat cheese over a salad of chopped grapes, chives, mayo and egg, ham, radish and potato salad

Puff pastry with a custard filling and meringues with a a chocolate and coffee filling

Back across the bridge to Old Town and stop # 2 - a bar called Bon Vivant's.

Our bartender, Edward, was extremely knowledgable. He said he had gone to school to study hospitality and had to take a bartending exam.  Our first drink was absinthe, which is popular in Prague these days.

He poured a some in some glasses. It was a clear yellow-green liquid. He then put two glasses under a contraption that had two spouts. He put a flat metl thing across each glass and he put a sugar cube on top of it. Then he put ice and water in the top of the contraption and let each spout drip onto the sugar cube. Gradually the glasses filled up and the liquid turned cloudy. We each shared a glss with our companion. It wwas very strong with an anise flavor. The aftertaste was very pleasant, although I am not a huge fan of licorice.  In case you were wondering whether we were going to be poisoned or become addicted to the absinthe, I will reassure you that Edward explained to us that this was a myth generated by others in the liquor industry to squelch competition.

For our second drink we had something based on a Pisco Sour, but it used a local brandy made from apricots instead of Pisco. It had real egg white in it, and Edward shook it up until it frothed.

Our third drink was based on some kind of medicinal beverage that had been mixed with liquor in the old days to make it more palatable. The mixture is called Becherov and we had Old Fashioneds made with it. I didn't like the Old Fashioned at all.

I really just drank these drinks because they had ice in them. It as in the 90's and nothing in Prague is air-conditioned. :)

After leaving Bon Vivant's, we wandered through the narrow cobbled streets of Old Town and Leona showed us a piece of modern art by a controversial artist named David Cerny (?).  Cerny never explains his art beyond supplying the name of the piece. This one was called "Sigmund Freud."

Another work by David Cerny, called "In Utero." George showed us that he could stand up inside it.

Third stop, Lokal, a beer hall a full block long. This was a bustling, convivial place. Itt was packed, but there was a table waiting for us.

We were offered four types of beer. One of them was all foam, but it was supposed to be very good. We were also plied with "beer food." These included steak tartare, served with bread fried in lard and whole garlic clove. We also had fried cheese with tartar sauce, marinated cheese (really garlicky), ham with horseradish in whipped cream, and bread. None of these were my favorites, but I tried them and and now I know what happens in a check beer hall.

Fourth stop - the Imperial Cafe. Mmmmm! I think we might go back there. Thiis was another very beautiful place, around 100 years old.

We had some fabulous mushroom soup with fresh dill. It had a poached egg in it. For the main course we had a choice of beef pot roast with bread dumplings, duck with red cabbage and some other kind of dumplings, or rabbit (with dumplings). I had the beef. It came with a LOT of tasty gravy. Supposedly the gravy had vegetables such as carrot and parsnip in it. This is a good thing, as there were no other vegetables on the plate. The meat was extremely tender and delicious.

Last but not least, we stopped at a wine bar. In addition to wine, we had three types of Czech cheese with olive oil and honey to dip the cheese in. They were all delicious.

At 10:30 we all went our separate ways. The tour was supposed to be between 4 and 5 hours, but we went for 5 1/2. Nobody wanted to  leave. It was such an enjoyable evening. Leona and George did a GREAT job and made sure that everyone had a good time.  We ended up only 3 or 4 blocks from our hotel so we walked back and felt safe to be out so late.