The Taste of Prague

Gastronome in Prague is reinventing itself with a focus on modernizing Czech food. Over its history the food scene in the Czech Republic has been strongly influenced by foods from other cultures. You see a lot of German, Austrian, and Italian dishes around. In Prague the food industry is certainly catering to the booming tourist industry and you can find over 4000 eateries to choose from. The hardest decision is finding a good restaurant with quality food that doesn't overcharge because it's in a touristy area.

We decided to experience the revolution of Czech food by taking a foodie tour. Our guide, Jan, a local Bon and raised in Prague took us on a four hour tour of eight different eateries. We started at a fairly new establishment called Sisters where we tried a beet root purée with goat cheese open sandwich called a chlebicek and a pickled herring with wasabi mayo chlebicek. The first was quite good but I only tried a small bite of the second because of my dislike for fish. Our second stop was a butcher called Nase Maso where we tried a very flavourful meatloaf on bread, a juicy Weiner sausage, Gothaj salami with vinegar onions, and finally smoked pork cracklings. From there we walked to a popular Prague pub called Lokal. It's the oldest establishment on this tour at five and a half years young. The interior though is made to look like an old Czech pub. Here we sampled pork schnitzel with potato salad, Prague ham with horseradish cream, beef goulash with bread dumpling all with a local Pilsner Urquel lager to wash it down.

By this time I was already feeling full but there was more still to come. We made our way to a new wine bar that just opened in November called Bokovha. The Czech Republic has a small wine industry which is quite regulated and in fact no new wineries are permitted to open. All that exist today remain from the production level the Czech's had when they joined the EU.

We got to sample the 2014 Creme de Cambrium by Mr Nejedlik, the 2013 Welsh Riesling by Mr Nepras, and the 2009 Blaufrankisch by Mr Madl. The setting of this wine bar is quite quaint and made for a good atmosphere to relax and chat. From here we walked to Maso a Kobliha. 








We learned that Maso means meat and Kobliha donut. Here we were served a Scotch egg (minced pork meat with a cooked half egg wedged in the middle) along with a Matuska California IPA. As a finisher we enjoyed a freshly made vanilla custard donut dusted with sugar - this was one of the best donuts I've ever had.

Our last stop called Eska restaurant was a a short tram ride away. One of the things we learned on studs tour was that the Czech people really like their beer and really like meat....vegetarians would have a bit of a difficult time here. This last stop however was inspired by the vegetarian wife of the chef. We sampled fermented raspberry soda, burnt potato in ash with potato espuma, fermented red wheat with root celery instead of the same dish with sous-vide egg and button mushrooms (a slight variation due to our dislike of mushrooms) and for dessert we had zemlovka: a bread pudding with apples in an espuma of vanilla and rum. During this tour we learned a lot about how Czech food is starting to

revive itself. Under communist rule for so long chefs were not encouraged or maybe it's better to say not allowed to exercise creativity. A new generation of chefs is taking over the food scene and things are starting to change with several going back to the Czech roots but with a modern flare.

We tried several other great restaurants during our stay. The Creperie was already mentioned but we found a couple amazing breakfast spots. Both were in close walking distance from our apartment....Den Noc - a tiny establishment with amazing food, good coffee and extremely friendly staff; and Home Kitchen - serving a uniquely wholesome breakfast. We had a very tasty yet strong flat white at a coffee shack called Coffee Cube. At Potrefená Husa we enjoyed lunch consisting of beef goulash with bread dumplings for me and pork ribs for Z the waitress here asked if we wanted any sides and we declined only to discover that neither dish came with any sort of vegetables. Z's plate was literally a plate full for pork ribs, the equivalent of what I thought were two full racks of ribs. Our last dinner was at a place called Karavella, a restaurant down one of the many streets off the main Old Town Square. The service here was good considering only one waitress was on staff. I red red a caprese salad to start followed by beef goulash which to my disappointment was under seasoned and not overly flavourful. Z ordered garlic soup to start followed by pork tenderloin along with a beer. We also ordered a side dish of croquets. We ate a lot of food and for the most part it was all very tasty. Hopefully the walking around counter balanced the eating, but who knows until we get home and step on the scale. We also indulged a few times with pastries and gelato. Our best discovery was Amorino gelato....not only is the gelato some of the best ever, they add a cool twist to making your cone into a gelato flower and we opted to have a macaroon added to the middle....go big or go home, right?

There is certainly no shortage of eateries in Prague and plenty of spots to enjoy a great cup of coffee of a refreshing beer. There is a microbrewery scene emerging as well opening up the varieties of beer available.