Cuvée: PRAHA

“Welcome to the Czech Republic” or “Vítejte na Česká Republika“

Well, that’s what we would have heard if we had arrived by plane. Instead, we went by train, through the German and Czech countryside’s to reach Prague, the heart of the Czech Republic. We weren’t greeted with a welcome at all in fact, just some angry train employee, yelling at us furiously in a foreign tongue which we promptly translated to –“What the hell are you doing on the train still? Get off NOW” message. Didn’t help that we had traveled to a country where neither of us knew any language (now that I’m gone I still couldn’t say hello, thank you, or please) nor the fact that we hadn’t slept much the night before after venturing out to the beer gardens one last time. Either way, we were in the Czech Republic, welcome at that moment or not.

For me, traveling to Prague was full of unknowns. It was a city or a country not touched upon in any of my history classes. Sure I learned about the Soviet Union and some about communism, but very little about this Eastern Europe foreign land. In learning about countries in school, I find that you often learn a little bit about what they eat-or often what they are not eating that they used to in times of desperation and starvation. I have had for some time some interest in visiting this Bohemian land and was very interested in learning its culture, history, and its edibles. I had a feeling it would be some like German food we had been eating for the last three days in Munich. And with three nights in Prague, I was willing and wanting to find out.

Well, that quest kind of failed. Not entirely as I ate pretty well in Prague, but as a major metropolitan city, international foods tend to dominate the scene. To find real Czech food, it normally meant that you ventured into a very touristy restaurant, or as Lexi put it, “their version of a TGI Fridays “ (which they awkwardly had several of around the city). That meal went undocumented but was very good. Lexi had a potato soup in a bread bowl and I had a Pilsner beef goulash with bread dumplings and potato pancakes. We later found out that the restaurant we did go to (though a chain and everywhere) is where you can really find the best Czech food. And at about 300 Koruna’s, it was one of our cheapest meals yet and we even HAD beer with it!

I actually found that the greatest divulge into Czech cuisines was in a little Spice and Cheese Fair in the center of Old Town Prague and in their grocery store itself, even if the store was the British chain TESCO.

The Market, Svatky koreni a syru, or Holidays of spices and cheese, was similar to the market we went to in Germany. Except no goods, no children’s rides, just food :)

Entrance to the market

After perusing the stands for what we wanted to eat, seeing dough fried and slathered in cheese,

To large pieces of ham, rotating on a spit,

We decided on the longest line in the bunch to get some sausages. I can tell you one thing, the Czech, just as the Germans, seem to love their sausages. After waiting in line and it became our turn, we had the choice to pick out of three-though the three are no where listed on the menu, all it said was “Sausage 60kc” hmmm….We picked a lighter one and a darker one and slathered with mustard to enjoy.

Though it was 6 Degrees Celsius out, the “dog” was warm and delicious, and I repeatedly went back to the stand to lather the spicy mustard on. Not a bad lunch! But naturally, we sought out some desert.

Caitlin and Albert were kind enough to introduce me via Skype to one of their friends who lives and owns a bakery in Prague, luckily for Lexi and I, very near the very square we were standing in. We made the short walk to The Bakeshop and ordered a delightful piece of chocolate cheesecake, something both of us had been craving and missing.

YUM

Along with the cake we ordered a cappuccino, as the place is rumored to be Tom Cruise’s favorite coffee in town when he is town filming, which he was at the time we were there for Mission Impossible: 4.

It was a fabulous way to end the afternoon.

That night for dinner, Lexi and I decided to cook for ourselves .So we braved the Czexh version of the TESCO, and the first dilemma was trying to find the correct change to get a grocery cart. Luckily the security guard stepped in and gave us a plastic coin instead. Next dilemma, try to figure out what the heck everything was. We stuck to foods we knew and found some delicious stuff.