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Saturday, May 29, 2010

La Gare

A visit to newly-opened French brasserie La Gare yesterday marked my first foray into “formal” restaurant reviewing, and bloody hell is it tougher than it looks. In reality it’s actually not all that easy trying to balance discretely taking photos (without looking to the restaurant staff like some retard photo-obsessed tourist / Health & Safety department spy) with jotting down every single item you ordered / its price / what it tasted like to boot, rather than simply wolfing it down unreflected upon as usual, all the while trying to put up with Mr K spouting glib platitudes like, “Oh, the presentation is nice, sweetie, you could put that in”, and still retaining my cool on top of it all too (a task which on this occasion I unfortunately spectacularly failed to achieve). Suffice to say, I have a new-found respect for Brewsta, that’s for sure.

Occupying the long empty spot just off Namesti Republiky where Patriot X used to be, La Gare has (according to the waiter) only been open one week, and aims to dish up a variety of authentic Gallic cuisine cooked and served by mainly native French / French-speaking staff. It also has a small cheese and charcuterie shop in the side-section where, as I recall, Patriot X used to serve ice-cream. I was initially a bit confused as to why the place was called La Gare (train station) when their logo was clearly that of a rooster, until Mr K observantly pointed out their iconic train station clock at one side of the restaurant interior, which incidentally we both felt was very warm and inviting.




The menu is written in a slightly confusing mélange of French and Czech, and runs the usual Gallic gauntlet of meat, fish and poultry dishes (vegetarians aren’t catered for well here). I also spotted quiche, omelette and eggs Benedict on the menu, which I made a mental note of for potential new brunch spots. Speaking French (reasonably well) and Czech (ahem, not so well), I asked our francophone waiter to talk us through some of the menu items we couldn’t quite decipher for ourselves, which he did very comprehensibly. I for one was just grateful that I now knew not to order the tucek šneků...

To start with, we ordered the Hortala red wine from the Languedoc region, priced at 355kč, and a bottle of sparkling Badoit mineral water (also French) at 95kč. I normally prefer New World wines to French, but this one was very drinkable. As I recall, only French wines were featured on the menu.


A basket of freshly baked French baguette and salted butter was also brought to our table. I am not a fan of this kind of dry, chewy style bread (even when that’s how it’s supposed to be), but Mr K enjoyed it. This entailed a couvert charge of 35kč.


As a starter we shared the shrimp salad á la papa Bocuse (175kč). This came with six large, fresh shrimps on a bed of lettuce and citrus fruits. We both really enjoyed the shrimps, and to my surprise even the grapefruit (not normally my fruit of choice) was likewise quite sweet and not too overpowering here. For two people to share it was an ideal portion size – for one it may have been a little much.


As a main, Mr K went for the magret de canard au miel et quatre épices (195kč), while I opted for the rabbit cooked in red wine (155kč).



Of the two, I think Mr K made the better choice. His duck was tender on the inside with a crispy skin, and came in a sweet (but not cloying or sickly) sauce. My rabbit was also nice and generously portioned (on reflection that must have been one gigantic rabbit), being served in a hearty gravy and with the meat melting off the bone. I don’t get the chance to eat rabbit often, so this made for a welcome change.

The mains came with a side selection of carrots, asparagus and mashed potato, collectively priced at 85kč. From my point of view, the carrots and asparagus were slightly underdone, but that is perhaps only because I was raised in that renowned nation of culinary barbares (namely the United Kingdom), where we tend to boil our sprouts etc to within an inch of their lives before consuming. I have to say I loved the mashed potato though, which had a really nice garlicky taste to them with just a hint of sautéed bacon and onion.


La Gare does not have a dessert menu as such, but rather the waiter brings a selection to you on a plate and talks you through each one. We went for the one at the bottom of the picture (65kč), which in the absence of any concrete menu description I will simply term choc-chocaty-choc-choc-fudgy-marzipan-truffle-delight. If you couldn’t already tell from the description, we loved it... :-))



Finally, Mr K rounded off with a pleasant café au lait at 45kč.


All in all, we couldn’t really fault La Gare, which we felt offered up well-cooked, nicely presented (my concession here to Mr K – sorry we fell out) food at reasonable prices, with service / timing / ambience all pretty much spot on as well. It’s only a week in, but if La Gare continues to keep their game up to this standard, Monsieur K and I will definitely be coming back for more...


Střelecký Ostrov

Mr K, having a fondness for both prosecco and al fresco drinking, likes to go to Střelecký Ostrov of a sunny afternoon to indulge in a glass or two and take in the scenic views over Prague from their pleasant rooftop terrace, and in all honesty it’s not like he really has to twist my arm much for me to accompany him there either. We’ve not eaten there as yet due to the relatively high prices (if I'm going to splurge on a meal, I’d rather it be at SaSaZu), but it’s definitely on list for next special occasion.


Prosecco is priced fairly reasonably at 90kč a glass, which in our view is worth every crown for the rare chance to just take a little time out of our day and relax in the sunshine over a drinkie and a nice game of travel Scrabble or two (yes, we really are that sad...).


Views from the terrace stretch out from here over Narodní Divadlo and the peddle-boats round Slovanský Ostrov.



As for the Střelecký Ostrov get-up itself, while the outdoor terrace is duly sleek, fashionable, light and airy...



...I've still never yet quite worked out the purpose of the rather incongruous four-poster bed.


Unfortunately, our last two visits there have been slightly marred by a particularly sullen waiter whose sulky mizzog could literally sour milk (I rather uncharitably suspect that this is the reason why we had no strawberry in our prosecco this time round). Part of me feels the pain of service staff (after all, I’ve had my fair share of menial student jobs in the past, and years later am still an avid follower of the Waiter Rant site). However, when it comes to a place as purportedly high-end as Střelecký Ostrov, you would expect the waiter to at least attempt to leave that heavy chip on the shoulder at the door…

Luckily the sweetness of the prosecco still outweighs the sourness of certain members of the staff though, and so weather permitting, we will definitely be heading back for our personal little summer-time indulgence for the next few weeks and months to come… :-))


Friday, May 28, 2010

Prague Food Festival 2010

Happily to say, I am writing this entry in the heady afterglow of an idyllic afternoon of fine wine, gourmet food and balmy sunshine at the Prague Food Festival 2010, this year held in the Southern Gardens of Prague Castle. Despite being an a) self-confessed foodie and b) a Prague resident for nearly four years now, I have to admit that I have never actually made it to this event in previous years, mainly because I tend not to notice it’s ever actually on until I see it written up on other people’s blogs... In fact, I wouldn’t have even known it was on this time round if not for a very well-timed suggestion from my colleague just a couple of days before - thanks Misa!

Luckily for us Mr K and I both had the Friday off work, and in our keenness to finally attend must have been two of the first few people at the gate – a good decision as it later turned out, as on a weekday there were virtually no queues, fewer crowds, and more welcoming staff. Entrance was 400kč a head, but of that 250kč was given back in "grand" tokens, which could then be exchanged for the dishes on offer within the festival grounds. We also ended up topping up at one of the "grand" banks dotted around the Castle gardens, so that we could sample a few more options on top of the standard ticket allowance as well.

Usually it is Mr K who on such occasions lapses into a state of adult ADHD, but this time round I must confess to being the one who rather lost their head, as I ran round photographing like a mad woman and trying to decide what out of all the delicious displays on offer I would most like to eat. In the excitement, at one point we lost each other in Hartigovská Zahrada (needless to say, this time all Mr K’s fault), with cross words being exchanged on eventual reunion. But we soon made up again over glasses of cold, crisp Italian Lugana (at 2 grands a glass) from one of the many Bacchus stalls scattered round the gardens. See, all smiles here...


We also sampled a glass of pink Brut Nature (also 2 grand), which likewise went down very well.


After initial reconnaissance of all the stalls and the calming influence of alcohol to temper initial over-excitement, it was finally time to get down to the serious business of extended degustation.

First stop was the Hergetová Cihelna stand, where Mr K and I shared a mini Cihelna burger with duck foie gras, home-made fries and truffle mayonnaise, priced at 5 grands.


This was a big favourite with both of us, made as it was with lovely medium-rare beef that left delicious juices running down your fingers. Would have preferred some good old fashioned mustard and ketchup to the truffle mayonnaise though, which I have to say didn't quite convince me, but Mr K by contrast professed to rather like.


Next stop on the tour was the Rybí Trh stand, where we shared a dish of black tiger prawns with piquant sauce and spicy cous-cous. I seriously loved the light barbeque tinge to their large fresh, juicy prawns, and could have easily put away another round right there and then.


From Rybí Trh, we then moved onto the Kempinski Hybernská stand, where we were both bowled over by their grilled flank steak on sweet batata potato purée with creamy white asparagus and pumpkin oil (5 grands). Suffice to say, it tasted as good as it looked.


Less successful here, however, was the Kempinski's rendition of scallops ceviche on vegetable brunoise salad with mascarpone and sorrel (5 grands). The scallops in our opinion were slightly on the bland side, while the brunoise salad didn't taste all that much different from your bog-standard Albert potato salad. In short, not all that impressive really.


At this point Mr K insisted on stopping by the children’s corner run by Radisson Blu / La Rotunde for a blueberry milkshake and mini chocolate and raspberry mousse (each 2 grands). I wasn't a particular fan of the blueberry milkshake, but loved the mousse, which had a really lovely deep, dark, velvety chocolate taste.


Mr K also particularly liked the trainset here.


Finally, we rounded off with a truly to-die-for three-chocolate mousse at the Hilton stand, which Mr K and I agreed was the absolutely perfect sweet end to an already extremely enjoyable culinary experience.


Other dishes that I didn’t taste myself, but definitely looked tempting at least were the stuffed veal chest served with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and sage sauce from the Como stand (4 grands);


the Norwegian salmon tartar with marinated fennel and herb baguette from Rybí Trh (3 grands);


the basil panna cotta with marinated stawberries, also from Como (2 grands);


the Thai chicken salad from the Buddha Bar stall (4 grands);


the sashimi pizza with slices of tuna, wasabi cream and scallions from Hergetová Cihelna (3 grands);


the teriyaki salmon with wasabi potato purée and enoki mushrooms, also from Hergetová Cihelna (3 grands);


and last but not least, the sushi platters from Sakura (2 - 3 grand a plate),


Others I preferred to pass on were the pork from Lví Dvůr (8 grands);


and the oysters (my personal pet hate) from Nowado.


Food and drink aside, it was also really lovely to roam the castle grounds in such sunny weather and take in the lovely views from the Castle gardens.



That said, I certainly didn’t envy the cooks slaving over a hot stove on such a balmy summer day!



Which just about wraps it up for my experience of the first day of Prague Food Festival 2010 really. Like I say, it was the first time I’ve ever been to this event, so obviously I can’t compare to previous years - however, I for one thoroughly enjoyed the occasion, and next time will be sure not to miss out on Prague Food Festival 2011!!!!!!! :-)))))


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Chanchala

Call me an uppity food snob if you like, but I have to say that apart from the odd quickie sandwich / coffee on the hoof here and there, I don't generally like eating in shopping mall restaurants - I just somehow find them pretty impersonal and contrived, and would on the whole prefer to have a meal in a more atmospheric local restaurant instead.

For this reason, despite having literally drunk my weight in chai over the last year at Chanchala, a gaudily decked out Indian restaurant on the top floor of Palladium mall, until today I had never once actually eaten there. In fact I probably never would have done so at all, had it not been for the one feature of their menu that has long tweaked my interest - namely their selection of dhosas, a crèpe-like speciality of southern India which I used to regularly enjoy as a light lunch when I was living on the subcontinent a few years back. As far as I know, dhosas aren't found on the menu of any of the other Indian restaurants in Prague (though please correct me if I'm wrong), so after months of meaning to get around to it, I finally decided to go against the grain tonight and head off to an impersonal, non-descript shopping centre for my dinner.

As predicted, the staff were immediately thrown into (admittedly rather charming) confusion when "that weird girl who always comes in on her own and only orders tea" for the first time actually professed a desire to order solid food and non-chai based beverages.


As Mr K never tires of repeating: "a day without wine is a day without a smile" (which rather makes alcohol dependency sound pretty twee and jolly, doesn't it?), so as usual I went ahead and ordered myself a nice glass of white to start off the meal. This particular glass, however, most definitely did not bring a smile to my face today though, coming as it did with an eye-watering 110kč price tag for a measly 0,15 glass, and not even particularly good quality wine at that. Apparently Chanchala only stocks Indian wines (of which this was actually the cheapest), which is all very well from a culinary standpoint, but quite frankly for that price I would rather have three glasses of bog-standard Czech Müller Thurgau and at least get tipsy off the back off it...

Unsurprisingly considering, for my next drink I instead plumped for a sweet lassi, which was actually pretty refreshing and nice (not too thick or sickly like some Indian restaurants make them), as well as a comparative steal at "just" 75kč per 0,2 glass.


Luckily my narkiness at being shafted on the wine abated somewhat, however, when the food itself arrived - a masala dhosa stuffed with potato, peas, onions and raisins (197kč). Being ravenous to the point of wanting to gnaw off my own arm already when I arrived, I pretty much polished this off in just a few frantic bites (in fact it took all my self-control just to pause to take the picture first...). However, despite it being something of a "blink and you miss it" affair in terms of meal duration, I have to say that the dhosa nevertheless was actually really pretty damn tasty. In fact I would even go as far to say that this rendition was just as good as any dhosa I'd had before in India, being generously stuffed full of tasty spiced vegetables and accompanied by a truly delicious dhal, some light mango yogurt sauce, and a kind of cardamon / coconut mix on the side. Either way, it definitely brought back warm memories of my halcyon Indian days at any rate... :-))


I did toy with the idea of ordering a pot of my beloved masala chai (pictured below) afterwards to round off the meal, but didn't have my bank manager's number to hand to take out an overdraft, and besides was already pretty happily replete as it was.


All in all the bill came to a fairly hefty 382kč, which did strike me as distinctly over-priced for what in production terms essentially didn't amount to much more than an over-sized pancake, a glass of milk and a dribble of subcontinental wine, and that all dished up in a bog-standard shopping mall restaurant to boot. On the other hand, I really did enjoy the dhosa and the lassi, which in themselves actually weren't all that overly expensive, so judging by food alone (and - like I say - I'm only going on this one meal myself) I would still definitely recommend at least giving the place a go.

So all in all a short but sweet dining experience, but one with a nasty sting in the tail when it came to the exorbitant cost of the wine. On reflection, in future I think I will probably just stick to tea at Chanchala from now on, or failing that (in true Great British pre-curry tradition) simply get tanked up down the local before I go the next time!! ;-))


Sunday, May 23, 2010

Ethiopia Café

I'm sorry, readers, but I cannot tell a lie. In fact I must confess to writing this first “official” restaurant review of 'Knedliky Etc' feeling rather shame-faced on several fronts today.

Firstly, I ended up at my intended restaurant of review Ethiopia Café accidentally drinking three of these (rýzlink at 72kč per glass) rather than just the intended one - oops...


I wouldn’t like to say this impaired my judgement in any way, but then (moving on to secondary cause of embarrassment) I don’t think it’s entirely unrelated that I ended up easily demolishing literally all of this either:



when on all previous visits I have been consistently defeated by the sheer vastness of the Beyenetu Addis Ethiopian platter (consisting of five Ethiopian meat and vegetable samplers, served on crepe-like injera bread), at 195kč a throw. And what makes it worse is that I didn't even feel overly full afterwards either...

Thirdly, I must confess that I have literally no idea if what I so ravenously put away tonight was in any way authentic Ethiopian or not, having chickened out of my intended Cairo to Cape Town overland trip back in 2006 due to the ongoing Sudanese conflict, bypassing the Sudan and with it unfortunately also Ethiopia as well to instead travel the safer, more beaten backpacker track from Kenya to the Cape instead.

And fourthly and finally, I am literally kicking myself for having missed out on one of the undoubtedly interesting special African nights held occasionally at the Ethiopia Café by a matter of just two days. As much as I like my usual Beyenetu Addis platter, I’d also have loved to have sampled the likes of ‘Cameroonian chicken in a sauce of exotic spices and served with peanut butter, manioc, sweet potatoes and manioc leaves pond’ or ‘malamba mushrooms with mashed beans and fufu’ (as described on the website), but from now on will definitely try and stay abreast of the Ethiopia’s special nights and be sure to head on down / report back in future.

So much for regrets in this case then, but for now back to the all-important subject of the food itself, which in this case consisted of Ethiopian Key Wot (beef stew cooked in Berbere sauce), Doro Wat (chicken slow cooked in Berbere sauce and served with hard-boiled egg and cottage cheese), Ater Keke Wot (split pea dhal), Messer Wot (red lentil sauce), and Atkilt Alicha (vegetable curry). The sheer fact that I a) ate the whole bloody thing and b) was already a repeat customer pre-blog clearly indicates that I have no complaints as regards quality of the food, but must say that I have always much preferred the two tasty meat curries to the three comparatively bland vegetable dishes. But then again when it comes to Ethiopia, like I say, not having ever actually been there in person, I can't honestly claim to know my arse from my elbow in any culinary respect here.

As for the restaurant itself, on this occasion for the first time weather permitted me to sit outside (though did manage to grab a quickie photo of the interior for the sake of review as well).



One other point in favour of the Ethiopia Café is that 50% of its staff is made up of people who have physical or learning difficulties of some kind, which in my experience means a little patience and Czech might occasionally be required when ordering / paying etc. While I am fully behind any project of this kind, however, one aspect of their service I'm not entirely comfortable with is that staff are required to bring out a basin and jug in order to wash the customer's hands for them prior to eating. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, but quite frankly I simply dislike to ever be put in such an embarrassing position of unwarranted superiority in relation to anybody, waiter/ess or not, and it’s not like the restaurant lacks bathroom facilities for this purpose (in which I am – after 28 years on this earth – quite self-sufficient by now) anyway.

But all in all, I would still say that Ethiopia Café is definitely one of the more unique places in Prague in terms of both creed and cuisine, and somewhere I will definitely be heading back to on their next African night and beyond...