Prague restaurants

Lakritz · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:42 am Post subject:

Thank you, you lovely (and very lucky) person! And perfect German, too. (My Mum always said the Hungarians were terrifically good at foreign languages!!) Do you work for the EU in Brussels??

simona · Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 696 Location: israel

This topic was an incentive to really special posts. What a simple question about restaurants can reveal:
Here we are, 3 women all of us originary from Eastern Europe, spread between England , Brussels and tel aviv. I learned to speak german as a baby, parallel with my romanian motherlanguage, as I had, Noblesse oblige, a Sass nanny. ( Sass are romanians of German origin). I still speak fairly good german, but unfortunately I have no occasions to practice. The hungarian link is my husband, an Hungarian born in Romania ( during the war) who speaks perfect hungarian. This is a language I couldn't manage!
So, C&Z , the global village in his full glory!

No more war, shalom and a friendly and peaceful global village!

Lakritz · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:01 am Post subject:

Yes, isn't it wonderful? This simply has to be one of the most marvellous websites around! From what I can tell, most people who post on here -apart from being very interested in food -- seem to be displaced in one way or another, whether by choice or not, they seem to be away from their original home, or at least they have lived 'abroad' for some time.
As for nannies, yes, I didn't mention that, it was rich Hungarians with their multi-cultural nannies my Mum was referring to. - The other thing I didn't say at the time was, well, it's just as well that the Hungarians are so good at learning foreign languanges, because clearly no one is quite capable of learning theirs...
Or Finnish, apparently, which (another thing I learnt from my Mum) is related to Hungarian, while neither are actually related to the Indogermanic language group. And the only person ever to have learnt Finnish properly, according to a Finnish friend of mine, was a Hungarian.
Oh yes, global villages ahoy!
Shalom indeed, such a lovely greeting. About two years ago, my all-girls school's class decided to go for a class trip for our 30th anniversary, and we went to Amsterdam. At some point we all split, and it was only two of us who went to the Anne-Frank-House (a lot of them felt it would be just too upsetting; but I had just watched a documentary/film with my 10-year-old, and I really felt I had to see it). When we came out, we went to the market, and at one of the stalls, there was a most beautiful young man, selling all sorts of hashish-related paraphernalia and ethnic/gaelic silver jewellery. And then this girl turned up, embraced him, and said, "Shalom". Ther's is no way I can explain or express just
how warm that felt, after just having come out of the Anne-Frank-House.

simona · Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 696 Location: israel

I'm leaving tomorrow for Berlin/paris and I'm quite excited ( about berlin, as paris is my second home and I'm there frequently).
Anna Frank should be a must for every school children around the word, but Europe in particular.
As for the handsome guy, Shalom is a specific israeli greeting, so i presume they were Israelis, though i'm not very happy with their lne of business. Hope they will grow up and smoke cigars, or not smole at all ( yes, I was 20 in the 70' and I also sat in Damm square smoking something, but that was once and a very long time ago..)

Mo nore war, Shalom and viele gruesse,

Lakritz · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:01 am Post subject:

Lucky you, I wish I could call Paris my second home!!
Have a really good trip, and we'll 'talk' again when you're back.
(Must manage to make more use of the 'pm' button...)
Viel Spaß in Berlin!!

Lakritz · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:29 pm Post subject:

Ahoy!
Back from a cool (19C) and partially rainy Prague (my husband was very grateful for the weather!). We had three memorable meals there:
1) Hotel U Zlateho Stromu
It's the first one on the Karlova, coming from the Charles Bridge; one can sit outside and watch the world go by, sipping extremely cheap cocktails (from 39CZK, less than 1), and eat reasonably priced food ( 2,99 for lasagne). I had duck thigh and duck breast with Karlovy Vary bread dumplings and red cabbage at 219 CZK ( 7,30), and my husband had chicken breast, pork tenderloin & beef sirloin with fresh vegetables on black rice at 169CZK (5,69).
2) Hergetova Cihelna (as recommended by Szofia)
We ate al fresco, overlooking the river and Charles bridge. (Very romantic, indeed.)
For starters, we had tiger prawns in butter & cream sauce, and the veal tartare (thin slices, cold) with tuna dressing and fava beans. For the main course, we had the suckling pig with new potatoes, onion gravy and redcurrant sauce, and the perch-pike with a red wine sauce and chanterelles. All very, very nice. The desserts were okay, but nothing special. (In one guide, I read that the Czechs don't go in much for desserts...). I had 'Heisse Liebe' (hot love - of course! It was, after all, our wedding anniversary... though none of that ever came off as I ended up drinking rather too many slivovice later on...), which consisted of raspberries, vodka and vanilla ice-cream, and my hsuband had the strudel. (Which - quel horreur again!!! - was accompanied by cream out of a spray can!!!).
We also had the local Sekt, which was reasonably priced and acceptable, and can now add another champagne/Sekt cork with a lucky coin inserted into it to our collection.
3) Plzensky Restaurant U Zelenho Stromu (as recommended by Simona)
On Husova Street (as so well described by Simona). This is a far more 'authentic ' place, in a cellar, and frequented mostly by Czechs (always a good sign!). As soon as you sit down, a half litre jug of beer is planted on your table, and you can eat from 135CZK upwards. We had the 1/2 duck and the smoked pork knuckle, both at 250CZK. It was very, very nice, and the plates/portions were indeed huge!!
So, thank you very much, both of you for those recommendations, they were very much appreciated!!!
(We can't wait to visit Prague again, and we're already having withdrawal symptoms with regard to the beer...)

Lady Amalthea · Joined: 18 Dec 2004 Posts: 136 Location: New York City

I've never been to Prague, but I just wanted to say how interesting it's been reading all of your suggestions and finally your description of the trip. Did you wind up at the Lanterna Magica? I've been wanting to go to Prague just for that. Ah, well, maybe another time...
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Don't forget the cannolis!

Lakritz · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:41 am Post subject:

Dear Lady Almathea, no, I'm sad to report we never got round to a Laterna Magica show (or any other evening show...). With the long, relaxed breakfast buffet at the Hilton, we always got out rather late, which in return meant that in order to fit a lot of sightseeing in, we had to have the evening meal rather late.

I do hope you'll soon be able to visit this marvellous city, it is just sooo worth it. There is quite a lot (including the shows and restaurants) which you can book online now, which might be a good idea. For us, of course, it's not quite so far away, so anything that we didn't get round to this time simply build up as reasons for going again...