Cafes and Food Stalls in Prague

Interrail Stop 3

Firstly, an apology for being entirely absent from this blog the last couple of weeks... After the first few hostels on the interrail tour it got pretty tricky to upload photos, so I couldn't blog the delicious food we were sampling on our way around!! On the plus side, that basically means a short blog a day for a while with all my snaps and thoughts on the various Eastern Europe cuisine we managed to get our hands on!! So I'm sorry and please keep checking back for more! I will pop a couple of recipes up as I go along as well...

So, Prague - GORGEOUS city - everything you heard about the cobbled streets, colourful buildings, beautiful places of worship and red roof-top landscape is absolutely true!

We had an amazing time wandering the streets and the castle on walking tours, and managed to try some of the side street cafe culture as well as the delicious food offered on stands in every square!!

Street Stalls

The icecream in Prague was yummy - so many different flavours - from fruity and fresh to rich and creamy! We also saw stall after stall of various grab-and-go foods, such as this pork cooking in the main square and giving off a delicious smell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warming Goulash

Still not in Hungary, but another goulash tempted our appetite in an underground cafe full of wooden walls, ceilings and furniture and great beers (which are unfortunately completely lost on me!) One portion plenty big enough for two, served with dumplings that had a texture somewhere in between potato and bread and soaked up the rich sauce just lovely.

Eating Cheap in the Side Street Cafes

The currency conversion is about £1=30 Czech Koruna, so it takes a little bit of thinking about to realise that your 110CZK is actually worth very little! It did, however, manage to get us a set menu (intended for one but we shared it!!) in a lovely little outdoor cafe off a side street from the main square. We had a mushroom soup for starter, which was delicious and actually very filling in itself!

Then a mixed salad with chicken and a tasty bowl of chips followed - the fresh salad was very welcome after all the warm, hearty food we had eaten so far! 

 

Ironically, we had ordered this set menu deal because it looked like the most food we could get for the money we had, and didn't want to withdraw any more Czech currency before we left.. but later that afternoon we ran out of water and had to withdraw far too much money just to buy some more! So we probably should have just taken more out in the first place, but oh well, we tried to do it on the cheap!!



So there you have it... the selection of food we had in Prague. A lot more traditional food from a range of different countries to follow, so hopefully see you soon!

Beet Soup and Krakow Style Pork

Interrail Stop Number 2

Our second city stop was the lovely Polish city, Krakow. We toured around the castle, admired the Old Town streets, square and market, as well as paying our respects in a visit to Auschwitz (which was truly haunting but I would strongly recommend it as I learned so much from our tour guide and cannot begin to describe the scale and feel of the place in words or photos).

The day and a half we had in this city felt short, and it is somewhere that I would like to revisit for a longer period, but it was a great stop and we tried some traditional food...

After the yummy dumplings we tasted in Warsaw on the first of our interrail stops, we were looking forward to sampling more Polish cuisine in Krakow. We went to a tiny restaurant/cafe called Kuchnia u Doroty, recommended by the free walking tour group, and shared the famous Polish beet soup with croquette (Barszcz z krokietem) as a starter before two hearty main dishes - a Beef Stroganoff (Strogonoff) and Roast Pork with toast and Krakow style gravy (Maczanka po krakowsku).

Beet Soup

Croquette

We were unsure about ordering the the starter - beetroot soup, what was that going to taste like? But it was on nearly every Polish menu, so we went for it and it was absolutely delicious!! Satisfyingly salty and full of rich flavours, this warming soup had a winter food feel but without the stodge. The croquette was unusual, with undefinable meat in a pasta-come-pastry-come-potato roll, in a light crispy batter. It was a nice accompaniment to the soup, and soaked up the beetroot flavour when dipped in, but perhaps not the tastiest thing on its own!

Beef Stroganoff

Krakow Pork

The main courses were very large, very filling and unnecessarily carby (as was the case with a lot of the local food!). The stroganoff was good, but quite watery and lacking in flavour. The Krakow style sauce had plenty of flavour, but not entirely sure what flavours they were!! The pork was nicely cooked, as were the mushroom and potato accompaniments,but the toast was literally two slices of plain white bread sandwiching the pork. Obviously, with this much sauce it was just soggy bread, resulting in a very strange main course! 

So all in all, we were pleasantly surprised with the beet soup, and unpleasantly surprised with the mains!! Perhaps we were a little adventurous in ordering one of the only dishes on the menu that we had not heard of, but isn't that the point of trying food in new places?? Anyway, we had a great time, the staff were very friendly, the price was unbelievably low, and the cosy traditional setting made the meal a good one!