Photos From the Week-End-2-

David modeling The Pan Poet's sword: sirloin, rumpsteak, chicken sausages,bacon:

"Beefsteak for Rudolph II" in truffle sauce

Eating in Bohemia should be a nice experience, if not on the light nor vegetarian side of the spectrum. I remember, when he and I first went to Prague, in the early 90's, the restaurants menus were impossible to decipher, so it was all a stab in the dark. Now, it is the food which gets stabbed for indeed there is a lot of "meat stabbing" in Prague. In fact there is a lot of meat.

On arrival we went to Stoleti a restaurant, which I would not recommend. The waiter advised against the house wine, explaining that it was rubbish, so why would you put a rubbish wine on the menu, I asked myself, but was to shy to formulate the question aloud. I should have, had I known that the charade would continue and he would make me feel like a miser when I turned my nose at an ordinary French wine for £30 a bottle. Pork was dry, sauce too thin, only the polenta cakes were acceptable.

The next day was going to be very different and indeed the choice of pub excellent U Basnika Panve, very much in the same style as that recommended by Sari. The evening was part of the conference he was attending. There was the widest array of choice, I have seen so far in Prague ranging from meat of course to vegetarian. I went for the salmon which was perfectly cook, not an easy task when there are some 40 people to serve.

The last night of the conference was a buffet in an old monastery that brews wonderful beer. And then back to reality, I wanted to try a "canteen style" recommended in my guide book which I will not bother to mention here.

My impression on food in the heart of Bohemia: it has improved tremendously taste wise, like in a lot of western countries, cast you mind back to food in the 80's in England and compare with now. Still in Prague, you have to be very choosy and go for pubs over middle of the range restaurants. Research pays and I am not sure that spur of the moment is a good idea.

I am finishing this post with my congratulations Sari from Cooking your Dream whose photos have appeared in a Prague Magazine.

Here are Sari's restaurants suggestions:
http://www.cafeimperial.cz/, http://www.ceskahospoda.cz/, http://zahradavopere.cz/