This is the story of a bear. I know the title says food tour and most of the following content will be about the food tour, but its really about a bear.
Americans in Prague
We boarded the Metro and made our way to our meeting point at the Hilton in Old Town. This is by the Powder Tower and many tours meet in this area. Both of our previous tours started from this area too. We were right on time and we met our tour compatriots from Florida. They were a family that had been doing a European tour and some of them were wrapping up in Prague and others were continuing on to Scotland. Our guide, George, gave us the rundown of how the tour was structured and navigated us to our first restaurant.
Cafe Imperial
On most food tours that we’ve been on, either in America or Europe, you typically don’t get prime seating in the restaurant. This makes total sense since you are only getting a sampling rather than a full meal. However, we were seated in a large table right in the middle front of a fancy restaurant.
This place has not changed since 1914 and even though some of its ceramic tiles were damaged under Soviet control, the manufacturer of the tiles is still in business and was able to make replacements. I forgot to get pictures of the place but you can see it here: https://www.hotel-imperial.cz/en/dining/
George first took our drink orders. Devin had a red wine from the Moravia region and I had a Pilsner Urquell. For our first course we were served Kulajda, a soup made with sour cream, potatoes, dill and quail egg.
Our main course was Svíčková, a very popular Czech meal of steak, root vegetable gravy, and dumplings. George was very insistent that the dumplings must be 100% covered in gravy before eating.
Lokal
For our second place, George took us to a pub to get some pub food and beer. It happens to also be the longest bar in Prague. George took some time explain how beer is served in the Czech Republic. Beer must be served with two fingers of foam to protect the beer from air and you should start drinking the beer immediately so the air does not get to your beer.
After our beers arrived, the food immediately followed. Here’s a list of all the food brought to our table:
- Smažený sýr – Fried Edam cheese
- Pražská šunka – Prague ham served with horse radish.
- Tatarský Biftek – Steak tartar served on fried bread with whole cloves of garlic that you grate against your bread.
Myšák
Time for dessert! George took us to a pastry shop where we had some mulled wine and sugary treats. My favorite was Vanilkový věneček, a pastry sandwich with a rich custard. There were also laskonka, meringue cookies.
Bonvivant’s Bar
To wrap up the evening we caught the Metro to a cocktail bar outside the city center. The Czech differentiate between pubs and bars. A pub is a place that serves beer and food and a bar is a place to get fancy cocktails. This was definitely the latter. We were served three drinks with Czech spirits.
The first was a Bohemian Americano, which is a take on the Americano but replacing the Campari with a Czech apricot liqueur. The second was made with absinthe and the third was a Becherovka Blue Blazer that involved a lot of fire.
The Bear
I hadn’t forgotten the bear. You remember the bear, right? Last night, on the Nightwatchman Tour, our guide had a knitted teddy bear in the form of a nightwatchman attached to his halberd. He had mentioned that they were for sale at the start of the tour but we could not tell if he was joking or not and at the end he did not mention it so we assumed joke.
Devin really liked the bear. I mean really liked it. So much so that as she was leaving a review on AirBnB of the tour she remarked that she was disappointed they weren’t available. Well, he replied that they were in fact for sale and there were three left. It was in fact at this point that the food tour became a transportation vehicle to get a bear.
While on the food tour I brought up this fact to George and our new American friends and at the end of the food tour the followed us to Charles bridge to get the bear. Now that we had a gaggle with us Devin started pointing out items of interest in a micro tour of her own.
Bear achievement unlocked!!
Devin, the bear is so cute. I can see how you had to have it!