Guess again

I know you were probably thinking you were done hearing me talk about food. But not so fast.

We are just winding down our stay in Prague. Four full days here is why I haven't been able to bore you with many more details. We have mostly just been strolling the same streets and hanging out.

We did go to a recommended watering hole last night. Tlusta Koala...or Fat Koala for a beer. A local joint with a bunch of stevedore-looking guys and cigarette smoke. I did get a marketing tip, though. As we were leaving, on the little shelf by the door was an advertisement for a veterinarian. I honestly hadn't considered placing ads in bars. Something to think about.

But back to food. We did walk all the way down to the local farmer's market yesterday. A real put-em-up-take-em down kind of market by the river. Had some coffee. And harkened back to my Czech roots by picking up some nut, poppyseed and apricot kolache. And then, much to my own surprise, I dragged up an old Czech vocabulary word from my childhood. We were standing in line to buy a potato hash out of a big vat. The next vat had a different mixture with sausage and cabbage and some little, oblong, white bits in it. No idea. Was it different potatoes? Or what? And then I saw the word written in magic marker on the vat...Halusky. Huh, I thought. My mom used to talk about 'penny' halusky. Noodles that weren't rolled and cut but rather pinched off (somewhat lazily, I suspected) into penny-like bits. So these were pasta, I guessed. And I was right. In this case, potato pasta, aka gnocchi. But I think my mother would have been proud.

Then today we went to have lunch at the Café Imperial. A lovely room covered (even the ceiling) in tiles:

 

Mostly mosaic on the ceiling but the also lovely bits like this:

Anyway, I digress from the topic of food. When the waitress brought us bread, rather than butter or oil it came with a little bowl of ...well I am not sure what she called it...but growing up it was ham salad. Chopped up, almost pasty bits of ham mixed with mustard and cucumbers. From my childhood I remember pickles and mayo...but basically it's like a ham spread (egg salad with ham instead of eggs). I won't show you a picture of it because it isn't particularly appealing to look at but it did, again, take me back in time.

Finally, I have to mention the mashed potatoes. Prague won the competition for prettiest city in a trip of many pretty cities. It also won the competition for the best potatoes in a trip full of great potatoes. These clearly had to be served in a bowl because they were so soft and creamy they would hardly have kept their shape if you tried to mound them. Again the staff claims that they are just normal, every day potatoes with cream and butter. But all I can say is if Blue Bunny made mashed potatoes that you could serve like ice cream, these would be those. Nirvana.

And that is it for Prague. Tomorrow we are off to Tromso, Norway to Chase the Aurora. Fingers crossed. More next from the tundra.