The Strahov Monastary Brewery - drinking beer with the monks :)

The Strahov Monastary Brewery is a nice little brewery up in the Petrin Hills right on the edge to the Castle district. The restaurant is not as easy to find, as there are quite a few restaurants around. Just keep going and it is a small place behind a big gate, it almost looks like an entry to a secret garden. They have a nice outdoor seating area and you can see the beer tanks of the brewery.

We of course tried out the nice freshly brewed beer but we also had some food. I tried the beer gulash which came with three different kinds of dumblings. It was outstanding! This was actually my first real dish in Prague and it was the best, unforgettable. Believe me, we tried several gulashes, but the three different kind of dumplings was spot on. I also like to imagine that they used the freshly brewed beer to slow cook the gulash which was an additional plus. My friends also ordered the gulash and the pork knuckle which looked very fancy as well. According to my friend, it also tasted good :)

This place was recommended by a friend who had heard on his last day in Prague that there shall be a monastary brewery where you can drink with the monks. He did not have a chance to try it out. Well, we did and it was a great experience, even though there were unfortunately no monks around to share a beer with :)

The Trdelnik Chimney - also known as the "Ice Cream Donut Cone"

This is just an amazingly cute and delicious dessert that we came across in Prague. It is a very new (since February 2016) and non-tradional take on the traditional Czech cinamon pastry rolls.
 
The Trdelnik Chimney - or the "Ice Cream Donut Cone" - is a Czech funnel-cake filled with soft ice-cream and is sold at Czech bakeries or café places. It has a cinamon sugar and hazelnut covered cone that can be lined with either nutella or berry compot and filled with ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries.

The Trdelnik Chimney is very trendy and pictures seemed to go viral in February on Instagram. I was surprised to discover that, but now I am really happy I was able to try it out :)

Prague - A Culinary Explosion

A while back we had a nice little trip to Prague. It was kind of an annual thing, we planned a trip around the time of my friend's birthday. We  had already been in Florida, Seattle and Paris for his birthday, and in Berlin and Poland for his girlfriend's birthday. This year it was supposed to be Prague. Easy to reach, not too expensive, with a nice history and lots of nice food options :)

We did explore all the tourist attractions which did not take much time as most of them are in walking distance and we lived very central at the old town square. However, the highlights were our food and beverage experiences!

Quick summary of the sights:

• We lived in Old Town near the Old Town Square with its Astronomical Clock and had nice dinners at the Town Square, Hard Rock Cafe and, of course, the Hooters ;)
• We walked through the Jewish Town up to the Letna Gardens with the big Pendulum (Metronom). 
• We walked across the Charles Bridge to the Lesser Town and up the funicular railway to the Petrin Hill with its mini Eiffel Tower and a Mirror Maze (not just fun for the little girl in our company).
• We went to the Prague Castle with the Strahov Monastery were we had some nice freshly brewed beer.
• I had read about the Wallenstein Gardens, a not so commen tourist place in the Lesser Town district, a little hidden, with free roaming peacocks and lots of statues. I thought that would be fun for my friends' little girl. One of the peacocks was completely white. And there was a manmade mystery cave wall at the back.
• We also explored New Town, having some nice fancy cocktails at a the BeBob Hotel Bar and typical Czech desserts (apple strudle and plum filled dampfnudeln).

Around in Prague

And here a list of a few special Czech dishes

... and we ate them all... almost... some actually more than once ;)

• Beef gulash with dumblings (my favorite!) - also available as a gulash soup
• Roasted Pork Knuckle ("Schweinshaxe")
• Duck Leg Confit
• (Smoked) Pork Rips
• Smoked sausages from food carts
• Pickled Cheese (even though we did not find the right one until we left... next time) 
• Supper Platter with pickled gherkins and ham 
• Apple Strudel
• Dampfnudel (filled with plum and topped with poppy seeds)
• The Trdelnik Chimney also known as the "Ice Cream Donut Cone" (be advised, this is so special that a separate entry will follow!)

Just a few samples of our appetizers/salads

My favorite - The beer gulash at the Strahov Monastary

Just two of the famous desserts (Dampfnudel and Apple Strudel). The Trdlnik Chimney was another one.

Street Food

And a quick look at our beverage selection... check out the BeBob Bar for more...

Restaurants to be recommended 

(my friend's fantastic memory was needed to put together this list):

• Strahov Monastary Brewery - This was one of my favorite places. The beer gulash was just amazing and freshly brewed beer in such a nice environment... I will follow up on this with another separate entry. It just deserves it! 

• Medieval Tavern - Well, the name says it all. Here, it wasn't so much the food but the environment that impressed. So much, that again, I will follow up with a separate entry :)

• BeBob Lobby Bar - Here, I am just lacking words... Pictures will speak for themselves, you know it, a separate entry will be following...

• Pivovar Narodni - A restaurant in New Town, right of the Legion Bridge (most legii), on the main street Narodni. It seemed a nondescript place, another brewery, we actually first kept walking by to see whether we can find something else. However, I am happy that we returned. They had a delicious beef gulash soup with a nice multigrain bread bowl. Also, the "Dampfnudel", which is a yeast dumbling filled with a plum filling and topped with poppy seeds was spot on as a dessert! My friend ordered an appetizer of pickled speck sausage that came in a jar and it was really nice as well. Unexpectedly delicious :) 

• Joy Burger - Here, I was totally blown away by - wait for it - a salad!!! After eating all the gulashes, I craved something lighter. But picky as I am, I was not satisfied with another soup or a simple salad. This place offered a nice Marinated Beet Root Salad with Gratinated Goat Cheese on Rucola. I tried it and I have to say, I did not expect that kind of fancy salad in such a burger place... By the way, the burgers that my friends ordered were not so bad either ;)

At the "Marubi Ramen" - Dumblings in Berlin

If you feel like homemade steamed dumblings or a ramen noodle soup, I can just recommend this little place. This Japanese style restaurant is called "Marubi Ramen". It is nestled in a side street in Prenzlauer Berg of Berlin and they even have a nice litte outdoor seating area. The food was really delicious and authentic and not too pricy.

What we ordered:

Appetizer:

• Wakame Salad (seaweed salad)
• Kimshi Salad (spicy pickled cabbage salad)
• 2 Kinds of Gyosa (dumplings) - filled with pork and vegetables

Entrées:

• Ramen Beef (noodle soup with beef, kimchi, wakame, etc.)
• Ramen Mushroom (noodle soup with mushrooms, beef, kimchi, wakame, etc.)
• Gyu Don (rice and fried beef)

 

Indian Spiced Meatballs in Chickpea Tomato Sauce

This is a recipe from Jamie Oliver's "15 Minute Meals". I actually didn't really like Jamie Oliver's recipes as they use so much meet and I do love my veggies, but I have started watching his TV Show "15 Minute Meals" and there were more and more dishes that just looked amazing! So... I bought his book :)

I made these meatballs for my Mom when I visited her. She loves meat but she doesn't like to experience too much. She does not usually eat minced lamb as it is too chewy for her, so it needed some convincing from my side. I actually also don't eat lamb, but minced and spiced lamb is something entirely different for me. Especially Indian spiced minced lamb just tastes delicious (like they serve at the Mirchi). So, finally my Mom agreed to try lamb, but what happened then? The small town where she lives in does not have something so fancy as minced lamb and they did not want to grind lamb as they wouldn't be able to use the grinder for beef afterwards... So, long story short, we stuck with our ground beef meatballs :) But don't get discouraged, I am sure it would taste delicious with minced lamb as well!

We tried to eat it with tortillas like Jamie Oliver suggested and that was indeed tasty, but putting all that into the tortilla and eating it was a little bit of a mess. We ate the leftovers with rice and that turned out pretty nice as well :) I made a few minor changes to the recipe, I left out the safran as it was too expansive and I used some more herbs.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 300 g minced lamb or ground beef
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 red chili - sliced
• 2 spring onions - sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped corriander
• 2 cloves garlic - minced
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 can chickpeas
• 300 ml chunky tomato sauce
• Salt, pepper to taste 
• Optional: herbs de province

Salad:

• 1/2 cucumber - cubes
• 1 gem lettuces - chopped
• 4-5 radishes - cubes
• 1 tomatoe - big diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lemon 

Harissa Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon harissa
• 1 cup plain yoghurt or sour cream

Serve with:

• Tortillas or basmati rice

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan. In a bowl, mix the minced lamb or ground beef with the garam masala. Divide into 3 pieces. Roll 4 balls with wet hands out of each piece. Place each ball in the oil. Let try for 5-10 minutes and toss regularly till meat balls are nicely browned on each side.
2. In a large pot, add the olive oil, chili, the spring onions, and the coriander. Heat up. Add the minced garlic. Fry for 1 minute. Then add the bay leaves, drained chickpeas and the tomato sauce. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Optionally, you can also use some more herbs (herbs de provence). Cover the pot, bring to a boil. Let boil for 10 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, mix the yoghurt and roughly fold in the harissa. Mix the salad and the veggetables on a big cutting board. Sprinkle with olive oil and the juice of the lemon. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 
4. Pour the tomato-chickpea sauce into the pan with the meatballs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with warm tortillas or rice.

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Mirchi - Singapore Style Kitchen in Berlin

Mirchi is a restaurant in the famous Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin. It's located in "Mitte" Berlin (a very centrally located bourough) and runs south-east from Friedrichsstrasse to Hackescher Markt. It's kind of a touristic area.The restaurants there are always full. I still like it! I especially like this little restaurant. It looks very fancy and interesting, and it has delicious food. It is Singapore style cuisine, with a mix of Thai, Indian and Chinese style food and I do love my Indian food :) They have a lot of curries, tandoori and tikka style dishes, but also oyster sauce based dishes. My friends took me here months back last year. We hadn't seen each other for a while, almost a year I believe, and we kind of celebrated a reunion... We went to the Berlin Dungeon before and ate at Mirchi.

This time we celebrated again some kind of reunion. A friend of ours came visiting from Florida, USA for a conference. Afterwards we ended the night with some drinks at the AM to PM Bar which is a nice little hip bar at the Hackescher Markt. They have these cute little swinging beach chairs :)

At Mirchi we ordered for the table:

• The Penang Starter for 2 - It had a mix of different appetzizers, some fried won tans, samosas, chicken satay and a little salad. We had fun trying to identify what exactly was inside the fried won tans/samosas.

• The Tikka Mix from the Tandoori Oven (rom a special menu of the day) - This was a very delicious grill plate for 2 with minced lamb, herb tikka chicken, marinated prawns and paneer (cheese) with onions and bell pepper. I was especially surprised by the minced lamb as I usually don't like lamb meat, but this was really tasty.

• The Fish Ratshaburi - I wanted to have some fish that night, so we additionally ordered the red snapper in a green thai curry. It was really spice and very delicious as well, but of course we had way too much food :)

At the AM to PM bar near the Hackescher Markt afterwards.

My brother's Kashmiri Aloo Dum (Potatoes and Chickpeas in Indian Spiced Yoghurt Sauce)

This is another delicious dish my brother prepared. Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love Indian food. This dish really surprised me as it tasted incredibly authentic. My brother put a lot of effort into it and also used his new mortar to pestle a fresh masala spice paste. He mentioned the bell pepper were cooked too long, but for  me it just added to the flavor. I really enjoyed eating it and hope to be able to try more of his Indian dishes :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lbs small potatoes - peeled and halved
• 1 liter salt water
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion - chopped

       Masala spice mix:

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon tumeric powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 red chilis - sliced

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cardamon seeds
• 2 cloves
• 1 cinamon stick
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste 
• 2/3 cup red bell pepper - diced
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• salt to taste

• chopped coriander for garnish
• serve with Basmati Rice

 

Preparation

1. Use a tooth pick to prick each potato piece so that they can absorb the salt water. Let them soak in salt water for about 1 hour.
2. Heat up oil in a frying pan. Sauté onions. When gold brown, set the onions aside, keep the oil in the fying pan.
3. Prepare the Masala Spice Paste: Add the masala spices (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, tumeric powder, garam masala and red chilis) to the used frying pan. Fry for a couple minutes on medium heat, stir frequently to prevent burning. Then, transfer them into a mortar and pestle to a paste.
4. In a clean frying pan, heat up oil with bay leaves. Add the cardamon seeds, the gloves and cinoman stick. Fry for a minute. Add the ginger-garlic paste, the onions you had set aside, the bell pepper and the chickpeas. Fry for another minute. Add the masala spice paste with a few tablespoons of water. Stir frequently and let cook for 6-8 minutes.
5. Add the yoghurt, salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the potatoes, cover the frying pan with a lid and let cook for 15 minutes. If it gets too dry, add a little bit of water. At the end, remove the cinamon stick and the cloves (if you are able to find them).
6. Sprinkle fresh coriander on top and serve with Basmati rice.

Note: If you do not have a ginger-garlic paste ready to use, just prepare it yourself similar to the masala spice paste. Heat a little oil, add chopped fresh ginger and garlic (e.g. 4 ounces of each), fry for a couple minutes and keep stiring. Transfer to a mortar and pestle. Add a few drops water if too dry. Alternatively, you can also put the garlic and ginger in a blender, add a few drops of oil and blend till it is smooth. You can refrigerate or freeze the paste for later use.

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