Cynthia's - Island Café for the Locals

During my week on the San Juan Island I looked into different breakfast/brunch places. I found this very cute little place, Cynthia's Bistro. It was said that this is the place where locals go to. I even asked some locals and they agreed. I went there a couple of times and the food was very tasty and looked amazing. They have nice outdoor seating in front of the house on the porch and in the back. They are only open for breakfast and lunch and their menu is not very big, but it contains the usual items (egg dishes, pancakes, sandwiches, etc.) with a few special items.

Here are my favorites:

• Avacado Breakfast Boat - Two poached eggs on baked avocado, you can order it with crumbled bacon or smoked salmon. I chose the salmon and it was delicious. After 11am they do not serve poached eggs anymore, but you can still get the dish with hard boiled eggs in the shape of poached eggs (that was my dish, see the picture).
• Claire's Cinnamon French Toast - This might not sound so extra-ordinary, but it was nicely plated and tasted great. They cut the French Toast in stripes and served them with fresh strawberries and maple syrup.
• Dutch Baby - Sweet or savory version. It was a close call between this and the French Toast. I liked that they had this option.
• Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberries - I did not try those but they were supposed to be similar to crepes.

 

On the Island - The Bean Café

Recently, I had the pleasure to explore the San Juan Island in Washington. The island is not very big with only Friday Harbor on the south side and Roche Harbor on the north side as townlike areas. I stayed on a cute little house boat, explored Friday Harbor with its peaceful small town atmosphere and Roche Harbor with its fine dining options and pool area. And I was very lucky to be there for a week of full sunshine. I used the time to relax and enjoy the sun and island life. I even got to catch an outdoor Shakespeare play of Romeo and Juliet and got to experience the true island life by hanging out with some locals.

One of my favorite spots and rituals on the island was to get my everything bagel with cream cheese and unsweatend (and unlimited) iced tea at the Bean Café, one of the few island cafes in Friday Harbor. It is nestled in a side alley right of the harbor. I liked it as it had really nice comfy armchairs inside with a great music selection and also a cute little outdoor seating area. They have free wifi, even afterhours, which was nice as they close pretty early, at 5pm. Turned out that the staff running the cafe were really nice as well. I even had the chance to get to know some of them. They are mostly a group of young people that moved to the island after living a much louder life in a crowded city and kinda found their peace on the island.

My food highlights at the café were definitely the breakfast bagels and tea selection as well as the lunch options with sandwiches, paninis and a very tasty potato salad, especially combined with the nice atmosphere and company :)

Beet Carpaccio with Gratinated Goat Cheese and Toasted Walnuts

I especially like salads that are a little more exciting, including non traditional ingredients such as watermelon, apple, beet roots... My brother grew for the first time beet roots in his garden, so I wanted to try them out. I do like marinated and cooked beet roots, especially with goat or feta cheese. So, I got inspired for this salad by two things, the fruits of my brother's garden and my visit to Prague a few months ago where I had a very similar beet root salad.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 beet roots (uncooked)
• 1 l water
• 2 garlic cloves 
• 2 Tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp salt

• goat cheese
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp of each salt, pepper, herb de provence

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 tsp oil

• lettuce (e.g. baby spinach or arugula)

Dressing:

• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp apple vinegar
• 1 Tbsp mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• salt, pepper, herb de provence to taste

Preparation:

1. Prepare the Beets: Bring water to a boil, add the garlic cloves, salt, vinegar and sugar and stir. Add the beet roots and cook for 40 min till soft. Use a fork to test. Take the beet roots out of the water and let cool for a few minutes. Now, put on some kitchen gloves, as the red juice of the beet root is very intense and can leave stains. Peel the beet roots and slice in very thin slices that are almost translucent. If you want to have perfect slices, use a mandoline slicer.
2. Gratinate the Goat Cheese: Preheat oven to 190 degree Celcius. Slice the goat cheese in 4-6 slices of about 1 inch thickness. Lay out on a baking tray and sprinkle with the olive oil and spices. Bake for about 10 minutes, till it starts to bubble a little bit and get a slight golden colar.
3. Toast the Walnuts: Preheat oven to 150 degree Celcius. Spread the walnuts out on a baking tray, sprinkle with the oil. Bake in the oven for 3-5 minutes, but check regularly as the can burn from one minute to the next.
4. Dressing and Salad: Use a small mixing bowl for the dressing. First, add the vinegars, mustard, honey and lemon juice and mix everything. Then, add the oil and spices and mix again till everything is combined. In a seperat bowl, place the lettuce (e.g. baby spinach or arugula as these lettuce are a little nuttier in taste) and sprinkle with the dressing. Toss the salad till everything is mixed.
5. Assemble the Carpaccio: Place the slices of beet root in a circular shape on a plate. The slices are so thin, that it should resemble a carpaccio. Top with the dressed lettuce. Add 2-3 sliced of gratinated goat cheese on top and sprinkle with walnuts.

Note:

• Toasting vs. Roasting:  To toast something means to only brown the outside slighlty under dry heat either in a toaster or the oven. When roasting something, you expose it to dry heat and cook the inside through.
• Carpaccio: Usually used when slicing raw beef very thinnly, almost translucent. As we use the same slicing technique for the beet roots, we call it a beet carpaccio. 

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The BeBob Lobby Bar - a smoky experience!

And this is my last entry to our little trip to Prague... again, a very unique place that deserves its own entry!

As it was my friend's birthday, a few drinks seemed just appropriate. His girlfriend actually found this place on Tripadvisor. The BeBob Lobby Bar is a Hotel Bar in New Town and easy to miss. We went there in the late afternoon and we had my friends' little girl with us, so we didn't know whether it actually would work out. However, this place was kid friendly, at that time it was almost empty, the big armchairs very comfortable and inviting after a day of walking through the town, the music nice and soft, the staff very courteous. It worked out perfectly.

We ordered four different drinks, how they tasted was actually irrelevant, because they were very special...

• We started with the "Be an Alchemist" which comes on a tray like some chemical labratory experiment with smoky dry ice, 
• The "Be prepared" comes with some special toothpaste and toothbrush
• The "Be or not to Be" is served in a skull mug 
• The "Be Healthy" comes with a bandage, a syringe with sweet liquor and a spittoon. 

There were so many more on the list... Highly recommendable!

 

Prague's Medieval Tavern

This is another restaurant in Prague. There were just a few nice places that deserve their own entry :)

This Medieval Tavern ("U krále Brabantského") is an experience in itself. It shall be one of the oldest Pubs in Prague. My friend's girlfriend found this place on Tripadvisor. The pictures of a skull ceiling were so inspiring, that we had to try it out. It is nestled in a side street, up the hill, right below the Castle District in Lesser Town. It's easy to miss if you don't know where to look for. They also offer evening dinner shows with belly dancers, music, swordsman, a fire show, but with the little girl in our company that was not possible. However, we did have a nice lunch there after exploring the Letná Park with the Metronom and a gorgious view over Prague and walking over to Lesser Town to explore the Wallstein Gardens with the free roaming peacocks. We checked out the rooms and the downstairs area where the skull ceiling is. Be carefull, there is barely light, just a few candles!

The food was also good, but the best was really the unique environment. Everything. The rooms decoration, the staff in their costumes and the way you receive the check - they jam a knife with the check in the table right in front of you... Nothing for easily scared people.

I ate the soup of the day, a Potato Soup in a Bread Bowl, my friends ate Honey Glazed Rips and a Duck Leg Confit. As mentioned, really decent good food :)

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 :)