May 29, 2008

Prague, post-prandial, part one

It’s been just over a month since I jetted off to Praha and my memory might be a bit hazy, but I promised to blog about the surprisingly excellent meals I had there. I’d headed east expecting grey skies — the weather report went from bad to worse in the days leading up to my trip — and grey food, unidentifiable meats in sauce, dumplings, lots of potatoes, and over-cooked vegetables. That’s what I experienced on my first trip to the Czech Republic in 2003. (I had gone there for a conference to meet with other PR teams from Sopexa -my former employer).

This time, I endured a SEVEN-hour layover in Heathrow’s infamous terminal 5 because of a missed connection or connections – there were two options - following delays at JFK due to a fire at the fuel farm! Can’t make this stuff up. I spent most of that time huddled in a big comfy chair in a lovely café drinking ridiculously expensive café au lait and mineral water, trying not to fall asleep at the table and crackberrying everyone I could to relieve the boredom. I finally got the hell out of Heathrow and managed a quick nap on the BA flight, gobbling up a ploughman’s sandwich on the plane. It was actually quite tasty though I was fairly starving and mildly delirious by that point, so my normally exquisite judgment may have been impaired.

I arrived in Prague at 6 pm local time, a mere 18 hours after my supposed departure from NYC. Rain that had soaked the city all day stopped just before my plane touched down and hints of sun peaked from out of the clouds welcoming me, along with N’s smiling face. I made it! Even if I really saw more of Prague by night, sun, blue skies and warm breezes made an umbrella obsolete right up until the morning of my departure when rain lashed against the window of my taxi to the airport.

But this was supposed to be about the FOOD, notably a fantastic burger, foie gras ravioli, and of course, great beer. Yes, I drank lots of cheap, excellent beer, moi. It’s the freakin’ Pilsner homeland after all! But thanks to Nico who does marketing for food and wine among other things and is almost as big a foodie as I am (please let’s come up with an alternative to that word, I’ve begun to HATE it), Prague was a delicious destination. Go right ahead and make loud groaning noises at that line!

But as now I have to go stare at my closet and figure out what to throw on my body tomorrow, stay tuned for part deux, including our dinner with French actor Hyppolite Girardot, chilled vodka shots – the Eastern European digestif of choice, and breakfast at 3 pm. Na zdraví. Cheers!

1 comment:

Not too distant relative said...

so . . the least you could do is give some recommendations on good, but cheap beer, for the sloths among us . . . particularly since most of what you ate was once alive and walking the earth!