vanderb's Profile
Prague Food Festival, anyone going?
Thanks for the review, there will be 2 of us and I bought 30 grands with our entrance... I hope we're covered. I'll post my reviews early next week.
Sunday Night Business Dinner in Vienna
I thought you might be tending to Viennese given the original list of restos. I live in the Czech Republic which has very little "ethnic" food aside from Italian, when we visit Vienna we generally hit places that are not serving regional food, this place has satisfied that need on more than one occassion.
For Viennese we usually go to Phoenixhof in the 7th district but that is a much more casual, neighbourhood "joint" and wouldn't fit the business dinner criteria.
Sunday Night Business Dinner in Vienna
Sunday can be tough, but I've always had great meals at a Spanish resto called Bodega Marques (http://www.bodegamarques.at/) in Judenplatz. I wasn't sure what area of town you were looking for but this is generally central and is of a high enough caliber for a business dinner IMO. The outdoor seating is also quite nice.
Prague Food Festival, anyone going?
The festival starts Friday up at the Castle gardens, same location as last year. I'm going to be there on Saturday evening, and it's my first time attending. If anyone has any experience with the festival and can give me an impression of past events I would appreciate it.
TIA
Split and Hvar, Croatia trip report
We are back from the Split and Hvar area, had a great time, some excellent meals and one terrible meal... all in all a great success.
Split:
Konoba Matejuska (Marmontova 1) had a great tiny outdoor seating area and an equally cozy and intimate interior restaurant space. The staff were very friendly and ready to recommend whatever was fresh from the sea. We ate her twice because our first meal was so good. The first time we had the fried shrimp starter, very good sized shrimp fried head on in a very light batter with a healthy sprinkle of sea salt. These were outstanding and by far the best dish of the trip… couldn't get enough of them. We also had some grilled Dorada as our main for two and enjoyed it greatly with a tomato salad.
The second night here we had friends with us so added little fried fish to the shrimp starter, they were a bit of a shocker at first as they were full bodied, uncleaned little fish but they tasted wonderful in the same light batter with sea salt (perfect snacks with a beer). We followed it with a combination fish plate for 3, sadly they did take advantage of us a bit here and loaded way more fish on the platter than we needed, but we also didn't specify exactly how much we wanted. Either way the fish was perfectly grilled and tasted wonderful.
Our other meal was at Konoba Marjan as recommended in my previous request for info, it was right around the corner from Matejuska. We had a great meal, my wife had the seafood risotto which was massive (a lady at the table opposite us just about had her eyes leap out of her head when she saw it arrive, then she ordered the same for herself). We also had some grilled squid to start and I had another grilled fish (bream). Everything was great here, the house wine was very good, the service friendly but not cloying, the only complaint was the lack of outdoor seating and the decor was a bit like my Grandma's basement in the 80's.
Other highlights included really good seafood pasta at a large restaurant with a red awning in one of the main squares just outside the Diocletian Palace across from the No Stress Cafe. I was a bit skeptical eating here as it was in the main flow of tourist traffic on the main drag but was pleasantly shocked by the excellent seafood pasta. Everyone else in the group felt their meals were also quite good.
I also can't remember the name of the place we had the bad meal, which is too bad as I would like to warn other visitors. We had a seafood pizza and grilled squid. The pizza tasted like it was frozen, the seafood sparse and a little old looking but the squid was a horror show. They came uncleaned & head on... it was a very messy and less than satisfying effort to clean them and remove the spine and beak.
We had a few wines at several places around the centre of town and found pretty much all the local wine in the little 200ml bottles to be less than stellar, while the unlabeled house wines were excellent. We also went through the green market on the international port side of central Split; they had excellent local cheeses, honey, nuts, fruit and veg. Artichokes were in season as were strawberries and a very thin wild looking asparagus.
Hvar:
We had 5 days in Hvar town in a house we'd rented, great location, new house with all the amenities including a great outdoor grill.
We had dinner twice at the very close Konoba Bonaca, very friendly staff who took a lot of care to ensure our experience was excellent. The night was cool so started with some local fish soup, not too inspiring and did not compare to Maltese Ajota fish soup. Followed it up with some lamb (shocking yes, but we don't get much lamb in the Czech Republic) that was charcoal grilled and very tastey. Others had a local specialty of beef simmered in red wine and served with gnocci (Pasticada). Everyone really enjoyed dinner, the house wine and the complimentary dessert and grappa that was delivered after dinner.
Our other dinner out was at Gariful, on the main harbour with a great selection of fresh fish (handed over to the restaurant by the fisherman from their boats) and a great looking spit roasted lamb that they did a couple of times while we were there. They have a bit of a gimmick with a massive salt water aquarium under the floor of the restaurant, complete with sharks and dueling East coast lobsters.
No lamb tonight, but the fried squid was excellent as was the grilled seafood platter for two that we shared. A very robust selection of mussels, squid, shrimp and fish... really well done and fresh. Our friends had a seafood pasta with a ton of fresh clams in it and a chicken dish with blue cheese sauce, everyone was happy.
Two lunches were enjoyed at Pizza Floramye on the main square in Hvar town. The owner of the house we rented recommended it and pointed out it was locally owned and operated, which is a big deal. We had a couple of great pizzas and tomato salads, washed down with some very light and refreshing Croatian beer.
Another two lunches were had a beach bars out in the Peklani Islands, one on Sveti Klement and the other at Mlini Beach Bar. Sevti Klement was good, some basic bruschetta and crepes were enjoyed after a few hours on the beach. Mlini had a more robust offering, but in the end not terribly high in quality. We enjoyed our salads and fried sausage (I think I'm turning into a Czech) but it was pretty much beach shack quality.
The green market in Hvar seemed to run pretty early in the morning, as such we never saw much going on there, which was too bad as the one in Split was excellent.
Dubrovnik and Split in August
Just got back from a few days in Split and Hvar, haven't had time to update my request for help with my reviews of places we went (too much freakin work in my inbox)... but I can heartily recommend both Konoba Marjan and Konoba Matejuska. These two were about 30 meters away from each other just inside the residential area at the bottom of the hill that overlooks the Split harbour.
We had nothing but fish/seafood at these two places. Matejuska had the best fried shrimp and little fishes, while I thought the fresh grilled fish was better at Majan. All in the best dish of the holiday was the fried shrimp from Matejuska... they were super fresh, really light crisp batter and cooked to perfection.
If fish/seafood isn't your thing then I'm no help :-)
Special, but casual dinner in Prague
I've never had an issue getting an English menu at either Lokal location. I do prefer the Old Town location as the atmosphere is better in the non-smoking section... right in the main action of the pub and big, at Mala Strana it's tucked off to the side, small and dull. But the food is equally good at both, especially the beef tartar if you like your beef raw.
Also in the Old Town not far from Lokal is another up market pub chain called Kolkova (V Kolkovně 8, 110 00 Praha 1) owned by Pilsner Urquel. The non-smoking section is in the basement but the atmosphere is quite good. I haven't eaten at this location in Prague but their Stopkova pub in Brno has the best pub food in town (IMO).
Special, but casual dinner in Prague
You'll find a lot of recommendations here for casual in Prague if you dig a little, but Lokal is still the best in my mind. There is a location in Mala Strana, although I can never find the address but it is close to Shakespeare and Son's book store at U Luzickeho seminare 10.
I've not been successful in finding a purely non-smoking place in Prague, someone else may be able to recommend one but generally I look for those with a non-smoking section (like Lokal) and then make a reservation.
You will find wine at most pubs especially if you're in the main tourist areas. If you like reds watch for the Moravian Frankovka or a dry (suche) Rieslings (Ryzlink rýnský).
Chennai - The cost of drinking out in India
I was shocked by this when I visited Chennai as well and gave my co-workers back in Bangalore "hell" for not pre-warning me. I almost got into an argument at the first place we had dinner and a bottle of wine when the bill came... until we figured out it was the tax. Bangalore didn't have a similar level of taxation on alcohol.
When I got back to Bangalore I was told alcohol production and tax was a massive source of revenue for the Tamil Nadu government... which makes sense.
Croatia in May (Split & Hvar)
Thanks for all the suggestions, off to Hvar later this week and will report back later in the month.
Lokal "Worst place for food that I have ever been."
There are two Lokals, I go to both quite often because the food is of a high caliber for Czech pub food. I've never had a bad dish, meal or beer there.
As others commented, without more info, I'd have to assume these folks need security blankets to go anywhere but the golden arches...there's nothing frightening about Lokal, their food or indeed their toilets. I'm wondering if the post was a joke to get our collective goats.
I've got family going to Lokal tomorrow and will get their thoughts.
Funniest thing you seen in a restaurant?
High end restaurant in Kensington area of Calgary, Canada at a business dinner with a group of potential new clients from an "almost" major credit card company in the US. There were around 15 of us, so I had arranged a special menu with a few course choices to assist the kitchen. One of the starters was a beef tartar with parmesean cracker... one of the executives from the client side, called the waitress over and quite loudly asked how the beef tartar would pass? The watiress blanched, choked slightly and then said she'd go ask the chef... about 20 seconds later there was a huge crash of pans/pots (something) in the open kitchen followed by painfully muffled laughter.
The exec didn't get an answer to his question but still had the beef tartar and seemed fine after dinner... I didn't ask how it turned out for him.
Croatia in May (Split & Hvar)
We will have a chance while on Hvar to get out of town, but Split will be short and sweet and focused on the city. I'll take any recommendations for the island.
Croatia in May (Split & Hvar)
Giving this thread a bit of a bump to see if it catches anyone's eye... 1 month till we head out the door to Split and Hvar.
Thx
Budapest--Vienna--Prague
In addition to Sturmi's excellent suggestions I would also recommend going to the Naschmarkt, not necessarily to eat but to take in the scene. If the weather is fine it is an outstanding out door market where you can get a glass of wine or the ubiquitous Aperol Spritz and watch all the people go by. Or better yet head to the always packed Urbanek for a glass of wine and some charcuterie with the rest of the high enders.
I would also second the Judenplatz area and Ella's but would add the Spanish tapas place that is right across from Ella's (opposite side of the monument) and if you need something really divine after dinner... stand with your back to the monument then walk straight ahead, past the pub, past the cinema (it's a curvey walk) to Kurt's Yogurt. Hands down the greatest yogurt treats I've had anywhere in the world and based on the line up that is normally present, I'm not the only one who thinks so.
For Prague others who are more educated will likely answer but for high end my preference is La Degustation (see this recent thread - http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/824482) and then, owned by the same group but at a totally different price point and cuisine style is Lokal. Lokal is more of an upmarket Czech beer hall, the freshest taps in town and outstanding Czech specialties. If you are in Prague during the lead up to Easter you can also attend some of the Easter markets that will be going on, the biggest is in the Old Town Square and will have fire roasted "Prague Ham" and lots of other things to nibble on.
For Budapest I can't suggest to many places to dine as our one recent visit was mostly populated with average dinning selections. I can strongly recommend the covered Central Market in Budapest, kind of like the Naschmarkt but covered and with a second floor, and basement, that has a few places to grab a snack and a glass of Egri Bakavar. I really enjoyed the basement area with all the vendors of pickled items, great cauliflower, sauerkraut, carrots and other delights.
You've got a great itinerary of cities and I think you will find a lot of good information on this board with some well placed searches.
Vienna weekend, medium sized report
Returned to Vienna this past weekend due to some business travel that was cancelled and left me with a hotel room for one night that we turned into two nights.
Only two new food ventures this time around because we were really keen to hit our favourite By Chi for breakfast both days and we had to return to Phoenixhof.
Nothing does breakfast for me quite like Vietnamese Pho and a Vietnamese drip coffee, unfortunately they were out of Vietnamese coffee but the Pho was excellent as always. It's also very nice that the owner/hostess always remembers us and knows what we like... even though she must see hundreds of people a week in the Naschmarkt.
At Phoenixhof I went traditional this time around, clear broth soup with pancake and old school weinerschnitzel. The soup was excellent with just a hint of nutmeg, very soul warming but the schnitzel was outstanding. It was extremely thin, very tender and it did not appear to have been deep fried (although I could be wrong). The dish of potato salad and fresh vinegared veggies was also great with not too much caraway seed (big plus).
One of the new places was Culinaria Asia EAT (Getreidemarkt 11). We had a hankering for Chinese food and figured we'd find something on the walk from the Naschmarkt to the hotel. Unfortunately we didn't really realize this place was "Pan Asian" not Chinese before we sat down. We had also been walking quite a bit that day so we didn't feel like getting up and going elsewhere.
We had their steamed dumplings, Vietnamese summer rolls, Siracha duck and Thai green curry with crispy chicken. The appetizers were the best of the dishes, most especially the steamed dumplings that were very flavourful and with a great toothsome quality. The summer rolls were good, but not as good as By Chi's. The duck was flavourful but they couldn't have used much Siracha sauce as there was little to no heat in the dish. The green curry was the biggest disappointment, it was thin and watery with no flavour of coconut milk at all... and too salty.
We'll give this place a pass next time around.
On Friday, after cycling back to the Naschmarkt from Schonbrunn Palace, we found ourselves thirsty and in need of snacks so we went to Do An in the Naschmarkt to watch people in the sunshine and sample some Turkish snacks.
We ordered the large plate of snacks including kofte, borek, hummus, marinated grilled veggies and some very fresh flat bread. Along with several Aperol and Kaiser spritzers, the sunshine and the throngs of people the snacks made a great way to while away a couple of hours.
On our first night we also went to Cafe Corbaci for a glass of wine after Phoenixhof, this place is in the Museum Quarter at the MuMok end. The ambiance was great with a Turkish tiled ceiling, lots of tables, no smoking and a very enthusiastic older waiter. A great place to stop if you're museum'ing and need a non-smoky indoor place for refreshments.
Kitzbühel weekend report
Spent a long weekend in Kitzbühel recently, a couple of lunches on the ski hills and three dinners in town. Unfortunately I did not write down the names of the ski restaurants we went to so I've done my best based on the online (non-interactive) ski map to identify them.
Breakfast each day was at our hotel, Boutique Hotel Kitz Garni, the offerings were a little thin but the quality was excellent especially the selection of cold meats and cheeses each morning. In addition they had a signature "smoothie of the day" that everyone received a small sample of when they sat down.
Il Gusto (Obere Gänsbachgasse 5)
We wandered around town for a couple of hours soaking in the "gliterati" and après ski revelers, which was fun and pretty entertaining from the perspective of what passes for après ski wear these days.
Il Gusto looked like a modern, busy Italian place with some good looking pastas on the menu. My wife had the spinach gnocchi and I had the penne with wild boar. The gnocchi was quite good, not too dense with a good cheese based sauce to compliment the spinach. The boar sauce on the other hand was so heavily salted that I began to wonder if the sauce had been going "off" and they upped the salt content to mask it. I was not happy with this dish, but also did not send it back as I know some Italian dishes can be quite salt heavy.
The atmosphere here is good, feels like a family run place and I'm sure the patio in the summer is hoping, but I'm not sure I'd return.
Leo's Landhäusl (Obere Gänsbachgasse 8)
Directly across the street from Il Gusto was a very cute, tiny little restaurant (2 tables for 8 and a bar) that was an extension of the Landhäusl restaurant in the larger building next door. We had thought Leo's looked really inviting when looking in the windows after dinner the first night and decided we'd return th next night for some Austrian fare.
Unfortunately, and the only draw back, the place is smoking, so tiny and with such a low ceiling that it was very unpleasant when the large group of après skiers all decided to light up. The windows did help but people kept closing them because the fresh air was annoying!
As for the food, my wife ordered the largest and best käsespatzl she has ever had, it had a beautiful crispy cheese crust on top and was exceptionally tasty. I ordered a veal in sour cream sauce that was similar to a paprikash sauce in Hungarian cuisine... not a bad thing. I very much enjoyed this very large dish of tender veal chunks in the paprikash sauce, no complaints other than it was a lot of food.
This is a very lively place lots of people coming and going, shared tables and a very convivial atmosphere. Other than the smoking issue it was an ideal place for a post skiing meal.
Boutique Hotel Kitz Garni (Bichlnweg 44)
We had our last meal at the hotel because they were offering cheese fondue for two for dinner if reserved in advance, otherwise the hotel did not do dinner. I've only ever had homemade fondue so the opportunity seemed ripe to try a real Alpen variety.
It turned out to be an "all you can eat" affair, which is a dangerous thing when cheese is involved but we persevered through two portions of cheese and bread :-) The highlight of the dipping options was the boiled potato, I've had par-boiled veggies such as cauliflower and broccoli with fondue but never potato. It was a lot like the bread from a starch perspective but was really very good with the cheese.
This was a great dinner, very intimate as no one else chose to eat at the hotel that evening, and the service was very attentive without being hovering.
On to the ski lunches:
Restaurant #15, top of the C2 lift
A beautiful sunny patio outside drew us to the lodge at the top of the C2 chair and the food was not bad either. I had my first curry würst... I wasn't sure what to expect having had curried sausage at home before, so I was a bit surprised the curry was the sauce not the sausage, but it was great. I enjoyed this along with my potatoes to suck up the extra sauce and found it to be good hearty skiing fare. My SO also went with a würst but hers was the bacon wrapped variety. She enjoyed it but kept looking longingly at my curry sauce. Washed it all down with a nice lime flavoured Raddler, so much better than any of the Bud Light Lime crap that was popular back home a couple of summers ago (and might still be popular but I haven't been home in 2 years).
Restaurant #12 on the Pengelstein side of the 3S gondola
Day 2 of skiing was blanketed in thick cloud, high winds and snizzle; as a result we decided take the new 3S gondola from the Jochberg side to the Kitbuhel side and have lunch at the top of the gondola. The lodge was nice, but pretty pedestrian and the food on offer was lackluster. My wife had her own curry würst and did enjoy it but my "burger" had a bun that was close to petrified and the meat was so dry that no matter how much tartar sauce they slathered on, it wasn't going to help.
Fun times in Kitzbühel, hopefully we'll get back again in the not too distant future.
Butternut squash soup -- seeking mix-ins
Coconut milk, lots of fresh ginger, toasted mustard seeds and chili.
Potato salad secrets?
My mother's secret ingredient was "pickle juice" from a jar of dill or polski orgorki pickles. I find it makes a real difference to the mayonaise based, traditional dressing.
La Degustation in Prague- so many bad reviews on tripadvisor, whats up with that??
Sasicka, thanks for the mention of Alcron, I will add it to my next visit to Prague.
Moving to Nairobi from US - foodstuffs to take?
By booze do you mean wine? If so I would caution you against this, not because of the legalities, but because of the shipping. Your container will have a long hot voyage to Kenya, time sitting in container yards, on the boat, in transit from a to b... wine will not suffer this voyage well. Is it worth the risk for inexpensive wine, yes, but not for anything of value or special as you cannot control the environmental conditions it will face.
This is also why I had to drink my collection before we moved to India, that and I had no family I trusted to hang on to it and not drink it while we were gone :-)
Red wine suggestion
It does depend on the dish but I do find Gewurztraminer goes very well with sweet/spicy Thai, Vietnamese and Indian dishes (not the same flavour palate as the dinner mentioned above) but I thought worth a try.
looking for good anchovie paste yyc
Most of the Italian grocery stores also have the jarred ones: Lina's, Italian Supermarket, etc... I also have never encountered a "bone" issue with any of these small jars packed in oil.
Red wine suggestion
Sweet and spicy to me says Gewurztraminer more than Riesling but again an off dry and not semi-sweet version. Not sure what brand to recommend as most of my experience is with Canadian Gewurztraminer from BC, but of course there will be German and Austrian versions out there.
Moving to Nairobi from US - foodstuffs to take?
I've been moving around the world a bit lately and I think what Sharonslau is refering to here specifically is her sea/air container of household goods going into Kenya. Most countries restrict food and alcohol imports in these types of moves. My last move from India to the EU we "hid" our spices in a clothing box in order to bypass the restrictions the packers had been given by their company and the receiving country's customs regulations. When we left Canada for India we had to drink our wine collection before leaving (poor us) as it was 100% verboten for import into India and was also against company policy for household goods moving.
As others have indicated above you can pack a lot in a suitcase and normally have no issues getting through customs, I've at times, while living in India, "smuggled" sausage, leafy greens, wallnuts, cherries, and Campari into India with no trouble and have friends who also managed steaks and whole turkeys.
Croatia in May (Split & Hvar)
I'll be spending a week in Croatia in May, a few days in Split and the rest in Hvar. I've looked on the board but there is very little current info for Split and nothing for Hvar. I have looked at Timeout.com for Split and like what I see but would appreciate any feedback so we can narrow down our options.
Specifically I'm looking for any recommendations for great cheap eats and good quality local specialty sit down dinners, seafood would be the best dinner focus for us. In Split we're a few blocks from the main port and while on the island we're in Hvar town.
In Hvar we'll have a house with kitchen so I'd also appreciate any info on local markets (veg, seafood and other).
Brno, CZ and area
Starobrno Brewery, Pivovarska Brno (Mendolovo Namesti)
Had dinner here last week as a part of a work outing that I arranged. I'd heard the food at the brewery was good but was, as always, a little suspicious it being a small brewery in a relatively small town.
We started off the evening with the latest craft brew, Black Pepper Beer, it seemed a novelty but was actually very nice, subtle pepper taste and aroma that went really well with classic Czech pub food. I ordered the ribs and was very happy with the order, nicely cooked, fall off the bone but not mushy, lots of little crispy bits and chopped up into nice 3 bone sections. The mild long peppers, freshly pickled cabbage and bread were all very good accompanyments to the meatiness of the ribs.
My collegues all had the same "steak and egg" which went down a treat and left a lot of satisfied faces around the table.
We'll definately be back and looking forward to the beer garden opening later in the spring.
Travel anywhere in the world to eat...where to go?
Sicily or the Amalfi Coast, Sicily first.
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur or Penang
Singapore
Vienna for 3 days
I'm sure Sturmi and Kukabura will give you their excellent recommendations as well but for me I'd make Phoenixhof a priority and would suggest adding the Hotel Sacher's high end dinning room (Anna Sacher) to your high end options. My wife and I had their 6 course menu with wine pairings last summer and it was outstanding, but it's not just about the food... the room is filled floor to cieling with the most amazing paintings that really add to the old world charm of the experience. You will also get a chance to have a cocktail in the Hotel Sacher's Blue Room, which is matchbox sized but again filled with wonderful art and furniture.
