May Eats - Prague & Beijing

May literally came and went: semester finals, Prague farewells, sojourn to China, move to NYC and now the first week of June is already reaching its conclusion. With the end of May, it also meant the end of my travels (and eating) through Europe. I am so extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to experience not only Prague but all of the  vibrant culture and history that each city I visited had to offer. I know for a fact that this will not be the last time that I journey to Europe (especially with many countries left to visit!). It also really does not feel all that long ago that I was blogging from NYC  about all of the ramen and cupcakes I was planning to feast on for the summer. Now, here I am once again in the Big Apple having completed yet another week of training (ironically, it was the exact same training program) - what a weird sense of dejavu. So here is the official wrap-up of my  final days in Prague and an overview of my eating adventures in Beijing.

1) Back to Aromi 

+ Seafood tomato soup with fish sashimi on croutons

Linguine with crab and tomato; Agnolotti filled with cooked ham and ricotta served with asparagus

Aromi quickly became one of my favorite restaurants in Prague. With michelin level quality of service and a bowl of authentic pasta for around 15USD - its one of the nicest experiences I discovered in Prague, too bad the only place you can find a deal like that is in Central Europe. Compared to the pastas that I ate in Italy - Aromi's pastas are easily just as good as what you would get from the home country.  During our visit, we were given an amuse bouche of smoked salmon and a hummus-like puree as well as a refreshing lemon sorbet drink. I never got a chance to post the pasta dishes I had for my first visit at Aromi (mostly because I devoured too much of my meal before I remembered to take a picture) but those dishes we ordered were also amazingly good and that was right before my Italy trip.

2) Completing the trio - Mlynec 

Veal Sausage with Celery puree; Deer Medallions with potato dumplings; Crispy Roasted Duck with bread dumplings

Mlynec is owned by the same restaurant group that also owns V Zatisi and Bellevue (probably one of my favorite restaurants of all time). The three together are some of the most popular and prestigious restaurants in Prague. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to post about V Zatisi or Bellevue since all of those food pictures are on V's phone (maybe I'll have a nostalgia Europe post on all of the eats that I missed). Mlynec is located right next to Charles Bridge and the menu has a heavier emphasis on Bohemia and Czech cuisine compared to its sister restaurants. The meal was hearty and satisfying and pretty much what you would expect when it comes to Bohemian cuisine.

3) Oh Hello Beijing & Ding Tai Fung

Spicy Wonton dumplings; Dan dan mian; Seaweed & tofu cold salad

Shanghai juicy buns: original pork and crab roe (look at those 18 folds on each dumpling!)

Sweet red bean buns; grass jelly ice dessert

Noodles in Paris

Why would I get noodles in Paris of all places you ask? I am in one of the best culinary destinations in the entire world and I opt for the type of no-frills ramen shop that I could easily find in New York.  Well there's sort of a reason to my madness. Sort of.  I was craving noodles.

Many famous diners have come to Higuma including "The Last Samurai"!

Nestled in between a handful of other Japanese and Korean shops, Higuma, is a local and tourist favorite. You can easily tell that it stands out among its competitors from the line of American, French, and Asian patrons spilling out the front door. Can you say Ippudo? It is also one of the cheapest places on the block with a bowl of ramen starting from just 6.5 Euros. I'm pretty sure our cup of hot chocolate cost more than that...

CHECK OUT THAT MASSIVE GYOZA STEAMER

After 6 weeks in Europe without seeing anything that even remotely resembled a noodle shop or dim sum stand, I needed an Asian fix. Finding Higuma on googlemaps was a godsend. The open faced kitchen greets you as soon as you walk in and right away, you see the most efficient gyoza cooker you will ever see in your life: churning out something like 200 gyozas in one go. 

+ Kimchi Ramen with Pork
+ Butter Corn Ramen

Ask V and I and we will pick the cheap bowl of ramen over the plate of foie gras any day. No offense to French cuisine of course. We still love the croissants and eclairs :) 

(Fruity) Colors of Thailand

So we did street food. kind of. Does juice in a bottle count? Well we also did have tofu out of a bag. Papaya out of a bag. Banana out of a bag. Lots of food out of plastic bags. OH right and (Thai) iced tea. Although, is it still called Thai ice tea in Thailand? Do Thais even drink Thai iced tea? But they do drink coconut water. Lots of it. Considering all of the coconut meat that gets used to make all of the coconut cream for all of the green curries, paid thai and tom yum soup that us tourists consume :)

Dragon fruit juice. Who knew dragon fruit was a fruit much less juice producing fruit? All freshly hand squeezed!