Budapest in Lights

Night time shot of the Budapest castle by the river. 

Lights + tram tracks  

What a beautiful city at night! Decently looking during the day but absolutely stunning with all of the lights lit up. 

Awaiting the arrival of V. from the states on Friday and then its Vienna for the weekend! 

Budapest

Who knew that Budapest used to be two different cities? We mostly stayed on the Pest aka right side of the river of Budapest but that's mostly where the funsie party stuff is anyways. Plus the view of the castle from the Pest side looking into Buda was better anyways :) We found an AMAZING hostel via hostel world and the 9 of us travelling together had a BLAST. Ruin bar crawl and clubbing on a boat anyone?

Arrived in Budapest at 2:00pm and headed over to this bar/pub/cafe per the recommendation of our fantastic hostel staff. Grabbed a dark beer and a eggplant/brie cheese sandwich. yum-o.  

And of course, we just happened to be in town for a random foodie/music festival. 

Had soup bowls for lunch on the first day after an intensive 3 hour walking tour of the city. Amazingly enough, despite the time, we only managed to walk around 10 blocks. Our tour guide really liked to talk. We did learn a good deal of interesting/random/obscure facts and stories about Budapest though.

Bake Shop

BAKE SHOP, Praha 1. Check out the adorable website. 

+ Cupcakes of every selection
+ Super chunky chocolate chip cookies
+ Adorable sugar cubes on each table
+ Fruity jam in a jar

A French bake shop in the Jewish Quarter of Prague. What charming place filled with AMAZING baked goods. Most known for their brownies and cookies, we actually opted mostly for a selection of croissants and quiches. I will certainly be returning often to sample those macarons and cupcakes.

Brambory + Prague Market

Journeyed to Prague 7 after class today to check out the Prague Market. Supposedly, it houses the largest vegetable market in Prague along with a plethora of shady looking street vendors and trinket shops. And one legit Italian place. We opted for the shady street vendor.

Not many of the street places were open today. Perhaps because it was a weekday or because it is winter time. 

Not realizing these potato pancakes would be the size of our face, we ordered three of them. OOPS. Boy were they delicious. Every fried morsel. By that I mean half of of the massive potato pancake. It was like an epic glorified hashbrown super fried and seasoned to perfection. 

We also did manage to find the vegetable market and tried some fresh made gouda, aspic and then bought some mushrooms. Success.

Cesky Krumlov

Just got back from a weekend trip at Cesky Krumlov. What an adorable and beautiful town. Not all that much to do but makes for a great day (and a half) trip. We went on a tour of the town castle which is over 250 years old with wall frescoes preserved perfectly as well as a tour of the town itself. Dating back to pre-Hapsburg rule, the town is over 800 years old and was a part of the Sudentanland during World War II. There was actually a picture of Hitler talking in the main town square we saw hanging up in the hall of the 5 star hotel. The food in this town was also surprisingly tasty.  Especially this little Creperie called none other than Creperie.

The description of this crepe in the menu made it too hard to resist despite my initial plan to just order a sweet crepe. Unfortunately, the savory crepe couldn't hold up to the deliciousness of the nutella filled ones. 

The cottage cheese one was my selection. I figured since I can make a nutella crepe any time, I might as well branch out. It actually turned out to be my least favorite one of the four. Bummer. Now I know to stick with chocolate!

The basic nutella crepe is still irresistible. 

Lunch @ Noodle Bar

A taste of something somewhat Americanized. Located right by the Cerge building, Noodle Bar is surprisingly popular among locals and college students alike. 

For a place called the noodle bar, the noodles were a bit lack luster and the paid thai needed a lot more spice. 

However, the curry was AMAZING and surprisingly VERY spicy. I'm sure we'll be frequenting this place often so I'll make sure to give the curry an official try on my next visit. 

Going on a weekend trip to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow! Apparently the pubs there are very good according a local source. We might wind up spending a good amount of time inside as it is supposed to snow (AGAIN) for the whole weekend. Can Spring pleasee come already? 

Czech Class

Found myself back at Ferdinand for the second time this week because of Czech class. Who would have thought language class could contribute so much to this blog? We had just recently learned how to order food and read menus in Czech so what better way to practice than the real deal? Our teacher took us to Ferdinand and had us order from the daily menu, beverage and main dish and all. Turned out to be an extremely helpful lesson as I can finally begin to decipher these complicated Czech menus!

On left: Beef in tomato sauce and dumplings (never realized those spongey pieces of bread were called dumplings...huh) Apparently this is a very Czech dish according to my teacher haha.
Oh right: Mushroom and potato soup 

On left: dark beer ("pivo")
On right: pancakes (which seriously resemble crepes, wish I had snagged a bite of that!) with cream

Cafe Rembrandt

Cafe Rembrandt - located in an enclosed square (name unpronounciable) that used to house the goods of the merchants from the olden days.

The ambiance was quite cozy as the living area was filled with plush chairs and sparsely filled with people. 

Candlelight and champagne

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whether it is friends or family, keep on loving! 

Cafe Lattes & More

The amazing hot chocolate at Cafe Ebel made from real melted milk chocolate and purchased with a student discount :p

A somewhat blaise serving of carrot cake but compensated by an exciting new discovery! Honey Cake! 

Lunch @ Ferdinand

Ferdinand beer on tap, in a bottle & a very czech lunch menu

My lovely roommate found this little gem just down the street from Cerge which is the building where we have most of our classes. You know its a legit place when the entire menu is in Czech and everyone around is speaking Czech. Best of all, we got to try another locally brewed beer and I added one more coaster to my collection :) 

Chicken & tomato/cucumber salad

Lunch was the usual mixture of meat and starch offerings including beef, sausage, chicken, ham, potatoes and bread. However, all of the dishes were supremely well made and the utilitatarian tables gave the sunlight dining room a rather cozy feeling.

Goulash w/ bread + kilbasa w/ sourkraut

Potato pancake w/ ham and cheese + steak w/ rice

I'm glad I managed to snap some pictures of "legit" Czech food unlike the terrible pictures I took previously with my phone :p

Next post coming up will be on some of the cafes we visited these past few days!

Ahoj from Prague!

Beer (in very large pitchers - the standard size), goulash (meat + gravy + thick bread), more goulash, duck (and other forms of poultry), pretzels (and other forms of carbs). Despite the bad lighting, blurry images and poor picture quality, this collage pretty much sums up the Czech eating experience. 

An entire week in Prague already and not a single post. Well, here it is! Although, in my defense, it really is not entirely my fault as it was only yesterday that we managed to obtain (working) wi-fi and settled down into our gorgeous flat. After toughing it out in a hostel for a few days, the 7 of us found a lovely apartment located just 4 minutes from the heart of Prague and Old Town. Despite the sub-zero degree weather, I finally sucked it up and took my camera with me today to snap some photos of the nearby river and our dinner.

Pizza - Bacio di Petra with tomato, arugla, and pine nuts
Hot Goat Cheese Salad + apples, raisins & walnuts

While I do give Prague credit for its old-city charm and absolutely stunning architecture, Prague is also one of the most eclectic cities I have ever encountered - comprised of an odd blend of old-world stylisms with touristy compromises and lots of random western influences thrown in between. 

After getting lost and stumbling in the wrong direction for a good few blocks, we finally came upon Radost FX . Vegetarian/Vegan/All Natural Foodie joint by day, smokey lounge and club by night. The menu which appeared suspiciously toursity at first turned out to be a delicious selection of well made dishes and literally  the first meal we've had since arriving in Prague that contained real vegetables (yippee!) After many meals of goulash, kobasa and fried cheese, this was quite a welcome.

Red Curry + sweet potato, eggplant, carrots
Nachos

Spinach Burger + Chipotle Mayo, Cole Slaw Czech Style
Green Curry + coriander, lime, jasmine rice
Cafe Latte

Offering an extensive drinks and dessert menu as well, we plan to venture to this corner of Prague quite often - and in particular, perhaps one Saturday night for its "Soul Train" performances and music. 

Lacroix (Part III)

Still haven't finished all of the posts from Southeast Asia (as there is an entire folder of Thai Cooking class pictures to go through and edit) so here is a quick little post on Lacroix for Restaurant Week. Came here last spring (forgot a camera) and last semester (poor dinner lighting) but this time I managed to snap some quick shots before digging in.

Apps: Mixed Greens & Caesar Salad

Main: Lamb BLY & Fish and Chips

Dessert: Dessert Trio

Apps were delish, mains were somewhat underwhelming but the desserts (as always in the case of restaurant week) were amazing.  Also hit up Amada for dinner which I discovered is infinitely better than its lunch offerings but the lighting for that rendered the pictures almost completely black. Oh well...maybe some editing will salvage them.