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.

(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! 

Dim Sum Done Right

On the top of my to-do list in Hong Kong? Get dim sum. ASAP. Crowned one of the top 10 best restaurants of the world by the New York Times and awarded one Michelin star by the Hong Kong & Macau edition of the Michelin guide, this internationally acclaimed restaurant has put all of my other dim sum experiences to shame. Who knew that Ding Tai Fung had its start  with a broke husband and wife originally selling tinned cooking oil? After some quick googling, I've also just discovered that there is a branch in Arcadia, CA...where the heck is Arcadia? Can they please open a branch in NYC already?