Excellent article in this week’s NY Times Travel section on German beers by Guy Grain himself, Evan Rail. His description of Berliner weisse reminds me of drinking straight lambic in Belgium, a flavor I’d describe as fermented Cream of Wheat.
While it’s always good to see that he’s moved on to more lucrative pastures, he is missed (by me) at the Prague Post. It feels like Dave Faries hasn’t given the thumbs up to a restaurant in Prague since he arrived, and I remember Evan as a bit more even handed. Context, people! Yes, Prague is a more expensive city than in years past, and expectations are much higher for the food, but it remains a tiny landlocked city in a country without much of a culinary tradition (just look at what’s happened to the higher end grocery stores there; even Carréfour couldn’t survive); is it ever much of surprise when the sushi makes you yen for the fake crab of your youth?
One problem is the ex-pat fever that sets in for Asian food over there after a month or so in town. Cravings develop, and the pickings are pretty slim—though it used to be far worse—for Asian foodstuffs. When I was there, Orange Moon was passably good, the quality improving the longer it had been since I had eaten real Thai food.
The real mystery is why the Vietnamese food isn’t the gold standard in Prague. There is a big Vietnamese population there, thanks to the last fifty years of Czech history, but there really isn’t a killer Vietnamese place in town. A restaurant as good as Saigon Grill in New York (well, without the labor troubles) would do wonders—Czechs could get a taste for the flavors, which are less spicy (they fear the Scoville scale, friends) and fresher than Korean or Thai, and ex-pats would have at least one go-to Asian restaurant. Prague Spring rolls, anyone?
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