Look, I have an opinion about hotels! And I guess I am Prague-based, until July anyway.
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The Ballad of Pepperoni the Kid
I've eaten a lot of bad things in my innumerable trips to Prague. Some were just plain bad--anything that's listed as risotto--some were great at the time but took years off my life--the chicken breast, topped with a slice of ham, green beans, and melted cheese comes to mind--and many were just puzzling.
The truth is that the strange combos are fewer and further between these days, which makes me sad, as that was always part of the fun of eating out in Prague--the little slip ups that remind you that it's not Vienna. Then again, with the way the exchange rate is these days, maybe I wouldn't be quite as amused anymore. And yet... I'm glad these type of antics aren't quite gone from the city. I've had two meals in the past few days that, well, speak for themselves.
The first was at the Savoy. Let me preface by saying, the Savoy is good, the Savoy is great, and even if the only difference between their regular and gourmet menus is that you get a tablecloth and a 33% surcharge when you order from the gourmet menu, it's still a perfect neighborhood restaurant. During my most recent visit, they also maintained the Czech tradition of, let's put a hot girl outside cause we can, by dragging a table in front of the restaurant for a looker in a businesshookerwear eating by herself.
I ended up with the "Basque salad" which was listed as prepared with chorizo and a poached egg. (Yes, I am a reluctant salad eater). When it arrived, I noticed that the egg was fine, but the chorizo in question? It looked an awful lot like pepperoni. Fried pepperoni.
Today, I swung by Modry Zub, or the Blue Tooth, off Wenceslas. First, the name: shouldn't they have wifi? No acknowledgement of this Bluetooth harmony was visible, even though the Czechs have some of the highest rates of cell phone ownership in the world--as is, they average MORE than one per person. Nonetheless, I had the Modry Zub's eponymous noodle dish. I'm big on ordering the dish that shares the name of the restaurant. If that's not good, why share names? So, much as I would try to describe the modry nudle, I think a picture does more justice:
Blue noodles, people! I foolishly envisioned like, jet-blue potato chip color. That was misguided. And: it came at a premium, as apparently, food coloring is expensive. The noodles were better than they looked (for Czech Asian food in particular) and they had Sriracha sauce at hand if they weren't to absolve any cooking sins.
Canned corn on pizza may be a thing of the past, but the spirit of it, at least, remains alive and well. And blue.
