A Cuban in Prague

Traveling is always more fun when you get to do it with someone that you care about. That is especially true with me and M. Before we met, we both had done a fair bit of traveling. I had traveled Europe for about 4 months on my own and M had of course traveled Europe as well. Even from the very first trip we did together, we got along perfect (the only minor difference was/is that I am perhaps more willing to spend a little money).

So when I travel with work, it can be exciting and all, but it is not necessarily fun. Make sense? This past week I had to travel to Prague for a couple of days. Now we had traveled to Prague together a couple of times. So it was not like it was a new place. In fact, work had sent me there a couple of months ago and M and N got to come with (it was N’s first country that she traveled to). While we were there, a guy that I was working with suggested a couple of different restaurants. Because of the hours that I was working, we only got to eat out once during the entire week.

This time I was there only 2 nights and once again I only got to eat out once. It was one of the other restaurants that my work mate suggested. Sounds kind of weird to suggest this placed to anyone who might be traveling to Prague because it is not Czech, it is Cuban. The name of the place is La Bodeguita del Medio. It is located in the center of town, thus fairly easy to find.
Since I was by myself and I knew that I would not really get the opportunity to eat the next day (which was a reality, since I started work at 5.30 and finished up at 20.30 without much of a break the entire day), I decided to take advantage of the opportunity given and get the works.

I start with a goat cheese appetizer. The large piece of goat cheese was lightly breaded with a flaky crust. Then it was fried till the cheese was warm. Served with a baby spinach salad topped with thick homemade bacon bits, pine nuts (which surprisingly has been a new discovery in my food life and I do not understand how I missed them) and a balsamic vinegar dressing. The combination was fantastic, but then again, goat cheese is one of my favorite dishes.

For the main course I had the filet mignon, a 400gram filet mignon (which is about three quarters of a pound). I ordered it, somewhat skeptical, medium rare. I like my steaks medium rare, but I think that is a very difficult way to cook it. Either it is too rare or it is over cooked. Neither of which is a good thing. Plus, the outside of the steak is usually hard, which has the ability to ruin a steak (sadly, this is usually how my steaks end up when I grill). This steak though was none of that. It was grilled to perfection. It was the perfect pink, without being bloody. The outer edge of the steak was tender and not black at all. All of that palled to the taste of the steak. It was by far the best steak I have ever had. The flavor was amazing, it melted in my mouth. The steak was so tender that it could be cut with a fork. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about it. I considered going back there the second night just to have the same meal again. In reality, I should have, but I contained myself.

Since it is a Cuban restaurant, rum had to be served for the drink. Not just rum, but Havana Club rum. Even though I am not the biggest rum drinker in the world, I had two rum drinks with my dinner. The first was the house specialty, a Mint Julep with rum instead of the whiskey. Pretty much every single person in the restaurant was drinking this. It was ok, nothing spectacular. The other drink that I had was a Bloody Mary, just with rum instead of vodka. Had they put in a little Tabasco, then I would almost say that it was a better Bloody Mary than with vodka.

The atmosphere of the place was almost as good as the food. After I was done eating, I sat around and watched the people come in and go while I sipped my Espresso- of which I have become addicted to. They had a live band playing salsa music. The whole place was happening. An amazing amount of trendy people walked in and out of the restaurant. If you like people watching, then this is your type of place. To give it an authentic Cuban feel, they had an older Cuban lady walking around selling cigars. Not just cigars, but the good stuff. If you bought it, she would cut it for you and then light a match for you. Just watching it made me want to go to Cuba.

When M and I travel, we usually do not stay at the nicest places in the world. Far from it actually, we usually stay at the cheap dumps (I should say that we look for a good value, but they really are dumps). Though when work pays for it, that is a different story. Our Prague office has a deal set up with a hotel called Hotel Josef (http://www.hoteljosef.com/). This is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at before. The room itself has all the amenities, but it is the staff that make the place. They were friendly and very helpful, but not overly. I could whole heartily recommend the Hotel Josef to anyone (the sister hotel- Hotel Maximilian is not near as nice and is not worth the money).

If you go to Prague, a couple of things that you should do. The Charles Bridge, the top tourist destination, is stunning at night. Also, you should catch a show. Point to note, none of the theatres have air conditioning and it gets miserably hot in there. The Opera House, which is less expensive, is air conditioned and has fewer tourists. If you want to buy one of the puppets that Prague is famous for and quality is important, then you should get your puppet at the store located by Charles Bridge on the castle side. The prices are much higher, but the difference in the craftsmanship is astounding. Lastly, the same coworker who suggested La Bodeguita del Medio also game me a name of a true Czech restaurant which the locals eat at. It is called Peklo. I was unable to try it this time, but it is on my list to eat at the next time I am in Prague. He says that a reservation is a must.