Europe - Prague

Today's Garmin Step Milage: 14 km

This city is truly amazing with all it windy roads, gothic and early architecture and history. Everywhere you turn there is another road headed in another direction and a variety of unique buildings everywhere the eye can see. Every building has it's own character and style. They are different from other cities that we have visited in that many of them still have painted designs and images on the facades of the buildings. It makes for touring very interesting.

What we have found so far in Prague is that it is so easy to get lost in this city. Just when you think you know where you are, you look at the street names on the buildings and you have turned 1/4 turn and usually 3-4 blocks from where you thought you should be. That is the fun of exploring in new cities.

Since we were up at the crack of dawn we thought it might be a good time to head out before the city streets become crowded and it gets too hot. So.. bag in hand we set off to check out the town square. There was hardly anyone around and you started to see things that you didn't see before as a result of everything else that was going on in the square. From there we headed back to the Charles Bridge for a few more photo ops. Next thing we know we are on the other side of the bridge and crossing over into the "Lesser" side of Prague. It was about 8 am and we thought we might as continue on in our

explorations and head up the hillside to the Prague Castle.

So we hopped onto the tram to take us up the hillside. We got off a stop at the top, but we had a bit of walking to do before we got to the Castle. We found a nice park to walk through and the views of the lower Prague were simply spectacular. You could see the typical life of Prague citizens; people jogging, racing for the trains to I would imagine going to work; and people walking their dogs in the nice cool morning.

The Prague Castle offers a facade of glittering windows and impressive walls, topped by the fanciful Gothic Spires of its bold cathedral. At night the castle glows in the spotlights like a surreal fairy-tale vision. It is more of a sprawl of palaces, government offices, outbuildings, museums and courtyards. The Old Royal Palace was home to the Bohemian royalty from the 11-17th centuries.

The older buildings have the "game of thrones" style about them with the medieval wood-beam coronation hall - Vladislav Hall, and the gingerbread cottages of the Golden Lane. The Golden Lane - Zlata Ulicka) is a lane around the corner from the basilica. It is a toy-sized old resident homes that were underneath the perimeter vantage point of the guards. Some of them have been restored and staged with furnishing to represent times past. Frank Kafka briefly lived at no.22, his sisters house, during WWI.

The Basilical of St George has a kaleidoscope of glowing stained glass, baroque styled facade and royal tombs at the heart of the castle complex. You can pay to go up the cathedral tower and look down on the square below; something we opted out of.

As we finished up our tour at the Castle, we meandered down the hillside and walked through the Mala Strana - "little quarter" squeezed between the river and the hills. It has quiet back streets that not too many tourists reach.

After just going out for a few pictures in the morning, we landed back at the Old Town Square after 4 hours and 12 km later... Definitely time for breakfast.

After a bit of a rest.. and blogging.. we headed out to find our next adventure. We were targeting for the Havel Marketplace. A few wrong turns and a couple of extra blocks walking we had arrived!

One of the oldest markets in the city, Havel Market dates back to 1232. Originally selling only produce, the market has changed over the years, mainly with tourists in mind. Lately it seems though that the produce stalls are starting to outnumber the souvenir stalls,

which is a good thing as many stalls sell the same tourist junk you can find all over Old Town. Some stalls however offer inexpensive handmade Czech crystal and glass jewelry, tasty traditional spa wafers, decorative birch boxes, local honey and wooden toys. A place where all tourists should wander if given the chance.

Even though Prague is not known for their cuisine, they do have a couple of specialities; pork knuckle dishes and roast duck. Rick found a little place just around the corner from us that had great reviews of their traditional roast duck dishes - Kolkovna. They have a few locations within Prague, but luckily we didn't have to go far.
The roast duck came with a 1/2 duck (1 kg with the bone weight) with red and white pickled cabbage, dumplings, gravy and a bread type product. I think it might be intended as another type of dumpling like product. The dish was large enough to share for 2, and enough for take home for another meal for 1. A couple of cold drinks and dinner for 2 for only $50 CAD, not to bad.

We have really had an opportunity to explore many areas that Prague has to offer. Tomorrow is our last day to see anything that we might have missed so far.

Traditional Czech Roast Duck with Braised Cabbage and Dumplings (3 parts)

Czech Roasted Duck with Caraway Seeds

Ingredients:
firm apples,such as Braeburns
pears, any variety
red wine
salt
water
duck legs
caraway seeds

Instructions:

Slice the apple and pear and lay them directly on the roasting pan. Add few cups of red wine or water. The liquid should barely cover the fruit.

Salt the duck legs on both side, place the legs on the fruit bed and sprinkle them generously with caraway seeds.

Preheat the oven to 340F, cover the roasting pan with foil and bake until the meat is soft (2 -2.5 hours).
When the meat can be easily pierced with a fork, remove the foil and broil until the skin is nice and crispy.

Notes
For this recipe I used duck legs. For bigger parties or hungry individuals, you can count on 2 legs per person, for a lighter meal go with 1 duck leg per person. You can use other parts of the duck if you wish. The amount of apples and pears depends on the amount of duck you are going to roast. I use fruit in order to achieve light fruity tones and preventing the meat from drying out

Caramelised Red Cabbage

While the duck roasts you can do the red cabbage. This is a special cabbage used with few Czech recipes and you can use the leftovers in many good ways, as a side dish, in sandwiches.

Ingredients:
1 medium red cabbage (1.5-2pounds)
1 big onion
1 bay leaf
3tbs vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 orange
3 cups of red wine
1tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:
Slice the cabbage into thin ribbons, removing the hard bits and nibbling on them while you salt the cabbage and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Chop the onions.
Heat the oil in large pot and add the onions together with the bay leaf. When onions become translucent, add the sugar and caramelize it.

Add the caraway seeds and 10 seconds later add the red wine and the juice of one orange.

Bring the mixture to boil and add the cabbage. Cook the cabbage on medium temperature until soft.
When cabbage is soft add the vinegar and season with extra salt (1/2tsp maybe)

Czech Steamed Dumplings - Knedlíky

The Czech knedliky or “steamed bread” is a real Czech classic. It is served with variety of foods, especially with sauce. This is a simple knedliky recipe; unfortunatelly they are great only on the first day. After that they lose their freshness rapidly, so try to use them right away. You will need a steamer to make these (obviously), one with a flat bottom is the best.

Ingredients:
1tsp sugar
1tsp yeast
3½ cups flour
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup of milk
½ cup lukewarm water

Instructions:
Make a sponge: mix the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast and leave until bubbly, about ten minutes.
Mix the flour with salt, add the sponge, eggs, and 2/3 cup of milk (if necessary keep adding more milk).
Let it raise for 30 min, then punch it down.
Let it raise again until doubled.

Prepare the steamer: put a few inches of water in a large pot, and lightly oil the steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil.

Shape little oval loafs and put them in the steamer basket. Steam them for 10-12 minutes until they are resilient and have a firm outer skin.

Let them cool and cut them into slices just before you serve them.