Little Adventures in Prague: All You Can Eat Sushi

All You Can Eat Sushi is 298 CZK (~$15) for lunch at the food court in Palladium, a shopping mall at tram/metro stop Namesti Republiky.

To be fair, for Prague, it is a really expensive lunch.  However, it is worth every crown!

First of all, you get to eat food off of one of these contraptions.  I love when my food goes by me like a train and I can have whatever I want!  Obviously, it's not just sushi.  I had some seaweed salad and kimchi while Amy ate some fried noodles.

There were also exiting things wrapped in foil.  We had no idea what we would get!  

I ended up with a yam (yum) and Amy got corn on the cob.  

The final surprise was what we referred to as a "meat-so-soup ball."  It was a meatball that tasted and smelled of miso soup.

I ate a ton of mussels and all the shrimp tempura I could find.  

We steered clear of the waffle fries, though.

Dessert took as long as the meal.  

Between the two of us we had probably half a watermelon, 3 kinds of mochi, jello, pudding, and fried bananas.  

All and all, this was one of the best lunches I've ever had.  I admit that with 3 more lunches left in this city, I kind of wish they could all be there.

Hooray for Going Home!

I will be home a week from Sunday!  By home, I mean in Greenport, New York--a quaint little village on North Fork of Long Island.  It's the kind of place you cannot wait to leave when you are growing up there but cannot wait to visit when you wise up and realize how good you had it.  The list of things I look forward to about visiting my home village is endless, but here are some links that are definitely on it!

The Coronet Luncheonette via Flickr

Breakfast or Lunch at the Coronet, a tiny diner essentially unchanged since 1949.  

Greenport Harbor Brewing Company

Tasting all of the brews at the local micro-brewery.

Wineberries via NYT

Foraging for wineberries at the very end of their season or just eating what my father and sister have stored in the freezer.  I also look forward to whatever foraging my father has on deck.  There is always something to be foraged!

Fifth Street Beach via Village of Greenport

Swimming in the Bay.

67 Steps 

Visiting my favorite beaches.

Greenport Tea Company via Arbor View House

High tea at the Tea Co. 

Vytopna Railway Restaurant

Vytopna Railway Restaurant

Prague, Czech Republic

Last weekend, I finally joined Amy (and Mo, Lucy, and Matthew) for a trip to "the train bar."  I had heard all about the model trains delivering your drinks but I imagined something akin to a sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt of food. Instead, I walked into a gigantic model train world.  There are tunnels, bridges, girders, and even a castle!  It is not a train on a continuous loop, but rather many individual trains which come straight to your table then back to the depot.  They even pick up empties!

Vytopna Stats 

Type of Restaurant: Train Restaurant

Cost: Affordable 

Service Type: Order from a server, drinks delivered by train; food delivered by server

Dining Area: Very large, rarely full

Location: Vaclavske Nam. 56, Prague 1

Nearby Tram Stops: Vaclavske Namesti, Muzeum

Nearby Metro: Muzeum, Mustek

Are the drinks here yet?

Here comes our first delivery!

Beer!

For being in the center of town and having such a high entertainment factor, Vytopna is actually very reasonably priced.

These photos do not give you the full effect.  So, video!

Don't worry, this sign doesn't make any more sense in Czech than it does in English.

There is even a children's play area, as though the whole place weren't play area enough!

Very poor lighting, but indeed a castle!

Serendipitous Friday

Today was one of those days that I happened to have a camera in my bag and a lot of photo-worthy things happened to occur.  Simply serendipity.

A game of I-Spy on the bus back from swimming lessons.  

Czech Preschool Lunch: Yeast Soup and Rice with Beef and Pickle Sauce

The soup is vegetable broth with finely-diced carrots and cauliflower with chopped onions and broccoli... and yes, yeast.  Not nutritional yeast, active yeast.  Bits of cake yeast that you could bake bread with.  It tastes a bit sweet and sour.

The main course is chopped beef, slow cooked in universal brown sauce with chopped up pickles in it.

Somehow, I have learnt to love both of these things.  I'll miss Czech food.

Dress-Up-the-Teacher is one of my favorite games as long as I am not the one under the hat.

My boss brought her guitar to work today and had a sing-along with the few kids who were in "quiet time" on a Friday afternoon.  I was in nap-time and decided to take my three bed-bouncing non-sleepers to join in.  I did not expect how well this would go over.  "We did sing in our pajamas!" 

A mid-day storm  was followed by an afternoon recess with lots of puddle-dancing and mud-slinging.

We really wanted to go to Kozlovna for dinner, but it was full.  The goat disapproved.

"Prehistoric Restaurant"--We stumbled upon this during our search for dinner.

Primeval Feasts?

Oh goodness.  We did not get dinner there.

Then we found a M.A.S.H.-themed shop which we did not go in either.

Nor did we eat at this restaurant, a timeless homage to Olympics that did not take place here.

In the end, we ate dinner at a Czech chain restaurant then went to Tesco for pudding mix and wine coolers.  Sometimes, you need to end a long work week with pudding and wine coolers.  

Here's hoping that your Friday was full of games, dancing, and adventures!

-Colleen

Yes Burger

Yes Burger, Prague

A Mini-Review

Yes Burger, Seifertova 14, Prague 3 (Žižkov)

When Yes Burger opened last year, word of mouth was instantaneous.  Everyone was talking about the place by Husinecka tram stop where you can get a burger meal for under 100 crowns (~$5).  I've been there a few times and I need to say the hype is totally worth it.

Yes Burger Stats 

Type of Restaurant: Burger Joint

Cost: Incredibly Affordable 

Service Type: Order at the register for take-out or to stay, servers will bring food to your table

Dining Area: Really small

Location: Seifertova 14, Prague 3

Nearby Tram Stops: Husinecka, Lipanska

The menu includes basic burgers, chicken fingers, and fries but also all sorts of burger toppings and vegetarian choices.

After somehow choosing your burger from the endless menu on the wall, you go up the counter to place your order.  The dining room is really small so you might not get a table.  No worries because there are plenty of parks nearby to have a burger picnic in! 

We managed to get seats yesterday and enjoyed looking at the eclectic decor.

There are displays of Lord of the Rings figurines, artistically arranged Pokemon cards, and vintage advertisements. 

As for our food, we all got burgers.  Here's Lucy, enjoying her cheeseburger and fries. 

Amy got the same.  A cheeseburger meal (with fries and a soda) is only 92 crowns--significantly less than you would spend at McDonald's and completely worth the trip to Žižkov.

I got a burger meal (no cheese, 88 crowns).  The burger itself was definitely high quality beef and cooked to a really nice "medium" instead of the well-done you frequently find in Prague.  I would equate the size to what you would find at a backyard barbecue--not fast food small but not diner big.  The bun was nothing to write home about, but still good.  There was a bit too much lettuce but the veggies in general were fresh and well-prepared.  Amy commented that they actually know how to slice red onions, shaved paper thin, so that they are not overwhelming.  The fries were pretty standard, hot and crispy. 

I've also had the chicken fingers in the past which were totally delicious.  I'm not sure why, but they come with salsa.  

The bottom line is: good burgers, ridiculously cheap.  If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, go for sure!

Lunch and Beers in Oakland

Oakland, California

As some may know, I recently took a trip home to California for a visit with family and friends. Living in Prague has provided me with an amazing opportunity to live in the heart of a capital city while working on my masters degree. Being given this opportunity has made me more inclined to really go out and see what the city I live in has to offer. This is something that I had never really done in the past. I was born and raised in California, and spent a good portion of my life living within an hour or so from where I grew up. I have always been interested in traveling and seeing the world, but I have found that I took little time to really explore the area surrounding my home. Yes, I would go to Sacramento or San Francisco for a day, and one of my favorite pastimes is wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma. However, now when I travel back to California it feels much more like a vacation and has inspired me to seek out new adventures. I now have more of the vacation mentality while spending time near my home. This is something that I hope to carry to any other city or place that I may live in the future. Many people live in a place their entire lives and do not see or experience some of the best treasures it has to offer. I hope to avoid this from here on and to treat my future homes as a collection of places to go out and discover!

One of my recent adventures while in California was inspired by two of my good friends, Jenelle and Becky. I was invited out to lunch and to a pub in Oakland. We started off at Quinn's Lighthouse for lunch. The lighthouse was originally established in 1890; however, it has been reconstructed and renovated several times throughout its long history. It has absolutely amazing views of the docks and bay from its upstairs dining area and patio. The menu has something for everyone. I had the Gilroy Hamburger, a burger on garlic bread, yummy! My favorite aspect of the restaurant was the extensive collection of nautical decor. This place was absolutely charming and delightful.

Lunch at Quinn's Lighthouse

Pirate piñata

One of my favorite features - A sailor door handle into the ladies room

This bar area is so charming

Partial view from the restaurant

Jenelle and me in front of the restaurant with lady liberty 

Jenelle and Becky - my event planners for the day

After lunch we adventured into the downtown area of Oakland. I had never been to the downtown area and was surprised to see what it had to offer. Often people only hear about the negative aspects of Oakland, but I feel that it is a city that has a lot to offer those living in or visiting the Bay Area. Here we went to a pub named The Trappist. The Trappist is located in a Victorian building from the 1870's and boasts a wide selection of Belgian, Scandinavian, Dutch, and American artisan beers. It was rather difficult to find space to stand or to order a beer, but was worth the wait in the end. This was obviously a very popular place for local people to spend a Saturday afternoon with friends. We managed to find a spot to sit on the back patio and enjoyed a few delicious Belgian beers. 

Would love to live in one of these adorable buildings in downtown Oakland

Each beer was served in its own distinct glass

Back patio area at the Trappist

Overall, the day was a huge success and was a great start to my trip home. I hope to share a few more of my adventures from California over the next few weeks.