Trip Report: Prague Food Tour

I went to Prague for an international Global Evidence Summit, which I had hoped would be an interesting application of medical guidelines and global health policy. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be as the main emphasis was on the methodology behind systematic reviews. I have a new appreciation of how much work goes into SRs, but the PhD level methodology focus isn’t my main interest. I’m glad I went, but it wasn’t the best conference fit ever.

BUT! I was in Prague. Prague is so beautiful. I had a great time fitting in touristy activities before and after the conference. I arrived on Monday, since I had initially signed up for a workshop that was canceled the week prior. So, I had a tourist day instead!

I arrived from Zurich around 9 and went straight to my hotel to drop off my bags. The room was ready, so I was able to leave everything there apart from my handbag. I walked ~5 blocks to the Old Town Hilton to meet up with my food tour group run by Prague Food Tour. There were 8 people on the tour, all of whom were really nice. Participants included two couples traveling as a foursome before an upcoming cruise, an young Australian couple, a male couple with one MIL, and myself. Leona was our tour guide and she was excellent.

Our first stop was Cafe Imperial, which had the most stunning tiled interior. It was really exceptional- beautiful and unusual. The building had been there since the early 1900s and has a checkered history. It was used as a Nazi Officer Club during WWII, and then a workers’ cafeteria during the Communist years. The interior was stunning and in excellent condition. It sort of looked like it would be a perfect pool/steam room with all the tile.

We had a Kulajda, a dill soup with pached egg and mushrooms. This was delicious! I loved the meaty mushrooms and the dill was really refreshing. We also had Svíčková, a sliced meat dish with carrot/parsnip gravy and dumplings. It was very hearty and quite tasty.

Next up was Lokál, a beer hall that’s the longest restaurant in Prague and modeled workers’ beer halls in Communist times. We ordered beers and shared bar snacks: pražska šunka (prague ham with unsweetened whipped cream- really good!), tatarák (steak tartar), nakládany hermelín (pickled Camembert-style cheese with pickled onions, and becherovka (an herbal digestif). In case you were wondering: yes, our breath all smelled excellent after this assortment of snacks. We checked. (Jk, we certainly did not).

I ordered a lager, which comes in three styles: hladinka, šnyt, and mlíko. It has to do with the relative amounts of beer and foam when first served. The Czech are proponents of foam as it preserves the beer- if your foam is gone, you are drinking too slowly!

Next, we walked to the Kolacherie to have kolaches with poppy seeds and with fruit. They were tasty and although they were pastries, they were much less sweet than I feel an American pastry would typically be. I liked the not-too-sweet sweets.

On the way to the restaurant, we passed through the narrow entrance towards the main square, where taxes were collected prior to visitors entering the main town commerce section.

We walked along the boundary of Wenceslaus Square, which was not our tour guide’s favorite part of town (unclear why, other than the old town is so beautiful!). We went to the upstairs section of a pastry shop, where we had various sweets to include vanilkovy vêneček (choux pastry with custard filling), laskonka (cocnut meringue with nut filling), and buchtičky se šodó (sweet dough buns with vanilla cream.) The first two were fancy shop-like pastries, which the third was a more “grandma-like” comfort-food dessert. I think the last was my favorite, but it is hard to choose!

Overall, I thought the food tour was excellent. It’s a fun way to see the city, and the group was pretty easy-going and fun to hang out with throughout. I have been on tours that incorporate markets, which I think is a super cool feature of a tour if it’s every available.