Slow summer

Oh, it is already August. The summer has been filled with lazy breakfasts, sunny brunches, outdoor luncheons, bubbly picnics, dinners, night-snacks and other delicate eatings but even bigger laziness has occurred when it comes to reporting, let alone photographing them. I will return later, when the cold winds blow outside. There are veggie restaurant reviews from Gothenburg, Moscow (still un-updated?), Lyon and Paris to come...

Now it's time to prepare snacks for tomorrow Poděbrady day trip: beetroot-feta-spinach and chickpea-curry-rucola wraps. Photos follow, or do not.

The first home-grown tomatos in my life!

This is a moment of triumph and jubilee! In spite of aphids munching the leaves, the first tomatos are ripe! There's going to be these red ones, yellow bush-tomatos (yeah, that's the botanically correct term. Not.) and then one plant that's named after my friend's and fellow gardeners baby boy. Looking forward to all of them.

Baba

Sunday day trip: short bus rip uphill from Hradčanská took us to Baba. Beautiful part of Praha 6 on a hill with magnificient views all around.  After a walk down to Podbaba, lunch at cosy restaurant Pod Juliskou with surprisingly good choices for a veggie as well. And an ice cream stall with an apt name. Not.

BBQ # infinite

Oh, I have lost count on barbeques already. Whenever the weather permits, we pack our baskets and grill and head to Stromovka. Last time we had tabbouleh (with bulgur, so much tastier than couscous) and raw cauliflower salad with grilled zucchini and sweet potatos.  NB. The bird was not on the menu.

Mlsna Kavka

"Picky jackdaw" is a veggie restaurant in Karlin, Prague 8. After a long walk a tempeh burger with fries was just what I craved for. Juicy, big and tasty. Also I had one of the best home-made lemon limonades ever. M had falafel salad, which also was good. Falafels were fresh, moist and not dry at all. The restaurant employs people rehabilitating from mental problems and disorders, so the service can sometimes be slow or shy. Even more reason to support the establishment.

Midsummer spell

Old Finnish midsummer spell tells you to pick 7 different flowers during Midsummer night and place them under your pillow. That way the future beau will appear in the dream. Even though that wasn't necessarily needed, here are the flowers.

Conquering a different Prague at Libeňský ostrov

We had a wonderfully different Midsummer day trip to allotment garden area at Libeňský ostrov. Although the gardens were locked and we only could have a glimpse of them, the area was very nice. Lazy, village-like and green. To my great delight, we bumped into a statue park all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere. After that, walking and cycling route between Vltava and Karlin took us through a huge wasteland with lush vegetation. Truly imagination-provoking landscapes.

Restaurant Day in Prague

 The Finnish invention has of course landed also in Czech. This time we participated as restaurateurs serving Finnish pies and pasties. It was so much fun, although quite alot of work. Definitely our home restaurant will be open also in Restaurant Days to come!

My mom can be proud of the Karelian pies I baked without proper equipment and decent wood-heated oven.

Luncheon stroll

Lunch rendez-vous, vegeburger at café Na půl cesty and then a pleasant promenade in Pankrac or Podoli. They have some mighty fine villas at street Na Cementárnou, for example Vila František Lange for sale. Only 39 million czech crowns for a nice functionalist piece. One would have one's home mentioned in Wikipedia living there.

 

 I liked this rusted iron villa, it was ugly but interesting.

And as you can see, we've switched into spring shoes.

Food. Good.

Dinner yesterday was mango-avocado salsa with lime&chili, plus sesame-fried mozzarella. The salsa was supergood, it could use a tad more sweetness but then the mango was very soft and ripe. Mozzarella did not behave nicely on the frying pan, it tasted good but looked weird. Tofu could be better, first marinated in sesame oil etc. and then fried.

For dessert we innovated a quick non-fat version of köyhät ritarit or fattiga riddare or sweet french toast if you're more familiar with that. We toasted slices of braided egg bun vanocka, topped the sweet toast with ice cream and there you go!

Weekend food summarized

It has been so many good dishes lately, it gets hard to keep up with them. This weekend it was russian, karelian and eclectic cuisine.

On Saturday we bought cabbage-mushroom versions of homemade varenikis that russian grocery store two blocks away  sells.  Tiny pies were steamed ready in 1,5 minutes and they were sooo good with sour cream and gherkins. Because Lidl had Scandinavian week, I could have Finnish Lapland cheese "leipäjuusto" as dessert. I warmed it in oven with cream and served it with arctic cloudberry jam. 

After a stroll in Stromovka, a salad as light Sunday dinner: white cheese and pears fried in balsamic vinegar & honey, pumpkin seeds, raddish, carrots together with ciabatta and [lame] Chardonnay.

Wine Food Market

 last week we got acquintated with Italian food market and restaurant near Smichovské nadrazi. The grocery department stacks italian delicacies like olive oils, pasta, wine, cheese... Whatever your heart desires.

After filling your shopping basket you can start filling your stomach from bakery, restaurant, ice cream and cake counter. We bought antipasti such as cheeses, rustic bread and delightfully strawberryish rosé from the grocery store. The staff kindly cut the cheese for us, changed our wine bottle to a colder bottle and even rinsed tomatos ready in a bowl! Very nice. And the tomatos were to die for, so sweet and juicy. Oh, and we also had sizzling pizza slices from bakery. Yummy. I honestly thought that would be enough and I would not need a main.
How wrong I was...

For main dish I had salad with some Piemontese cheese, grilled aubergine and zucchini. And final touch was a scoop of capuccino icecream.

The food was delicious, simple but good as it should be. The service was fine too. One of the younger waiters seemed to be a bit lost with his plates asking around who oredered what but that was just cute. The place seemed to be laidback and informal, big tables and one open space to dine. On a Wednesday evening it was buzzing with people. Too bad that it closes already at 22.00, also on weekends.

All in all a really good experience. Though a meat and fish eater place mostly, there are vegetarian salads, pizzas and pastas available.

Definitely want to go again, maybe for lunch or for serious grocery shopping. Or bringing guests, or just taking a tram trip for gelato.

Getting settled to new home

Ooops, it has been over a month since the last post. I do have good reasons though. Moving, interior designing, decorating... House warming party last weekend, please notice the dish shaped like Finland. How convenient is that! The old movie posters were a gift from a friend, they look perfect in the kitchen.

The flat is still very much in a process. Here are some glimpses of our home, enjoy the colorfulness!

Project 2014 #2: Moving house

It is one week until the Grand Moving Day so I'm still pretty at ease. Everything will be evaluated into keep/sell/give/recycle categories, I'm not going to any unnecessary stuff to the new home. Everything will be packed neatly, no uncategorised sacks of indeterminates. No moving day morning panic, no carrying last things without any package in my bare hands.

Yeah right. Previous times I've ended up moving all the whatnots, tchotchke and everything. Dirty laundy, half eaten sandwiches and half-filled garbage bags. Figratively speaking, maybe.

This moving project is special in every way though, so maybe I'll be organized and prompt until the very end. I packed tentatively one box of books, weighed it in my hands and unpacked it quickly. Too heavy, will affect negatively to friendships.

One thing that I've learned is to pack a survival kit: toilet paper, towels and soap for moving help to wash their hands before eating the gigantic moving day pizza, sparkling wine to drink first morning in new home etc... Taking care of moving help satisfaction is important: drink, pizza, snack and so on. Moving in winter makes it easy, no one will probably dehydrate carrying boxes.

Packing should be done room 2 room, eg. only livingroom stuff in one box. But on the other hand, clothing and linen is a great padding in every box so I may not follow this rule.

The easiest thing is to empty kitchen shelves before moving day. It has been couscous with every thing imaginable. It has been lentils and rice, mej'adra. I've been eating oatmeal porridge with lingoberry jam and maple syrup. Both very tasty, may I add.

Asian food weekend

We visited the vietnamese SAPA market again and now happily munching the retreats: steamed pak choi, tofu and morning glory with rice and ketjap. Bought also some grain tea and a lot of rambutans.

Sunday syrnikis

 Weekend brunch is incomplete without pancakes. Either American style fluffy ones, banana-egg simplicities or these delicious quark pancakes. This Sunday they were delightfully non-symmetrically shaped, served with maple syrup and pineapple-mango jam.

Saturday macarons

This photo presents the many wonderful - if a tad decadent - weekends I've been fortunate enough to spend in Prague. This was 2nd of the 4 (four) cafés we went during one lazy Saturday.

Here we come, year 2014

International buffet table: polish smoked cheeses, swedish dip sauce, latvian pastries, malaysian spicy marinade, czech potato chips (?) and finnish Marimekko napkins. 'Twas a lovely bubbly evening,  costume party with eating, dancing, fireworks and friends.

Christmas eve dinner, umpth cassarole

Åj. It was a nice Christmas dinner, partly planned and partly improvised. Beetroot sweet potato cassarole (umpth version, we've been preparing several from several ingredients) with blue cheese and layered salad. Plus all the extras, cheeses, pickles, breads, wine. Meateaters had meat and fish but that's not interesting at all. Plus sweets, chocolate, salty liquorice, gingerbread, cookies, cookies. And did I say cookies?

Plus two presents, more on the way still!

Plums, processed

A bag of plums from a friend has been converted to compote and liqueur during the autumn months. This is the sweet result, ready to be distributed as gifts.