Vegtastic!

The Czech Republic is one of the most spectacular countries that I’ve visited. I make this statement both an American of Czech descent and as a person whose foreign travel experience includes Italy (standard European fare), Canada (bizarro America), England (bizarro Canada), and Russia (just bizarro), so take my words with a huge grain of salt.

The country is visually stunning. Architecturally speaking, the buildings range from soaring Gothic cathedrals to romantic churches to modern gems, while the countryside is quaint and picturesque. The history is fascinating, the artistic tradition is superb, and the cultural affinity for beer is quite enjoyable. Only the Czech Republic could turn a chapel decorated with the bones of 40,000-70,000 people into something elegant and not [all that] creepy.

But this is a food blog. A vegan food blog. The Czech Republic, for all its glories, is not a particularly veg-friendly place. I know because I went there last week. While our trip centered on Prague, we took day trips to Plzeň and Kutna Hora.

Having spent a semester in Russia in college, I knew that the former Soviet Block is fairly heavy on the meat and dairy, so I was prepared to eat a lot of potatoes and rice. Being  descended from hearty Bohemian peasant stock, I rather like boiled potatoes, particularly the creamy yellow variety commonly served in Central Europe.

However, I was impressed by how comfortably I ate with only minimal sacrifice. VegNews had a serendipitous  feature in their September+October issue that served as inspiration, though having done my research, many of the places they featured were already on my radar.

Most waiters in Prague speak in English, and with the help of a Lonely Planet phrase book we were able to get by fairly easily; my 4 years of college Russian didn’t hurt either.

I start my tale with what Delta served on the ride over; I was so delighted to be served naan on an international flight that I whipped out my camera. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that my vegan airline meal was not vegan– below the foil was something that I’m almost positive was palak paneer: cheese. My in-flight breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios also not vegan, and the cheese lasagna they mistakenly served on the way back even less so– that one was fortunately rectified with an Italian-style rice and bean dish.

On our first day, we ate at a small vegetarian restaurant called Gopal in the Old Town near Prague Castle. Gopal serves a fixed meal that rotates daily and is definitely not vegan. With limited (i.e., no) Czech speaking ability, horrible memories of Russian cuisine, and a general ignorance of my situation, I was so relieved for the guarantee that my meal did not have meat that I was willing to eat some dairy. However, I spent the rest of the day feeling horribly guilty– traveling and wanting to “experience the culture” is no excuse to exploit animals– and vowed not to repeat this act again. The restaurant is all-you-can-eat and many of the options were vegan, so I imagine you could ask for just the vegan options.

Lenka Hlava (Borsov 2, Praha 1) is one of the most magnificent places to dine on the face of the planet. The building dates back to 1410; though the interior design is very modern and colorful, the setting maintains a intimate, slightly ancient feel.

Lenka Hlava’s menu is extensive, with an amazing selection of juices. I got something called Sahleb (salep) which Wikipedia says is made from the ground bulb of an orchid. It was more of a pudding than a drink, and had a sort of funny taste that reminded me vaguely of a mild poison. I ate the walnuts off the top and more or less left the rest.

While I didn’t care much for my drink, the food was amazing and copious. While not a strictly vegan restaurant, most of Lenka Hlava’s options either are vegan or can be made so. After much deliberation, I ordered bulgar risotto topped with sun-dried tomato pesto. I didn’t think I would ever be able to eat the entire thing, but a day of sightseeing left me very hungry and I finished my plate. The picture is blurry because I was in such a hurry to get back to eating it that I could barely sit still.

Country Life (Jungmannova 1, Praha 1) is both a vegan restaurant and a small grocery store. I didn’t eat at the restaurant, but, as VegNews mentioned, this is a great place to stock up on vegan snacks.

Here’s my bounty after day one– the blurry yellowish tube is full of garlicky tofu spread, delicious on the store’s fresh-baked bread.

I picked up a roll and some tofu-mushroom slices to eat on the train on our way to Plzeň:

Kolachy (singular: kolach) are a Czech pastry made of sweet bread dough and filling; my family has a great recipe that I’ve been meaning to veganize for a while. Country Life sold kolachy in a variety of flavors. Below are poppy (the best!) and tofu.

Maitrea (Týnská ulička 6, Praha 1)  is Lenka Hlava’s sister restaurant. It has a similar, though different menu and a brighter, airier space. It’s right by Old Town Square, making it ideally situated for a mid- or post-sightseeing meal.

Goulash with dumplings is a popular Czech meal. While it’s usually made with beef, Maitrea makes a seitan version that was rich and satisfying. Their dumplings were not vegan, but the nice young waiter substituted rice.

David and I walked by Dynamo on our way from the hotel to Republic square one morning, and the “vegetarian specialties” advertised in the window popped out at me. The menu had a couple of dished with “tofu cheese.” While we didn’t dine there at that point, we vowed to return.

Return we did, and I ordered pasta with this tofu cheese– which is really just smoked tofu. The sauce was a sweet, slightly spicy tomato chili sauce; a little unusual but very tasty.

There are several other restaurants in Prague that serve primarily vegetarian and vegan food; Happy Cow has a list, and while I would have liked to try more, I was able to eat just fine in conventional restaurants too.

For instance, many restaurants serve risotto; the Czech risotto is really more of a fried rice than an Italian-style risotto. Here’s an example from a nautical-themed restaurant in Plzeň:

It wasn’t all hearty and delicious, as you can see from the boiled potatoes and broccoli with almonds I ate below. The meal originally had blue cheese, but I asked the waiter to hold it. He asked whether I was allergic; I said no, and he asked if I was okay with cream. I said I was not, and he said, “well, you will just eat broccoli and almonds.” Fortunately, I like broccoli and almonds. And boiled potatoes.

Our last meal was at a tourist trap in Mala Strana. David ate Thumper, while I dined quite lavishly on tomato salad, stewed cabbage (lots of caraway in that one), sauteed spinach, and (again), boiled potatoes.

There were many other meals that are not pictured here: a lovely ratatouille at Cafe Slavia (Smetanovo nábřeží 2, Prague 1), an art deco restaurant across from the National Theatre; breakfasts of bread and apples from the Tesco across from our hotel; a plate of gnocchi at a mall after looking at probably 20 menus for a suitable vegan options. And of course, we drank liters of beer– and harder spirits: becherovka, slivovitz, hrusovice (pear liqueur), and the ever-alluring, slighty toxic absinthe.

Despite clearly eating (and drinking) a ton, the amount of walking and time on our feet burned it all off. I left Europe 3 pounds lighter when I arrived. Best. diet. ever.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 4th, 2010 at 2:27 PM and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.