Our first full day in Prague, Jay took a long lunch, so we decided to walk over to the Vysehrad, which is somewhat removed from the tourism of old town (there were still plenty of tourists, but it wasn't at all crowded). The Vysehrad is an old fort on top of a hill that was first constructed in the 10th century, and has been added on to for many years since. Jay read that it was a great view. We knew that implied there was a hill, but we weren't quite ready for THAT hill. The view was amazing. There was also a little gothic cellar that had been made into a mini museum about the Vysehrad, and the admission was $2 so we went for it. They had artifacts from stone age times, to the construction of the fort, to the 18th century. After that we walked around the graveyard of the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, which is the burial site of many famous Czech's. I swear, you must be required to have an extensive artistic portfolio in order to be permitted to design a memorial in this cemetery, because they were works of art.
After that we went
into the Basilica, which was positively stunning (I'm really running out of adjectives here). There were some beautiful
carvings, but the best part was that just about every surface was covered in
ornate designs and frescoes inspired by Alfred Mucha (Probably the most famous
of the Art Nouveau artists, also makes sense when you realize that he was Czech
and is, in fact buried in the graveyard behind the basilica). I love Art
Nouveau, so I could have sat their and admired the paintings for hours. Also of
note, they had a number of reliquaries containing bones from saints, many of
them not even labelled, but there was one that was labelled as the shoulder
blade of St. Valentine. As Jay said, it's no shriveled head (referring to
Drogheda), but it's something.
 |
| Some of the frescoes from the Basilica, courtesy of Wikipedia. It was dark, and no flash was permitted, so I thought this was better than one of my shots of the frescoes. These are just a few of them. |
After that we
returned to the apartment so Jay could do more work, then we got dressed up and
headed down town to wander while we waited for it to be time for our
reservation at Alcron, a Michelin star restaurant. We walked along Wenceslas
Square and went into a couple of interesting looking stores, but Jay was
starting to get bored (we probably could have left the apartment a little later
than we did), so we walked in the direction of Old Town and went to see the
Astronomical Clock. It's smaller than I thought. I didn't have my camera with
me, but Jay and I are going to go back with the camera to get more pictures of
old town. Eventually it was close enough to time to go that we walked over to
Alcron, we got there early, fully prepared to sit and wait, but they were able
to seat us. It's a tiny little restaurant, with only ~8 tables, and all
decorated in an Art Nouveau style. With their menu, you have a number of
courses to choose from and you can order between 4 and 7 dishes, and you don't
need to order them all at once, they allow you to get a few, enjoy them, and
then order a few more, which means dinner ended up taking about 4 hours, but it
was a wonderful 4 hours. Jay and I also opted to get the wine pairings, so
forgive me if I get a little wine nerdy in the following descriptions. Also, I
would like to thank Aunt Betsey and Uncle Craig for their generous graduation
gift, which made this amazing dinner possible.
They started us off
with an amuse bouche which I remember was delicious, but that's pretty much all
I remember about it, a bread course which was basically an excuse to try their
different compound butters (they even had some toasted gluten free bread for
me). The four butters were flavored with chili, sea salt, nori seaweed, and
yuzu, and they were all delicious. Jay got to choose a couple of pieces from
their bread tray, which had about 12 kinds of bread on it. It was impressive.
Then we got our second amuse bouche, which involved a mushroom carpaccio and
was, again, delicious. Finally, the sommelier came over to pour the wines for
our first course, and I wished I had a pen and paper to take notes. He poured
me a Austrian Gruner Veltliner, and as he was describing it, I noticed the
other bottle he had in his hand (for Jay) and I guffawed. It was a
gewurztraminer. This is really only going to be hilarious to people who drink
wine with us on a regular basis (Oliver and Nina) but Jay hates gewurztraminer. He thinks it tastes like
soap. However, this was a Czech gewurztraminer, so he gave it a shot. It had
all the lovely floral and lychee nose of a typical gewurztraminer (I told you I
was gonna get wine nerdy) but it was very dry and lacked the floral notes that
make Jay dislike it. He enjoyed it and it ended up pairing really well with the
food. For our first course I got (I'm typing this up from the little souvenir
menu that I brought home), Marinated Scottish salmon with avocado cream,
grapefruit and wasabi marshmallow. Jay got Tuna sashimi with tapioca, daikon,
and parsley mayonnaise. These descriptions don't really do anything justice.
But it's the best I can give you. When the sommelier brought the second wine
pairing around, I guffawed again, I got a delicious rose, but Jay was getting
an Alsatian wine. Jay is pretty open-minded in his wine tastes, and is
certainly less picky than me, but there are two things destined to make him
expect the worst of a wine, the first is that it’s a gewurztraminer, which we
already encountered, the second is a wine from Alsace. And God forbid it's an
Alsatian Gewurztraminer. This wasn't a Gewurztraminer, thank goodness, but
instead of Sylvaner. In Jay's words, it was okay. At a place like that you
could probably say "I don't like it" and he'd find something else for
us, but Jay and I aren't those kinds of people, so he just enjoyed it with his
food. He got a Green pea soup with saffron potatoes and garlic foam that was
barred to me due to the presence of cream. I got an Heirloom tomato salad with
watermelon, buffalo mozzarella, black olive, and a sun-dried tomato granita. If
only ALL salads were like this salad. Once again, the food was delicious. After
the first two courses, I no longer have a clear memory of what we were drinking,
except that at one point I had a Czech Pinot Gris that was semi-sweet and
YUMMY. For the third course Jay and Seabass with cauliflower and squid
tagliatelli, which to quote Jay was "weird" (just the tagliatelli,
the rest was delicious). I had Pan fried duck foie gras (yes I'm a horrible
person, no I don't regret it) with rhubarb, strawberries, hibiscus and ginger
foam (and finished with a grating of frozen foie gras at the table). My foie
was amazing. After that, I got seared sea scallop with broccoli, quinoa, and
pancetta, which was tasty, but couldn't stand up to the previous course for me.
Jay had the Slow cooked octopus with a chorizo emulsion, black olive tapenade,
and crispy capers. Finally, I had Pigeon breast and leg with sour cherries and
cocoa beans, which I forgot to take a picture of until I'd all but licked the
plate clean, and Jay had beef filet and shoulder with miso glaze, and a jasmine
tea smoked potato puree. None of the desserts on the menu were safe for me, but
the waiter suggested and selection of sorbets, which I thought sounded lovely.
The tossed together a gorgeous plated dish with three flavors of sorbet, which
was the perfect way to end the evening for me. Meanwhile, Jay ordered some
ginger tea. When the tea came, it arrived with a tiny jar of Bonne Maman honey.
I commented that it was adorable, Jay looked around him, shoved it across the
table at me and said "Quick, put it in your purse." And I did. All
the while silently laughing so hard that I was shaking and crying. Jay holds
that it's what his Bubbie (I am approximating the correct spelling here) would have done and he has no regrets. I informed him
that we will be keeping that jar for the rest of our lives as a souvenir. He
agreed.
By then it was
nearly midnight and we were quite tipsy. We sought out a cab that would take
credit cards, made it home and slept wonderfully.
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