Cozy Cafes of Prague (3) – Čajovna U Cesty

Explanation: Only I have started a set about cafes in Prague, I am going to do an exception. In Czech culture we distinguish Kavárna (cafe), where you go for a coffee, something sweet, even food. You can get a tea there as well, but it would be tea from a teabag, or ginger/mint tea. On the other side there are special places, called Čajovna (tearoom), where you can get the “real” tea, meaning loos teas such as Oolong, Chinese, Japanese and any other special types as Karkade or Rize. Also in such a tearoom you can get something to eat (not in every one), but it would be more oriental, such as pita bread, hummus or couscous. Even in a tearoom you can get a coffee, but do not ask for Espresso or Americano, you can get Arabic coffee with cardamom.

This is how it looks in the tearoom.

Interier of the tearoom in September 2004:

You see these two cultures are really separated here. But based on a comment in one of my previous Cozy Cafes posts, I decided to add a tearoom to this series. But it is not that easy, as I decided to write about the Tearoom On the Road (or more: By the Road) –Čajovna U Cesty. This tearoom doesn’t have any special “room”, but you can find it in a large tent at Prague Botanical Garden, and only at the weekends. And why this one? Because the owners are my friends, and we used to go to Botanical Garden once a month (at least) just to meet them. Since I have started to drink coffee, the visits slowed down, but still we like to drink tea and visit our friends :-).

Our first ever meeting with Pája a Týna, Botanical Garden 2003.

2003 year – garden flowers and view to Troja castle maze:

For this post we had to go Botanical Garden this weekend, to interview the owners. This weekend they were outside the Fata Morgana greenhouse, as there was an exhibition of butterflies (as every year).

Butterflies exhibition in Fata Morgana in 2005.

The owners are Týna a Pája, they drink and prepare tea from 1990s. They travel to Vietnam, India, to choose the best species of tea. They used to have their Tearoom at the Náprstek’s Museum and later next to the second Botanical Garden in Prague (just a coincidence). Finally 13 years ago they decided to leave the stable place (we were at the farewell party) and keep only the weekend tent at the Botanical Garden.

Special tea tasting afternoon with lecture about tea in October 2006 with Pája and Týna.

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The farewell party August 2005.

The farewell party, the crowds who attended are not on the pictures, but they were there.

Why this place and Your recommendation what to see or where to go in Prague
The answer for both these questions is the same, the garden is beautiful and there is always something on a program, from butterflies and bonsai exhibitions, to Halloween. That’s why you should visit and enjoy it, and you don’t have to drink only tea, but there is St Claire’s Vineyard with Vineyard chapel from 17th century. Next to the botanical garden there is famous Prague ZOO (currently the 5the best in the world) and Troja castle, and this triangle is really worth visiting.

Spring in the garden 2011.

Spring 2004:

Spring 2006:

Spring 2007:

Spring 2009:

Spring 2011

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Spring 2011:

2004 Halloween.

Halloween in the Garden 2004

Halloween in the Garden 2010

Halloween in the Garden 2011

What would you order from the menu:
The answer for this question got pretty complicated and I am not able to reproduce all the different teas, which belong to the special mood and weather, and season … So simply: tea, and preferably from the old(est) tea trees you can find hidden in the mountains :-).

2018, lot of Vietnamese teas.

You can also buy the tea to prepare it at home (2018):

Nice story:
And I do not have any nice story for you, as I have forgot to ask, mainly because it was really crowded and I was steeling the little talks in between the clients of the tearoom. Everytime we wanted to say goodbye, Pája had offered us another cup to taste, so we have spent there almost 3 hours. We have started with karkade, then got touareg, rize, arabic coffee with cardamom, gruzie tea and one more I forgot, the one with milk… masala! And I don’t know how much tea you can have, but I was shaking pretty much after the third cup. And this could be your funny story :-).

Tearoom tent and Honza (blue jacket) having another cup of tea.

Týna, she loves people 🙂 .

Combined gallery from August 2004 – Fata Morgana and Tearoom details:

Týna giving recommendations on tea in Summer 2005 .

Pája happy that someone is enjoying his tea in August 2011.

Weekly Image Of Life: Summer

It is almost summer, but the weather this year seems to think it’s not. And what summer means to me? I will show you at some shots taken in Southern Moravia 3 years ago during our family vacation.

Summer is seeing sunflowers at the fields.

Sunflower field in Lednice

Summer is visiting castles and old palaces around Czech Republic.

Lednice castle

Summer is doing nothing and enjoying the sun whenever and wherever you want.

Garden coffee at Lednice garden

Summer is when there are flowers on the street.

Mikulov

Summer is when you don’t go to sleep at the evening, because you go to the summer festival for music.

Meky Žbirka at Bernard Fest in Humpolec

Summer is when you don’t go to sleep at night, because you are having fun with your partner and with your glass of beer.

At Bernard Fest Humpolec

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime

When we travel, we do not go All Inclusive, as we spent most of the day travelling the country and not in the hotel complex by the pool or at the beach. Therefore, the All Inclusive would be unavailingly profligated. But for our honeymoon we found a newly opened hotel with very nice prices in Tunisia on Djerba island, so we enjoyed the All Inclusive programme there. See some shots from our lunchtime for Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime.

The offer was really huge and it was quite difficult to choose our dish.

Salat bar

Something lighter.

First courses

Our dishes through the week.

You think it is easy to go just for one style?

Moroccan theme lunch

Moroccan dishes

Something sweet.

Yes, I tasted it all … and it was delicious

And this was our most favorite drink, mint tea with pine seeds.

Tea with pine seeds – lovely

A Word A Week Challenge – Industrial

I love industrial architecture and objects. In the Czech Republic we have lots of breweries and I like to make beer tours to see and taste. Therefore for A Word A Week Challenge – Industrial I will take you to some of the breweries, but without the tasting, sorry :-). The first brewery is the biggest and also the most famous brewery in Pilsen, the city which gave name to the Pilsner type beer. Beer is brewed here from 1842 and it is really the number one.

Pilsen – Pilsner Urquell brewery

The second one is a medievel brewery. It is located in the beautiful city of Český Krumlov and the beer produced there is called Eggenberg. But my husband (beer-taste expert) says the beer is not that good. But I love the location and the brewery itself :-).

Český Krumlov – Eggenberg beer brewery

On the other hand Regent is my husband’s most favorite beer and he tried hard to find a place in Prague where they sell it. After non-succesfull visits to shops and supermarkets he found a small dirty hashery a few steps from our home where he can buy it. I can say the beer is very tasty and even more, the brewery itself is beautiful. It is located in small South Bohemina city Třeboň, which worths visiting for beer and also for carp specialities.

Třeboň – Regent beer brewery

Platan is a brewery in another small South Bohemian town Protivín, where you can also find a crocodile farm. The brewery is located in beautiful plane-tree alley and it is named after it: platan in Czech = plane-tree in English. We have a beautiful memory for very interesting excursion to the brewery, which ended up (as usually the brewery tours do) with a tasting. By coincidence our guide was not only a guide, he spent his whole life working for the brewery and he was very enthusiastic about the place and also about the beer. It made the tour even more interesting. Finally our tasting was much longer than the tour, the next group started 30 minutes after us and they were done quicker than we were. On the other hand they were able to stand on their feets after their tour, which cannot be said about us 🙂 (shots made after the tour are under the ban).

Protivín – Platan beer brewery

Travel theme: Multiples

Multiples is my favorite theme all the time, therefore it was quite difficult for me to choose from hundreds “multiples” shots the right ones for this week’s Travel Theme. Finally, I decided not to go for the best shots, but I chose one day in Barcelona and multiples shots from this day.

When you are in Barcelona, you can’t miss one of the most beautiful market-halls. It is named Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria and it is located in the city center on Ramblas street. Enjoy my shots from there.

Vegetable and sea fruits

Nothing is better in hot day but fresh fruit drink. The offer is really huge.

Fresh fruit drinks

If you need something sweet, you can choose from any color you think of.

Something sweet

Full of sweets and fruits and vegetables? Why not to try something else?

Something meet

And when you leave the market, take a bike and go for sightseeing.

Bikes

Barcelona’s cathedral is not far away:

Shoals in Barcelona’s Cathedral

In front of the cathedral you can visit a flea market with antiques …

Flea market

… buy stamps and write postcards to your family and friends to delight them …

Stamps

… and finally do some souvenir shopping :-).

Flamenco dancers

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

For this week challenge I was considering the meaning of the word “delicate” a lot. First, it meant to me something fragile, elegant, soft, and then sweet, tasty. And finally I found out what I would write about: about our gingerbreads because they are delicate in all meanings of this word and we make them during Christmas Season, so it is the best topic for now :-).

It is very traditional to make small gingerbread cookies in all possible shapes and they are decorated with sugar icing. Families share the recipes and decoration styles, ladies are competing whose gingerbread would be nicer. One of the recipes can be found here.

However, as I bake neither gingerbreads nor even other traditional Czech Cookies (when you havebigger family who does 50 different kinds, you don’t have to participate, you just have to eat it :-)), I can’t put here any pictures from the preparation of the gingerbreads.  I wrote a post about Betlem Exhibition in Prague few days ago and now I will use some shots of gingerbreads from this exhibition as well.

Advent Wreath with 4 candles, waiting for Christmas in Advent time

Nativity scenes, but also St. Nicolas with Angel and Devils, another Advent tradition

Gingerbreads for your table and taste

Gingerbread Village

Christmas Tree decorations

Real piece of art

Gingerbread forms – different shapes

How sold at Christmas Markets

Gingerbread motif used for Bank commercial, displey and envelope

My Post about Christmas:

Betlémy – nativity scenes
Christmas Market in Prague Old Town
Christmas Crafts Markets in Prague
Czech Christmas Ornaments (Rautis)
Traditional Gingerbreads
Christmas Wish 2012
Family Tradition – Fire-crackers

Colors of Baltic States

Baltic states – Estonia, Lavia and Lithuania – are three small countries in North East Europe and are on my Top List of Favorite Places, where I was and enjoyed it there a lot. Even though the history of these countries is very similar, they are not the same and every one of them has its stunning beauty.

Tallinn garden festival in the park behind the walls of the old city, Estonia

From Estonia I will choose colors, flowers, Lahemaa national park, medievel hansa city Tallinn and summer town Parnu. In Latvia I like to swim (more precisely walking in the water, as it is rather shallow) in Jurmala, the kitchen is the best here, valley of Gauja river is beautiful and adventure as well, walks in Riga’s park are nice. In Lithuania you can’t miss baroque capital Vilnius with independent Uzupis distric, lakes are so beautiful in Aukstaitia, Palanga beach and park are must see, dunas and sea at Neringa (Curonian split) can’t be miss.

Colorful house and small garden in Juodkrante, Neringa, Lithuania

July’s looong sunny days offer us the best opportunity to enjoy the places around. What I love in Baltics are the colors on the streets and all the details. Flowers markets there are the nicest I have ever seen and traditional handcraft works are so beautiful.

Flower market at Central Market in Riga, Latvia

When you are in Latvia, tasting auksta zupe (cold soup) is so refreshing, that you can easily became addicted to it, so when you come to Lithuania you are immediately going for saltibarscaj, which is not the same but pretty close, served with potatoes.

Saltibarscai, beetroot cold soup with cream, how served in Rumsiskes, Open-air museum in Lithuania

There you will learn that black and grey are also colors and not mistakes on the color chart.

Black swan on the pond in city park in Cesis, Latvia, there is a pair of them and they had a small baby this summer

Flax jumpers and wool socks, grey is just perfect there

But when you don’t like it, you can choose from all the colors of the world

Socks stall in Central Market in Riga, Latvia

Hats in all shapes and colors at town hall square market in Tallin, Estonia; even more can be found in Lithuanian markets

Flax jumpers both in Tallinn and Vilnius (cheaper there !)

Very close to the old town of Tallinn there is a big ship harbour for ferries to all around the Baltic sea, very crowdy but nice place.

Naval flags in Tallinn harbour, Estonia

Our hostel in harbour was colorful as well

Visiting summer cities like Parnu (Estonia) or Palanga (Lithuania) or Ventspils (Latvia) is perfect chance to spent some time by the sea at the beach, that is pretty close to forest. The cities are colorful, but you can always find a quiet place for coffee, just sit there and enjoy the air.

At the small park cafe in Parnu, Estonia

Wooden weather vanes are in nice colors and shapes, mainly in Nida, but also in Juodkrante, beautiful village at Curonian Split

Braided trees in Tartu, Estonia, but also in Vilnius, Riga and other cities

The best time for visiting is July, but I believe autumn colors must be perfect specially in national parks as Lahemaa in the north Estonia or in Aukstaitia in Lithuania as well as in Gauja park in Latvia.

The winter would be also nice, but the days are very short there, to feel warm and cozy you can choose from many jersey’s designs in Tallinn. Also trees are protected against the cold carefully :-).

But in fact it doesn’t matter which time of the year you will choose for your visit, as long you are dressed well and you travel with opened eyes and opened heart, in Baltic states you won’t be disappointed.

Jersey at the wool market bellow the old ramparts in Tallinn, Estonia

Tastes of Asia

Do you know what is Sapa? Have you ever been there? I visited Sapa yesterday, and I don’t mean Swedish-based aluminium company nor the national agency of South Africa nor the frontier town and capital of Sa Pa District in the Lao Cai province in northwest Vietnam. With the last choice we are closest, but still more than 5000 miles away.

Temple in Sapa

Streets of Sapa

The Sapa we will talk about today is Vietnamese Town in Prague. Sapa is a commercial center of Asian business for the whole Europe, everyday 25 of containers full of fishes go through its gates. You can visit this town in the city on your own, but also you can take a guide. I visited Sapa with the Chef of SaSaZu restaurant, one of the most fancy restaurants and clubs in Prague.

In the salon

Our tour started in the salon, where we chose to take a massage or get manicure, as we wanted to enjoy the visit Asian way. Our tour went through the culinary street, decoration’s street (the small lights glittered and everything was prepared for Christmas Season), business street for air plane tickets and all other kinds of business, shops with dresses etc.

In family restaurant we saw handmade preparation of rice paper and also taste it with explanations, what to use, how to flavor it and eat it.

Rice paper "pancakes" in the kitchen and on the table

Fresh vegetable and herbs

Our next stop in this labyrinth was in the main shop with fresh Asian herbs, where we bought coriander, banana leaves, some root, which looks like ginger but it is not a ginger. Shahaf (the Chef) taught us some recipes and we were buying ingredients for our dinner. We left another shop selling Asian specialties with Durian chips, Coconut and Jackfruit juices and rice noodles in our bags.

The last tastes we had in the market was a Pho bo, special Vietnamese soup that you finish on your own with the spices and herbs according to your taste. The closer was a sweet special kind of drink with small tapioca balls, unexpected taste, but nice.

Pho bo - spoon or chopsticks?

And our dinner? Yes, we prepared it accordingly to Shahaf advice and I have to admit it was very good, exotic but tasty. Chicken with banana leaves and coconut juice, that’s what I can only recommend.

Our dinner in a pan and on the table