Another Magnificent Meal

I had no expectations that the food in Prague would be so delicious. I don't eat meat, and figured I would be despondent for fish or vegetables, forced to choose among the lesser items on menus dominated by beef and pork. But every meal, from breakfast at the Intercontinental where we are staying to cafe snacks to extraordinary dinners, has been fresh, tasty, and presented with panache.

After reunioning with our daughter whom we haven't seen for three months since she left New York for Prague, we went to Kampa Park, considered the best restaurant in Prague, located just below the Charles Bridge. We decided to eat in the riverside terrace, in the glass room at river's edge although it was both too cold (it's blustery cold outside) and too hot (the gas heaters above the table). But this vantage point gave us views of the twelve giant swan, the bridge, and the Old Town on the other side of the Charles River.

We were excited to see salads on the menu although not so excited to see the prices! This restaurant is as expensive as many in New York City, so our expectations rose quickly. And we weren't disappointed.

I started with a beet root salad with goat cheese cream, shallot dressing and basil pesto hidden underneath a pile of arugula. Impeccably prepared, each leaf of arugula was delicate and young. The favorite appetizer for the table was the grilled octopus although the pumpkin soup with walnut ravioli and black trumpets was light and refreshing for an autumnal favorite.

The seared monk fish was rolled and placed on a plate with a cream cause that was so light I forgot that I might be takng a few years off my life by eating something so rich. It wasn't just cream, it was infused with lobster flavors and foamed. Foam is a detail on most menu items. Other folks had a plate with four types of duck, from foie gras to duck breast to traditional duck and duck confit. Or the halibut, roasted and delectable.

My dessert of chocolate, two types, with a bitter orange and chocolate gelato was perfection.

We walked back across the Charles Bridge, dating back from the 1600s, which is under reconstruction. The famous statute of Christ with Hebrew letters above it has a story connected to it. Here is how Steven Plaut describes the strange and horrific irony. This country, like most of Central Europe, has a complex and anti-Semitic history with the Jewish people who lived here. The Jews here were immediately rounded up when the great appeasement gave the Nazis control over the country in 1938. However, even without the Nazis, there is a hideous history here.

The glistening golden letters around the statue of Christ have always been a matter of controversy for Prague's Jews. The statue with the letters raised around it is a central feature on the Charles Bridge, the bridge that spans the Vltava River, joining the two halves of Prague. It was built in Prague's golden age by King Charles I, the Czech king who went on to become Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire. The bridge is one of the artistic wonders of Prague, full of crowds admiring the statues of saints and kings bedecking the sides of the structure, long since converted into a pedestrian avenue. But the statue of Jesus has long been the center of contention.

In 1696, the Prague authorities accused a local Jewish leader, one Elias Backoffen, of blasphemy. As his punishment he was ordered to raise the funds for purchasing of gold-plated Hebrew letters, placed around the head of the statue, spelling out "Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts," the Kedusha from the Hebrew prayer and originating in the vision from the Book of Isaiah. The inscription was a symbolic humiliation and degradation of Prague Jews, forcing them to pay for a set of golden letters referring to God and hung around the neck of the statue of Christ.