In the second part of our three-part series of our New York City Food Report, we did make a point of visiting some NYC institutions. We just wanted to benchmark the classics against what we have in Prague. And eat some great food, too. This is where we went. (To see part I, please click here.)

Two Michelin stars. The foundation of David Chang’s status as a chef and empire as a businessman. 13 courses. A bill for two equal to more than one half of the monthly average income in the Czech Republic. Worth it? Would we go again? Yes please!!!

We’re in New York City. We promised ourselves we would come back soon after we left last November. No matter what you may think of it, the city is undeniably cool and you can’t argue with the food and the shops and the people and the sights and all. We love it. So we’re back.

We're on a three-day trip to Copenhagen. Three days? Isn't that too short? We absolutely agree. We're eating our way through it as we write this, so we'll post some pictures before we have some detailed text.

Have a look inside at the gallery so far. The pics include some captions.  

Oh, Helsinki. We spent about four days in Helsinki, and it was not enough. We’ll say it right at the beginning: we loved our short stay. We had very little expectations coming in. (Your standard stereotypical stuff: Finnish design, long summer nights, cold, Marimekko, Mika Häkkinen, Matti Nykänen, Ittala, Tom of Finland.) One thing was sure: we would not understand absolutely anything. And you know what? It proved to be absolutely right. If you’re a European, you kinda expect to understand at least something when you travel abroad. Not in Finland. That said, English is widely spoken on the streets and in the restaurants. And the people are friendly.

It's official. We love Paris. But it took us a while and a few visits to get there, and we did have a rocky relationship with Paris: on one hand, it is clearly one of the most beautiful cities anywhere. On the other hand, we always had some kind of experience in Paris that made us less appreciative of its beauty. Like getting our iPhone grabbed from your hand on the street, followed by a running chase, followed by a police chase, for instance. (The police chase was actually kinda cool.) But we have kept coming back and always gave the city of lights another chance. 

Coming from Prague, the sheer size of Paris can get overwhelming: a single week is not enough to even begin to understand how big the city is and how different the districts are. Throughout our visits, we have noticed a shift. At the beginning, we saw parallels between Paris and Vienna: the Belle Epoque charm, the monumental palaces and so on. During our later visits, and as we gravitated towards Marais as our district of choice, we have started to see similarities to Berlin: bright New Balance sneakers, fixie bikes, baristas that look like ZZ Top roadies and Australian university drop-outs. Yes, Paris has turned hipster. And we kinda like that. 

We have a confession to make: we have this secret competition with Vienna. Many of the guests who join our food tours visit Prague and then continue to Vienna and Budapest, or start in Budapest and get to Prague via Vienna. And we always want them to enjoy Prague more than Vienna. (Budapest, you’re cool.) We don’t know what it is. Maybe because the people and the culture are so similar. We just feel this rivalry and we cannot put our finger on it.