So your partner has everything he or she may want, and you have nothing to buy them for Christmas? Wrong! They don’t have our amazing Christmas vouchers yet, do they?

Our vouchers are a gift that keeps on giving - first, it’s a beautiful letter with a personalised thank you note that glorifies both the giftee and the giver. Second, it gives your loved one(s) access to a tour or an experience they will absolutely friggin’ love some time later on.

Also, giving a Taste of Prague experience makes you 40% more attractive, as conclusively proven in a recent survey conducted by the prestigious University of Our Moms.

So how can you become Mr and/or Ms Perfect this Christmas and turn your Christmas experience to eleven? Read on.

Not much to write here, but we had the first snow in Prague here today, so when we woke up to it, we did what we always do - ran to the Charles Bridge to take some pictures. So here you go, enjoy if you like snowy pics of old buildings, this will be for you.

So Christmas is around the corner and let’s be honest here: if you want to buy online but haven’t got around to it, and Christmas is three/two/one week(s) away from now, don’t fool yourself: that gift ain’t never arriving on time for Christmas. (Thank you, broken global delivery chains and Covid!)

So it’s a good idea to shop local. And that’s where we step in: we have recently recorded a podcast about Czech-made gift ideas, but it’s in Czech only, and if you don’t listen to our podcast (why not? We mean, honestly…), we figure we will also write a blog post about it. These also serve are great souvenirs from Prague, of course, regardless of season. So enough chit chat, here we go.

[Note to all English readers: This podcast and its description are both in Czech. Please look for English episodes of the podcast. Thank you!]

Tento týden se vracíme k Michelinům v Praze. Kdo ocenění získal, kdo ho ztratil… a má to všechno vůbec smysl? Používáme průvodce od Michelinu? A jak by pražský průvodce Michelin vypadal podle nás? No a kdyby nám to někdo řekl před týdnem, asi tomu neuvěříme, ale rozebereme i Českého slavíka. Ach jo. V pekle právě mrzne.

Doufáme, že se vám tenhle díl bude líbit!

So the new Prague Michelin guide is out, uncharacteristically in the autumn, but hey - anything’s possible in a covid year.

If you follow us for a while, you may know we love to hate the Prague Michelin guide. On one hand, it undeniably helps the businesses included, and you can’t argue with the heritage, but there are some very weak points about it - the writing is average at best (try to read a few to a Prague foodie to see if they recognise the restaurant), the categories are chaotic (whatever Eska serves, „traditional cuisine“ - as suggested by the Michelin guide - ain’t it), the results and the judging are anything but transparent, and the whole guide rarely sails off the beaten path. Read the whole rant here if you care. (It also includes more standard descriptions of the restaurants awarded a star or a Bib Gourmand.)

That said, whenever the French culinary deus ex machina descends on Prague once a year to tell it how it fares culinary-wise (read this sentence again just to get a real feel for how ridiculous this is), it is an event worth noting. So despite all the criticisms, we’re jumping on the bandwagon and comment on the results. So what changed since 2020?

[Note to all English readers: This podcast and its description are both in Czech. Please look for English episodes of the podcast. Thank you!]

Vánoce, Vánoce přicházejí… a vzhledem k narůstajícím problémům v globální logistice a vzhledem k nevyhnutelnému lockdownu je možná fajn letos vyrazit na nákupy dřív než 23. prosince. (Teď mluvíme hlavně k sobě.) Takže jsme se rozhodli nahrát podcast o dárcích, a to zejména z českých (a moravských) luhů a hájů. Tak co bychom si pod stromečkem přáli? Umění? Alkohol? Zážitky! Lockdown? Všechno bude!

(A zároveň probereme i minulý týden - covid, Landa, Britney, svoboda!)

Možná vám tenhle díl přijde hodně vhod a doufáme, že se vám bude líbit!

Vršovice may not be at the top of everyone’s Prague to do list, but Vršovice doesn’t mind. This Prague neighbourhood, nestled safely behind the grab-all-the-attention Vinohrady, is a hidden gem that feels a bit sleepy / more neighbourly than most of Prague’s residential districts. Full of parks, easy slopes and great views, Vršovice is perfect for half-a-day stroll far away from the madding crowds of the historical centre, and a glimpse at what real life in Prague outside of the historical centre may look like.

First mentioned in 1088 and becoming a part of Prague in 1922, Vršovice lies just south of Vinohrady, on a south-facing slope and at the bottom of that slope. It may not have the grandeur of the Belle Epoque Vinohrady district, but we actually love the small-town feel of the district and its unpretentious nature.

Now, we take a more liberal approach to defining Vršovice - to us, that includes the Grébovka vineyard and the Grotto (albeit these may still be formal parts of Vinohrady) and anything south of Ruská street, all the way down to the to the Eden stadium and the Nádraží Vršovice train station.

[Note to all English readers: This podcast and its description are both in Czech. Please look for English episodes of the podcast. Thank you!]

Zaprvé moc chceme poděkovat, že nás posloucháte - po roce jsme se koukli na statistiky poslechů a ty vady. Díky moc!

No nic, tento týden se se Zuzkou bavíme o sociálních sítích. Co se nám líbí, co se nám nelíbí, kolik času na nich strávíme (ani se neptejte), jak jsme se k nim dostali a jak vůbec obsah tvoříme? Bavíme se taky o followerech, lajcích pod fotkou a hejnech, taky o tom, jak si vybíráme spolupráce a na kterých sítích se vidíme do budoucna. Tak snad se tento díl bude líbit!

Easy. St Martin’s Day falls on the 11th of November and it celebrates St Martin of Tours, one of the first „non-Martyr saints“, a soldier-turned-Bishop who lived in the 4th Century. There are many legends surrounding his life, but only a few are relevant for us specifically.

Namely, it’s St Martin goose, St Martin rolls, St Martin wines, and St Martin arriving on a white horse.

Traditionally, St Martin is said to be arriving on a white horse, meaning that November 11 tends to coincide with the first snow of the winter season. Well, due to a little thing called climate change, this hasn’t been the case very much lately. Still, St Martin is the day on which you feast on comfort food before the Nativity Fast hits on November 28: there’s a few legends involving geese and St Martin (they either made loud, annoying noises during his sermons, or he hid among geese when they came over to make him a Bishop, and they ratted him out - in any case, they misbehaved and must be punished one way or the other), but the fact is St Martin goose with cabbage or sauerkraut and dumplings is an absolute St Martin’s Day classic, along with sweet rolls filled with either nuts or poppies.

St Martin’s wines are a much newer thing in the Czech Republic, although they do follow some historical logic - St Martin was about the day when winemakers stopped working for the masters who hired them. Marketing-wise, the denomination of St Martin’s wine was introduced as late as in 2005, as a Czech and Moravian response to Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Not all young wine are eligible to be St Martin wines. Only some grapes qualify (the more aromatic whites like Muller Thurgau, Moravian Muscat and Veltliner Frührot, and St Laurent, Blauer Portugieser and Zweigeltrebe for reds and rosés), and allowed residual sugar is capped. All wines that want to bear the denomination must be approved by an independent committee. In 2020, 328 wines by 80 wineries will bear the mark.

[Note to all English readers: This podcast and its description are both in Czech. Please look for English episodes of the podcast. Thank you!]

Tento týden jsme vás o tématu nechali hlasovat… a vyhrály snídaně! Takže se bavíme o našem nejoblíbenějším jídle dne (nebo ne?), o tom, zda jíme snídani doma, nebo venku, jestli máme rádi slanou nebo sladkou, a samozřejmě se dotkneme i oblíbeného tématu Honzy, hotelových snídaní.

A kde jsme se nejlépe nasnídali ve světě a kam rádi zajdeme v Praze? Dozvíte se to v tomto dílu. Tak snad se vám bude líbit.