Tartu - Tsink Plekk Pang

Ok, this was a cheap meal i had at a cool student restaurant in Tartu. It was chinese-japanese-indian-international. It was chinese shrimp soup, and sesame chicken salad with tofu. Yum! With bread and a couple of beers it was about AUD$12.

(the name Tsink Plekk Pang sounds asian-ish, but is actually the native Estonian language, meaning zink plated bucket! Which is the main decorating theme!)

Wild Estonian Brown Bear

Yep, i just had my first try of bear meat. I will post pictures tomorrow, but thought i would put up the descriptions now, cos i have little else to do tonight (and this way i won't forget!).

So for starters I had Dried Elk meat with Herbs, and a half litre of Dark honey beer. Yummo. The elk meat was essentially jerky, but it was much better flavour than normal jerky, and was presented well... see upcoming pictures.

For the main i had the bear meat cooked over a fire, with pickled ginger, spelt (?), mixed berries and some other vegies. The ginger was very very mild, as was the garlic that accompanied the boar last time, and the berries were a great compliment. The meat it self was not at all what i expected, the flavour was not over powering at all! It was very tender, even though flame grilled, it felt like it was broiled! The flavour was delicate, and went really well with the glass of Cuvee De LiHermitage Satnt (?) Marcin des Champs (french red wine).

The waitress today was really great. I managed to get a discount, as the menu i got was an old one, and the prices were lower than on the system. She was good about it, and finally didn't charge me for the entree or water to equalise it -- and she gave me a bag of Elk meat to take with me! So, it was a pricey meal anyway, but ultimately it came to AUD$83 instead of $92.

I will be sure to post pictures, as well as others from the trip, in the next few days.

Olde Hansa

Ok, so last night i ate at the Olde Hansa restaurant (http://www.oldehansa.com/). I can't post the pictures yet, but thought i would write about it whilst i remember. Because it was kind of expensive, i just had a main and one drink. The drink was a light beer with cinnamun, which was quite yummy (if i go back i will try the dark one with honey). It was all served on old styled heavy plates and cups etc. The main i had was fillet of Wild Boar, with sauerkraut and other sides. It was lean meat, and didn't taste too oily (some of the sides did though). The main was AUD$29 and the beer $5.50. I am tossing up gonig back to try the Wild BEAR they have on offer, but seeing that is more expensive (and would deserve a decent glass of wine to accompany it too) i am not sure. If i can relaly economise on food in the mean time (keep today and tmrw to $20 total) then i figure it will balance out! I really want to try it, but would rather eat nice meals with company!

But its BEAR; how cool is that? and it sounds yummy, check out the menu description: " Bear Marinated in rare spices and cooked over a fire in honour of Waldemar II, the brave King of Denmark Also, cooked spelt cakes with herbs on the side" Ok so it doesnt tell you that much at all really, but its still bear!

Anyway, will post pictures soon when i get the chance.

Berlin Food.

So, here is the crappest value meal i have had so far on the trip (maybe ever!). I got it at a restaurant attached to an up-scale Xmas market, so its no wonder it was over priced, but damn.. It was on the menu as King Prawn noodles with Cognac sauce (or thats how it was translated by the waiter, who also assured me it wasn't creamy!). I would call penne pasta not noodles personally, and it only had TWO prawns in it!!! ANd it was swimming in cream and butter, so i hardly ate any of it. Now, i guess i should have figured a cognac sauce would accompany pasta not noodles, and it would be creamy, but i imagined some asian noodle dish with a citrus sauce that had an extra bite of cognac... not so! and it was 13.50 euro, or AUS$22... which way too much!
So, to fill my tummy two hours later, i had Subway! This is roast chicken with lettuce, onion and cucumber with sweet onion sauce, it was only 3.5 euro, and delicious! :) And here it is a slice of chicken breast as opposed to the processed chicken u get in australia.
And for todays lunch i wanted something German-ish, and seeing bratwurst etc are all too fatty, i took the least deadly option at the stall at the xmas market, which was a pork/lamb/beef (not sure which) fillet with seasoned onions on a round roll, i.e. a steak sandwich - but with nice spices. It was also 3.5 euro, and very yummy.

I am planning to go find somewhere for dinner tonight nearby. There is supposed to be a strip of restaurants around here, so i will try to find something nice/low fat/reasonably priced... fingers crossed.

Cyrano - Budapest

So i had been scrimping to afford this place, and in the end it was very nice, but not out of this world - but its ok, because it was still good value by Australian standards. That said, it was expensive by Hungarian standards, and they obviously have had to deal with this before, seeing they had a sign on the front door making it clear that they don't serve hamburgers!
For starters i had Fowl Broth with Tarragon = and i wasn't expecting it to be creamy like this, but anyway. It was nice and full of meat, i just tried to avoid the creamy sauce as much as i could. This was 890HUF (AUD$5)
For main i had King Prawn in Chilli and garlic with mashed pesto flavoured potato and japanese ginger. This was three huge prawns atop a pile of mash. It was very nice, the prawns were perfectly cooked, the flavours were balanced and the mash didn't seem overly fatty. This was 3990HUF (AUD$24) Which is fine by Aus standards, good even, but a lot for this area (last nights main course was 900!)

I also had a glass of the house white wine, which was good (but unnamed) and it was 890 also - alcohol in restaurants is a rip off compared to the food. Also, they 'hid' the service charge in the middle of the bill which seemed strange, which equated to $5 itself, so the total came out at AUD$40 for the lot - not bad for a nice meal, but i wish i had have had company - the service here was pretty poor, but it may have just been the one waiter i had. Besides i am noticing how 'alone' i am here, there are SO many couples kissing in the streets, its like Paris! Oh well, thats life.

European food!

Ok, here we go, here is the start of the food i have tried at restaurants on my trip. I won't try to remember details about them like a review, but where i can i will give titles, prices etc.
The was 3 colored steak, chicken, beef and pork. With potato side dish it was about AUD$9.

These two were my fanciest meal so far, a prawn and crab starter and duck with leek main = with 2 glasses of wine it still only came to AUD$25.


Above is a stuffed chicken breast with traditional sides ordered from a monastery restaurant and bar outside Prague.
This was chicken stuffed with mushroom.

These two were probably the best so far. I cant recall the name of the starter, its finely sliced raw beef with oil and lemon juice (i skipped the oil).The main was a venison skewer.
This is meant to be traditional Czech, its Prague Ham (smoked) with cabbage and potato dumplings)

This is sauted camembert cheese.
Below is my first nice dinner in Budapest - but i am not sure if it is traditional Hungarin - it is Orange flavoured chicken, side dish of potatos. This was about AUD$6 for the main and potatos, with 2 half litre beers, service charge and tip it was AUD$14.

Stay tuned -- i have spotted a michelin rated restaurant in Budapest that is really cheap... so i hope to dine there tomorrow.