11/7/04 Nat Makes Brownies; Zlata Praha (Czech/Slovak Food); Risk and Scrabble:

Natalie and I had what they used to announce on the loudspeaker during my middle school homerooms as an "inside day." She cooked some brownies and we played a game of Risk on her fresh board.

Then, this evening, we wandered around the neighborhood, looking for a place to eat, and finally settled on a very unique choice: Zlata Praha. It's an Ukrainian/Czechoslovakian (or should I say Czech Republic, as slovakia is now a separate country) eatery. We were intrigued, and I was in one of my rare "lets try something completely different" moods.

It was a cozy little place under the elevated line in Astoria. It had a door like you might find (I would assume) on an old European house, and little window space in the front.

They had some interesting beer choices. I tried one, mostly at random, based on the fact that is was a lighter beer. The closer to Guinness it gets, the less I think I like it.

We were surprised to find some old Eastern European standbys on the menu (except for the fact that Czechoslovakia is IN Eastern Europe), like potato pancakes and.... french onion soup? (They left off the "french" part.).

The potato salad that accompanied this breaded chicken was the best I've ever had. I was very surprised.

Natalie had a large dish that she remembered from her polish heritage. She says: "No! It's not polish dish! It's slavic! This is not funny! Well... I guess it's polish. Stop! Ridiculous! I forgot. What the hell is it? It's a pasta in... stuff. This is not perogi.... it's not... it's... SPETZEL!!!! There you go! It's like a German thing. Please don't quote this, I sound like a frickin' idiot! Stop! I don't like you! Who's gonna read this anyways?" [7/15/05]

We got the dessert crepe, which was pretty good as well.

The decoration was... Eastern European. The doll dressed framed behind glass were somewhere between homey and creepy.

The place was empty except for another group, lounging around.

Then natale and I continued our "inside day" by playing a game of "Scrabble."