Day 1: Le Bernadin to Krakow

This blog entry is going to move backwards, because I uploaded my pictures in the wrong order...and I am too lazy to drag them all into the right order.

So, starting with dessert our first night in Krakow! We're staying at the Sheraton right across from Wawel Castle (which we will visit tomorrow), and it's chockfull of Americans attending a variety of conventions. If I got sent to Krakow for a convention, maybe I would like my job a little better? No, probably not. Anyway, I had an orange crème meringue and an ambassador cake, which was a layer of cream and a layer of chocolate, topped by coconut. They were good, though I remain dismayed that they basically just sit in the glass case until someone eats them (for days so far).



Before dessert, we went walking around the city after dinner and found the statue of the Wawel dragon, below the castle. According to legend, the dragon had a lair in the cave under the castle in the 13th statue and demanded weekly cows so it wouldn't eat people; the king's sons couldn't kill it in the conventional way, so they tricked it by feeding it a calf skin full of sulphur and it exploded. Khaleesi would not be pleased. Also, the statue breathes fire and I didn't know that, so this picture is me mid heart attack. 



The above picture is a monument to a very good dog who waited in the same spot in a roundabout for a year for his owner, who had died.


Before we walked around, we went to dinner at Starka, in the Jewish district. I had mushrooms on a baguette and Taylor had a pork knuckle.



The bread came with cottage cheese, which was amazing...filled with herbs and little berries. America, take note: cottage cheese can be delicious and not a runny, bland mess.


I also had a goat cheese and strawberry salad with honey mustard vinaigrette, and am pleased to find that vegetables of all kinds are so easy to find here (I think it's the first place in Eastern Europe where I've easily found vegetables and I love it).


We ended our meal with some flavored vodkas--herbal with honey, ginger, raspberry, and blueberry. Super delicious and smooth and dangerous.


And as we continue going backwards in time, before dinner we briefly walked around Old Town. I don't know what we saw and was in a haze of exhaustion from the plane ride, but I've since acquired a guidebook and plan on figuring it out before we take our longer tour of the city.



For lunch, we ate at a milkbar called Tomasza, and it's where I learned that I LOVE Polish food and it's amazing. Milk bars used to be government-subsidized restaurants where workers could go get a hearty, dairy-based meal; sometimes it was included as part of their wages. Not many remain compared to the numbers after the World Wars, but there are two in Krakow and you can find traditional Polish food there.


Taylor had black pudding with herbed potatoes.


I had wild mushroom and cabbage pierogis (fried in butter) with tomato soup. It was SO GOOD...savory and rich and earthy.



Horse and carriages line the main square.



Before we flew to Krakow, we stopped briefly in New York to eat at Eric Ripert's restaurant, Le Bernadin (a French restaurant specializing in seafood). It has three Michelin stars, and I was very excited to eat there after seeing Ripert on Anthony Bourdain so many times. I got a vegetarian tasting menu and Taylor did the chef's menu, but neither one were particularly mind-blowing. The flavors just weren't complex and a lot of it was bland.

Our meal ended with a brown butter apple, which was beautiful:



Before the apple came a burnt orange cremiux, with clementine yogurt sorbet and olive-oil citrus sauce (also very good--the desserts were the best part of the meal by far).


Taylor had a scallop with sea beans and bonito butter sauce.


Asparagus with spring garlic-parsley emulsion.


Black truffle tagliatelle.


There were many other courses too, but that would be a lot of pictures! There's a screenshot of the menu for the other courses below. Also unpictured is a smoked yogurt, with maple-macerated blueberries and graham crackers. It tasted like a campfire and was very strange.


The best part of New York, though, was getting upgraded to a beautiful room at the St. Regis. It's the flagship St. Regis, founded in 1904. Below is the lobby ceiling:

Below is the double door to our suite (which the concierge whispered to us goes for $10,500 a night) as well as the entry way.

Below is our living room...

And the bathroom with its amazing bench shower and jet bathtub...


And finally the bedroom, where I slept for 10.5 hours.



Me being fancy and eating grapes in my suite, as one does. 



Comments

  1. JackieMay 25, 2018 at 8:35 AM

    Puppies are so loyal. I love that picture of that puppy, and WOW on that suite!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EricaMay 25, 2018 at 2:12 PM

      Dogs are the best! That statue gave me emotions. :) And the suite was amazing, I think I want to go live there...

      Delete

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