The Prague Post
December 1st, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

High plains grifter

Only the name has changed at disappointing La Parranda
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 11th, 2007 issue

La Parranda

Tomášská 14
Prague 1–Malá Strana
Tel. 257 535 220
Open daily 11 a.m.–11 p.m.





Food *
Service **
Atmosphere **
Overall *

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
In the new restaurant occupying the old Margarita location, service is much better and food just about the same.
enlarge
FROM THE MENU

Chips and salsa with guacamole 90 Kč
Garlic soup 40 Kč
Bean soup 55 Kč
Chicken and spinach burrito 160 Kč
Fajitas with beef and chicken 260 Kč
Carne asada 220 Kč
Pilsner Urquell 35 Kč

Back in 1972, food writer Diana Kennedy caused a stir when she identified Tex-Mex as a unique regional cuisine.
Sticking chips and salsa into the same heady category as dishes from Tuscany or Provence wasn’t her purpose. Tex-Mex represented a departure from Mexican cooking with few intricacies — just a maelstrom of bold flavors. Defined by an area north of the border, it was deemed worthy of recognition.
The newly anointed cuisine has since come to dominate its southern neighbor in popularity. Even self-proclaimed foodies frequently refer to the American amalgam as “Mexican” food. Restaurants like La Parranda in Prague have the gall to list, under the “authentic Mexican” heading, such favorites as the chimichanga, reputedly created by cooks at a Phoenix restaurant, and fajitas, that modern take on cowboy lore first served by Ninfa’s in Houston.
At least, according to legend.
Authenticity isn’t the only problem at La Parranda, though. Traditional fajitas should arrive popping and sizzling, spewing smoke, trailing a brazen, meaty, almost palpable aroma. But, on a recent visit, La Parranda’s version limped over, its vigor cooled by an extensive wait in the kitchen. By the time it reached my table, all that splattering grease had settled into a listless, scummy, thoroughly unappetizing swamp.
Lapses of this nature can generally be solved by a little expediting in the kitchen, detailing one person to choreograph activity up and down the line so that cooks pull every item ordered by one table off the grill or from the oven at roughly the same moment. Hearty chunks of bell pepper and onion included with the fajitas can then showcase their wild, smoky character rather than wallowing in gritty oil.
We’ve all been through this before, mind you. La Parranda literally fills a shell vacated by the failed Tex-Mex eatery Margarita. Nothing much has changed inside, with the exception of noticeable holes where Southwest accents once adorned the walls.
At least the staff is more attentive in this iteration. But, once again, the place struggles.
Salsa ends up as a contrite, waterlogged assembly overwhelmed by tomato. The guacamole, on one occasion, forced grimaces thanks to enthusiastic squirts of lime. Another time, the sour blast of citrus had been tamed — good thing — but excessive blender-time yielded a strange, whipped-topping consistency. What the restaurant calls black bean soup is stilted and one-dimensional, that being an earthy-sour combination. Tortilla strips, cheese, a few beans and a couple kernels of corn add some curiosity to the bowl, but that’s about it.
Garlic soup, on the other hand, starts with sweet highlights, gradually devolving into something sharp and bitter. Not bad for a simple broth, although for some reason the kitchen drops a few hunks of potato into the mix.
It’s difficult to classify food service at La Parranda. Carne asada harkens to rustic frontier traditions. The restaurant’s version is dull, chewy beef atop a surprisingly potent and quite compelling bean sauce … and soggy tortilla. The chicken and spinach burrito bears greater resemblance to a Cal-Mex wrap than Mexican comfort food. Relatively tender white meat, nicely seared, dusted with salt and paprika, almost lolls on the palate, enticing you with the sensation of smoky-sweet saltiness.
But the kitchen skimps on the chicken. And the spinach is vapid and watery — enough to almost melt through the tortilla. Banal salsa, greens, sour cream and a pile of cold canned corn become topics of conversation (of the “what the …?” or “why would they …?” variety), adding nothing to the overall presentation.
The cuisines of Mexico vary from region to region, some relying on seafood as a staple, others on weathered ranch-hand fare. Most blend in touches of Spanish, French and ancient flavors passed down by natives. The whole of Mexican cuisine rivals Italian in diversity of influence and custom.
Tex-Mex, on the other hand, grew out of an unforgiving land worked by hard pioneers. It is simple, bold and filling.
For the most part, La Parranda stumbles awkwardly into that nebulous derivative of Texas cooking known as Czech-Mex.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (11/07/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.