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May 17th, 2008
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Food for the imagination

Karavanseraj celebrates Lebanon and points beyond
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 19th, 2008 issue

Karavanseraj


Masarykovo nábř. 22
Prague 1-New Town
Tel. 224 930 390
Open Mon.-Thurs. 9 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m.-midnight, Sat. 10 a.m.-midnight, Sun. noon-10 p.m

Food H
Service HH
Atmosphere HHH
Overall HH

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Stuff from around the world decorates this cool New Town tea room/restaurant.
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FROM THE MENU



Stuffed grape leaves 49 Kč
Hummus 49 Kč
Sambousek 79 Kč
Falafel 55 Kč
Kebab Kurdistan 149 Kč
Chicken kebab 139 Kč
Rice pudding 49 Kč
Lassi 35 Kč
Gambrinus 29 Kč
The aroma strikes you almost the instant the plate arrives at your table, a sweet-acrid scent swirling from embers of charred meat.
Along the surface, minced lamb kebabs show cracks where flames shot up, torturing delicate flavors and blackening the crust. It’s the same with shish taouk, or chicken roasted on skewers. Scars from the grill tear across tender white meat and a familiar, smoky sting envelops your senses.
It’s the friendly, welcoming smell of a campfire.
Karavanseraj is devoted to the romance of travel, the emotional sensation often triggered by wafts of burning wood or grilled foods. The allure of faraway lands and pitched tents, of an era when traders plied spice and tea routes, permeates each room.
But this is not a shameless theme restaurant. Instead, it’s more of a shabby tea room — almost 60 different varieties available — that also serves food and stirs imaginations.
The place hosts cultural seminars. There are nights featuring, for example, Balkan dishes, folk music and speakers describing their wanderings through that region. Photo exhibits explore the world’s diversity. Karavanseraj’s Web site offers recipes culled from just about everywhere on the map. Even smudged menus contain snapshots of strange faces and unfamiliar landscapes.
Curiously, considering its surroundings, the kitchen itself shuns adventure, sticking primarily to Lebanese favorites broken by a few forays elsewhere.
But that’s OK.
A spicy tomato-based sauce sparks lamb kebabs, devolving from mellow and slightly sweet to something more aggressive. The peppery heat wells up behind that first taste of fruit, then hones in on your palate. It’s a good mask for minced lamb blackened on the outside to the point of bitterness, but otherwise quite timid in character.
Bland meat tends to picks up intensity and depth when held over a roaring blaze and allowed to suffer. So, flayed by heat, garlic-laden shish taouk develops a bitter edge which backs up the dense, earthy tomato-pepper sauce.
To cool things down, Karavanseraj’s version of rice pudding (known in this iteration as “Temple Dancer’s Tears”), conceals sweetness behind a cascade of soapy, earthy, gritty bursts from an array of spices, nuts and raisins.
For the most part, however, dishes here express little in the way of complexity. Stuffed grape leaves present a tart flavor blunted, somewhat, by herbs. Falafel, that ubiquitous starter of deep-fried chick-pea flour, comes across as pleasing, if not memorable. And bite-size pastries — sambousek — seem relatively complacent, despite a neat filling of lamb, herbs and pine nuts. The meaty flavor collapses all too quickly, while other elements stand aside.
None of this indicates failure, by any means — just basic fare, reasonably made. Low points occasionally pock the menu, however.
Hummus, another dish that has expanded well beyond its Mediterranean roots, was marred on one visit by a curious taint and (in what appeared to be an effort to cover up the off-flavor) far too much salt. And the accompanying pita arrived cold — not room temperature but thoroughly chilled.
Yet Karavanseraj is the kind of active place most people will appreciate. During lunch, business types huddle together, deconstructing the morning’s problems. Other times of the day, wait staff busily prepare hookahs while twentysomethings stare at computer screens. Through the evening hours, live music or belly dancers often entertain full-house crowds.
Certainly there are more stylish Lebanese restaurants in town. But perhaps they lack Karavansaraj’s worn, dusty charm (and rather gentle tap on the wallet). Some show obvious concern for authenticity, presentation and seamless timing. Here, staff members happily ignore the expediting process, with course number two often landing on your table well before you finish the first.
No matter.
The world — at least the world according to Prague — seems quite at home in this unique, diverse, ramshackle, welcoming, beatnik hovel.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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