Masala Masala

Here we are - the dog days of summer. The tourists are keeping restaurants busy enough to keep their heads down and turn over as many tables as possible before the cooler, slower months of fall. For the regulars, that means not as many specials and events and not as many tables - if your favorite place happens to be mentioned in the guidebooks.

One of Prague's favorites, Masala Indian Restaurant, is almost always packed, due in part to the size of its Manesova location and in part to its popularity. Luckily for us, the second, newest location is just off the tourist track and big enough to host crowds of appreciative diners, an undertaking the owners had been planning for almost a year.

"We were looking for a location for about seven months when we all of a sudden saw this place in an advertisement online. So we called them up, and here we are," said co-owner Bhavna Jain on a recent afternoon lull between lunchtime and dinner. Where they are is the former location for the Babylon restaurant, closed for more than a year now on Pod Karlovem, one stop from I.P. Pavlova on the No. 11 tram line.

The expansion fits nearly four times as many people than the first location, on a ground floor, lower level and outdoor patio garden. But the expansion wasn't just in square meters and geographical; the owners have taken care to expand their menu to offer dishes not seen elsewhere in Prague, such as Chaat, a traditional Indian street food that layers crispy fried dough, chickpeas and a trio of tamarind sauce, yogurt and mint chutney. The result is crispy, soft, sweet, tangy and cool.

"The customers really liked that," Jain said of recent tastings the new location held in order to test out new menu items and get feedback. "We got mostly very positive reviews, and it brought in both old customers we've had from the beginning as well as new ones."

Jhain has enjoyed the regulars that have been coming to the original location since it opened in 2006. "It was definitely hard at first, with the language, but now I can speak broken Czech, and I'm really just having fun."

Jhain attributes the quality to the very reason Masala opened: Indian expats who missed "seriously proper Indian food," she said. Jhain moved to Prague after visiting a family friend who owned other Czech restaurants, and within six months the two had opened Masala.

"It makes me happy to see customers who are trying Indian food for the first time and who really enjoy it," she said.

Twice-brewed

The highly-prized "Kopi Luwak" coffee is now on offer in Prague by special order from a supplier. One kilogram of roasted, whole-bean, 100 percent Kopi Luwak from Indonesia will run you only 18,500 Kč. Did you just spit out your poor-man's coffee? Keep reading.

The reason for the high price is the coffee's unique method of collection. Coffee berries are eaten by the Asian Civet cat for their fleshy exterior. Once inside the cat's digestive tract, enzymes change the chemical nature of the beans, which are then passed whole as little Civet droppings, collected by harvesters and roasted up for your enjoyment. The coffee is said to be much less bitter than traditionally harvested beans, but it's hard to imagine a coffee at that price not being extremely bitter, for this journalist, anyway. Visit Cibetkova-kava.cz for more information.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com