Taste of home

Hubert Warszta loved Vila Baltika so much, he bought it. A Warsaw transplant working in IT, Warszta spent most of his three and a half years in Prague oblivious to the small Polish café and bakery in Holešovice.

"One of my friends found it by accident," he said. "I'm a big fan of Polish pierogis, and I never even knew about this place for a long time."

Before he bought it this spring, the café took up only one room, with a small counter that sold baked goods, bread and small servings of pierogi - handmade dumplings filled with ground meat, cabbage, spinach or sheep's cheese. A storage room was opened up and remodeled, and now the café has two small rooms, where diners can have daily specials that riff on traditional Polish dishes or ingredients.

One thing remains traditionally made - the pierogis - thanks to the help of the all-Polish kitchen staff. While those have been popular, Warszta said, customers are responding even more enthusiastically to a line of fresh breads, made from whole grains and dotted with nuts and seeds.

With the fall weather, Vila Baltika is serving an especially thick version of pumpkin soup, spicy with black pepper and ringed with toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

All of these are available simply by asking, or consulting the outside chalkboard that details daily specials. Bakery goods are what's available at the counter and include cheesecakes and elaborate fruit tarts. Warszta said he plans to have a menu in the next couple of months, but would like to test out how customers respond to different dishes. For more information, visit Vilabaltika.cz.

One tequila, two tequila...

You probably know how that story ends. Mexican Independence Day was Sept. 16, but you can still celebrate next month with Prague's first annual Tequila Fest, hosted by Las Adelitas restaurant Oct. 22 and 23. The tequila party is part of a Prague celebration of Mexican culture, organized with the Mexican Embassy in Prague and the Czech-Mexican Association. Both days will feature daylong specials on tequila and tequila-inspired recipes. The restaurant certainly has enough stock - the current count of tequilas on offer is 22, not including Mezcals. Details on specials are still being worked out, but more information will be added at the restaurant's website, Lasadelitas.cz.

Spit-roasted

Las Adelitas has also added a spit to their kitchen to turn out authentic tacos al pastor. Think of gyro or doner kebab upright spit-roasts, but with cuts of pork, seasoned with special al pastor seasoning. The dish was in fact inspired by Lebanese immigrants to Mexico, who brought the technique used for making shwarma, often spit-roasted lamb or chicken, according to Las Adelitas.

Expensive tastes

The French have a more sensual term for what we know as window shopping - window licking. You might debase yourself enough to act out the idiom at the new Wine Food Market in Smíchov. The market has announced recent arrivals of truffles from the Piedmont region, the source of the top specimens of this delicious fungus. Not many ingredients are as dizzily fragrant as fresh truffles, so it's no surprise they're so prized.

The market already had special tasting sessions for truffles, but you can pick up your own, as well as any number of Italian imports like fresh pasta, cheeses, cured meats and aisle after aisle of fine wines. For more information, visit Winemarket.cz.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com