New deals and historic food

Check out restaurant scenes in cities across the world, and you'll find January is always a good time for catching some real deals. The holidays are over, and nearly everyone is either on a diet, paying off holiday credit card bills, or both. As a result, restaurants get the shaft.

The Restaurant Week has become an institution in many American cities as a way to combat this dining fatigue, and has even caught on in Prague in the form of Pavel Maurer's Grand Food Festival, which runs through Feb. 15. Restaurants can bring in diners by offering discounted prix-fixe menus, turning out a single menu easily for customers who might not normally come in.

The deals and special menus extend beyond the tightly organized and sometimes limited choices of the food festivals. Furthermore, you'll probably have better luck booking a table at the last minute at some of the town's busier restaurants. If you're not feeling too broke and your clothes still fit, take advantage of the diner's market and check out some of these special events going on in the no-man's-land between New Year's and Valentine's Day.

The Bellevue restaurant has created a menu around the private German wine estate of Dr. Bürklin-Wolf through the end of the month. Diners can choose from a two-course meal up to a five-course meal at a cost of 990 Kč to 1,390 Kč. Accompanying wines range from an additional 590 Kč to 990 Kč. Pairings include a Caesar salad with pan-seared corn-fed chicken, anchovies and shaved Parmesan with a 2009 Wachenheimer Riesling, and an infused black cod served on wasabi mashed potatoes, shitaake mushroom and spinach leaves with a saffron reduction with a 2007 Wachenheimer Gerumpel. For more information, visit the restaurant's website at Bellevuerestaurant.cz.

The Chateau Mcely, a resort that houses Piano Nobile, one of the top 10 restaurants in Maurer's 2011 restaurant guide, is holding a Winter Masquerade Weekend for both adults and children Jan. 28-30. Children will have their own program, including a Friday night kid's disco, a scavenger hunt the next day for Yeti's footprints, and handmade masks. Meanwhile, adults can enjoy spa treatments and special menus prepared at Piano Nobile. On Sunday, the big event will be dog-sledding with specially trained canines. For more information, visit Chateaumcely.com

Richard Fuchs, executive chef at The Augustine Hotel's The Monastery Restaurant, has created a new menu that focuses on winter flavors and will be available until Feb. 28. Starters include seared scallops with violet artichokes and morel sauce, or roasted pigeon with braised red cabbage, walnut and pear salad. Main courses include baked fillet of cod braised with Swiss chard and chorizo and veal cheeks braised in Cabernet Moravia with Savoy cabbage and chanterelles.

The Augustine Hotel will also be hosting the Taste of Britain Gala Dinner with Alan Coxon, a joint event held by the British Chamber of Commerce as well as UK Trade and Investment. British celebrity chef Alan Coxon will work with The Monastery Restaurant's Fuchs to prepare a degustation menu, which will be paired with wines chosen by Mitton International Wines. The wine pairings will be presented at the gala by British wine expert Bradley Mitton.

Coxon is known as "The Food Archeologist," for his gig as a television presenter and chef who hunts down and recreates ancient recipes. Some of his "historic food" is available in stores, such as "Ale-Gar," a medieval concoction he recommends cooks use instead of balsamic vinegar and even soy sauce. Consider yourself warned. For more information, visit Britishchamber.cz.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com