Soup Diary 100407

Last week in Prague I had a really good bowl of goulash soup. It wasn't radically different in flavor or texture(s) from the actual goulash I had the previous evening for dinner (I'm not sure what I expected to be different exactly)-- chunks of beef and onion in a broth that was perhaps a bit more tomato-y than the gravy of the night before, but not dramatically so. Very tasty. I ought to mention it was also part of the best meal overall that I had in Europe, as I followed the soup with a plate of potato dumplings stuffed with smoked meat and served over very mild sauerkraut and covered with carmelized onions. A bunch of us ate in a little out of the way restaurant near Wenceslas Square in Prague, enticed by a little Chinese (?) woman standing on the street proffering a menu. As she led us down a back alley to the joint, we wondered what we were getting into, but it proved to be a really nice place with great service and food. It must be a local favorite, as what looked like a family wedding party came in after we were seated and the rest of the place filled up before we were done with our lunches. Given the poor soups I'd had in Berlin (and frankly, less than fabulous meals overall there), it was nice to turn that around; and in fact, pretty much all the food I had in Prague was pretty good.