As in the rest of Poland, after World War II, Cracow took on a new lease of life, its past and present both palpable in a city well worth discovering. You should venture into the Old Town (Stare Miasto) and stop over in Rynek Główny, one of the largest squares in the world, descend into the underground museum underneath it to journey back to the Middle Ages, enjoy a beer and some good music in the lively Jewish quarter (Kazimierz), stroll along the banks of the Vistula, go up to Wawel Castle and wander through the city’s markets, streets, memories… And, of course, dive into the local cuisine. A warm, tasty, homemade cuisine, with Slavic, Jewish and Hungarian influences which you can try at affordable prices in dozens of restaurants. We made a thorough tour of the city and let ourselves be charmed by it. Here’s what we learned.

Pod Baranem and Pod Nosem – Enjoying Polish Cuisine

Located very near Wawel Castle is Pod Baranem, a cosy, intimate restaurant with very efficient and friendly service. They serve a good żurek, a soup made of fermented rye flour, with egg, potato and homemade sausage. It is potent and tasty, like many dishes with local DNA. Also worth trying is their cabbage stuffed with meat and mushroom sauce, as well as their good meat dishes. If you’re keen on crockery and table ornaments, you will leave the restaurant wishing you could take everything with you. A classic charmer.

In the restaurant of the boutique hotel at Kanonicza 22, Pod Nosem, they serve up Polish cuisine, but this time with a creative flourish of renewal. A young crew headed by their chef, Przemysław Bilski, perform to perfection in a quaint space and terrace with views of the castle. They have delicious pierogi (typical Polish dumplings with different fillings) and other dishes, including a highly refined cream of asparagus, various meat dishes and even tripe. Their wine list is good and it is difficult to choose from their broad array of cakes.

Eating Cheap in Cracow? Milk Bars and Lunchtime Menus

Cracow is not an expensive city but, if you’re looking for a place with good food at laughable prices, your best option is to head for a “milk bar”. Reminiscent of their Communist past, these milk bars (mleczny, in Polish) are no-frills self-service eateries, their menus chalked up on the walls – an average ticket would cost 5 euros per person. A recommendable venue in the centre is Pod Temida and, if you’d like to see where the concept eventually leads to, be sure to visit Milkbar Tomasza.

Apart from milk bars, another option for cheap meals are the lunchtime menus offered by many restaurants. Highly recommended venues include C.K. Dezerter – where, for just €4.5, they serve, for instance, a scrumptious soup with semolina, and fish with a salad of fermented cabbage, carrot and potato – and the Chimera garden, an incredible salad bar with menus of the day, a large number of veggie recipes, homemade cakes and juices.

Cafés, Bars and Pubs In the Ever-Lively Jewish Quarter

The area around Plac Nowy is packed with bars, restaurants and terrace cafés which are lively all day long. It is an eye-opener to venture inside and see their unusual decor, featuring souvenirs from bygone times. Mleczarnia, and the Mlekowoz terrace café just opposite, as well as Alchemia, with live music, and Wódka Cafe Bar, with dozens of Polish vodka varieties, are some of the most interesting spots in the area.

In Plac Nowy, it is also customary to eat at the food stalls serving zapiekanka (huge panini with loads of ingredients and sauces). If you prefer something less filling, we recommend you go to Szynk, a charming haven of homemade cuisine and good music. We had a delicious soup there – Cracow has so many soup dishes you could have a different variety each day of the year – and chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese. We loved it!

Text and photos by Silvia Artaza of Gastronomistas.com

Located between Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea, Israel has adopted the culinary traditions from many parts of the world.

To this culinary blend, Arabs have contributed with the traditional recipes of hummus or falafel, while adopting, in the other hand, traditional food from Jewish arriving from Hungary and Poland, taking the culinary arts of their home country.

In this past few years, Tel Aviv has become in the gastronomic capital of the country, with luxury restaurants and delicious street food, mixing products and flavours from all over the world.

CLASICS

Falafel

The humble falafel is, as happens with the regional food in each country, a matter of dispute and controversy. Everyone has their favourite place and they can argue long and hard why it’s better. This is a cheap and fast snack but however it’s not less delicious than other food. Furthermore, now you can find falafel for anyone, like made of wheat or gluten-free pita.

And if you want to eat a good kebab, you can try one of the best very near from Tel Aviv. It is served in Abu Ghosh , and they say it is one of the top 5 kebab restaurants in Middle Eastern, specifically located in the third position. The fact is that the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, on the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is known for its hummus restaurants and is very popular with both locals and tourists. Here you have the guarantee that they will serve a memorable meat dish . They mix the beef with onion, parsley, pine nuts and some grease before threading the needle on an iron skewer. It is cooked on a grill and served with rice and salad, with a pinkish hue inside.

Another of the most remarkable places is HaKosem, with fresh falafels made of chick peas from Spain, very spiced with cumin, cilantro, garlic, paprika, onion and sesame seeds. In Yahaloma, in the other hand, it’s prepared following the Egyptian style. Yahaloma Levy has the store next to the Levinsky market and falafels are only served on Tuesday and Wednesday, as a tribute to the owner’s mum, who was born in Alexandria. The falafel balls are served with marinated arugula with lemon, pickles, tahini and spicy homemade sauce.

Or in Gabai, where generous falafels are served since 1946, you’d have plenty of it! Pita is also filled with a large amount of vegetables and a delicious spicy sauce.

Hummus

The best places to try hummus are closed once they finish the stock. It’s necessary to get there early to not miss your portion of this delicious food with an Arab origin that, nevertheless, was adopted by Israel almost as a national dish.

In Ali Karavan/Abu Hasan, for instance, hummus is served with lemon juice and onion or with beans and chickpeas as a topping, fresh & creamy. However, there will be always a waiting queue, don’t despair. The queue ends fast because people just eats and leave to let new costumers eat.

Ali Karavan/Abu Hasan, an old family business in operation for almost 40 years since 1966, serves what is considered the best hummus in Tel Aviv. This is a small place, a bit noisy sometimes, but it’s a must-go place when you are in the Jaffa area.

Ali Karavan/Abu Hasan
1 Dolfin Street | Jaffa, Tel Aviv 6813
Schedule: from 7:45 until the hummus is finished

MODERNS

Vicky Cristina
Prof. Yehezkel Kaufmann 2
vicky-cristina.co.il

A place with two different areas, just like in Woody Allen’s movie. Vicky is the tapas restaurant and Cristina is the bar. While the restaurant Vicky was inspired in Park Güell, with "trencadís" white tables and a relaxing patio outside, Cristina bar is where the nightlife takes place.

Dallal
10 Shabazi Street, Neve Tzedek
www.dallal.info

The place where artists and bohemians meet up in Zedek, the southwest quarter in Tel Aviv. The restaurant is in an old inn from the 19th century restored with patios and an outdoor bar, lively during nigh time. You can order a wide variety of delicious salads, gourmet dishes and a great wine menu, good value for money.

Nana Bar
1 Ahad Haam
www.nanabar.co.il

Also in Neve Zedek quarter you can find Nana Bar. A relaxed interior is a genuine oasis to celebrate gatherings or dinners with friends, also with a gardened patio. The decoration is delightful, with artwork or odd and exclusive furniture. Fresh and unpretentious food, with a wide variety of fish, vegetables and delicious desserts are served here.

Picture pita de falafel por Ted Eytan | picture falafel por Gopal Venkatesan

Why not take a trip to Tel Aviv? Have a look at our flights here!

Prague is a monumental city, with great historic buildings that bring unique, elegant and refined atmosphere to the city. But a contemporary artist got to the city to turn upside down its classic harmony with some of his weird work.

Born in Prague, David Černý is a controversial, irreverent and disturbing artist who loves to provoke the audiences. And he does so! His sculptures, with a remarkable social criticism, against power and authority, disturbed some of his audiences.

David Černý started his career as a provoking artist when, along with his colleagues at the arts school, painted in bright pink a tank from the soviets at the garden of the German Embassy -a monument to Czechoslovakia liberation in 1945-. Černý was arrested for his colourful attack but now this tank is exposed at the Military Museum in Lešany, 20 kilometers away from Prague, ad a freedom symbol.

His work is all around the city where this artist was born. There are many, but this is a little route to the most shocking and remarkable work.

Quo Vadis?

His first work, Quo Vadis?, was located at the German Embassy in Prague (Vlašská 19, Malá Strana). In Quo Vadis? Černý reinterprets Trabant, the most common car at East Germany, putting legs instead of wheels. It’s a tribute to over 3.000 Germans from the East who invaded the garden of this embassy on summer 1989, short after the fall of the wall.

The dead horse in Saint Wenceslaus

We already said that Černý’s work is the opposite to the classicism of this city. Thus, the dead horse of Saint Wenceslaus is a good example of that, oppositely to the classic stature located in the square of the same name. Saint Wenceslaus is, indeed, a symbol to the national Czech identity, and saint patron of Bohemia.
The version by Černý of this statue is pretty close to the original, at Lucerna avenue, but the horse is upside down, death and with its tongue out.

Viselec

You should pay attention when passing by the centric street of Husava, at Staré Mesto. Actually, you should look at the sky if you don’t wanna miss it. Above, you’ll see the hanging stature, a human figure that looks a lot like Sigmund Freud.
As with most of the work by Černý, it’s open to interpretations and the artist was never willing to reveal the actual meanings.

Piss

Located by Franz Kafka Museum, at Cihelná 2b, 118. These are two figures that move thanks to an electric mechanism who are peeing in a small pool with the same shape as the Czech Republic as they write quotes, from famous local authors, with the effluent.
Next to this sculpture there is a phone number where you can send SMS suggesting your own quote to be written by this peculiar sculpture.

Miminka babies

About 216 meters high, Žižkov is the telecommunications tower in Prague and the highest building in Czech Republic. Right here, David Černý located his disturbing work of ten dark babies who climb the building while crawling.
This sculpture can be seen also from the park at Kampa island, near Charles bridge.

Klaus & Knizak

At Futura Art Gallery (Holečkova 789/49), you should go by the stairs to find two great figures that are the bottom half of a human body to put your head by the hole on their bum. Inside, a satirical video is projected featuring the former president of the Czech Republic until 2013, Václav Klaus, and the artist Milán Knížák, feeding each other while the song "We are the Champions" is played.
This is a critic to the Czech politics and also to the voyeur viewer who just observers their actions without taking part.

Shark

In 2005, this work was presented for the Bienal in Prague, but it was forbidden in other exhibitions in Belgium or Poland. This piece presents Saddam Hussein’s image captive, on his underwear and bound hand and foot, immersed in a tank of formaldehyde. The work is signed by Mahoma and was presented one year before Hussein was killed, in 2006.

Quo Vadis? by VitVit | Pink tank by Hynek Moravec| Miminka by Evrik| Piss by UkillaJJ

So you feel like visiting Prague, do you? Book your flights here!

In effect, whatever’s hipster today becomes a trend tomorrow. Or at least that’s how it’s been so far. This alternative craze is spreading so fast is risks going mainstream, becoming a mass, commercial phenomenon. But, for as long as it endures, they’re still calling the shots. In London districts such as Hackney you can see larger communities of long-bearded – but well-groomed – men wearing lumberjack plaid jackets and vintage hairstyles than in other districts in the city. Here are some of their currently favourite haunts. Be warned – some of them feature new forms of leisure!

F. Cooke / Peters & Co. Gin Palace

At no. 9 Broadway Market in Hackney we find a bar that seems to have emerged from days long gone. During the day, F. Cooke serve pies, eel and delicatessen galore, many dishes based on recipes over a century old. By night, the locale concept transforms completely. In fact, its name changes to Peters & Co. Gin Palace, as it turns into a veritable gin palace, like those that existed in London in Victorian times. You can savour this marvellous elixir by choosing from over twenty brands on their list.

Nights of Drink and Draw – On the Cutting Edge

Londoners are well aware that the best way to be a good hipster is to be an aesthetics and leisure innovator. A trend that has become popular lately involves combining drink and drawing. These are the so-called Drink and Drawspots, where you paint or draw in the company of other art enthusiasts, artists or just amateurs eager to have some fun. The fad hails from the arty Brooklyn district where people meet at specific local nightspots to have a drink while they scribble away.

These gatherings are usually chaired by an art teacher, who decides on the various poses (about 6) adopted by a model. After a 45-minute session of drawing and painting, there is a break to have a drink and chat with the other participants. This is the ideal moment to socialise. Then follows another painting session. At the end, the teacher critiques the artworks with the whole class. The session typically lasts about 3 hours and costs £18, which includes a drink. The places where you can drink and draw are:

Doodle-le-do, led by Natalia Talkowska, holds regular gatherings in London, Dublin, Poland and Holland. People come to meet, chat, draw, eat sandwiches and drink. Ditto Press, however, offers classes soused in home-brewed beer. Their bent is illustration and printing, which is hosted in their studio on Benyon Road, N1. Drink, Shop, Do, for its part, is a bar, pastry shop and craft workshop at King’s Cross where afternoon tea is set against craftwork classes. Doodle Bar, in Battersea, and The Book Club, in Shoreditch, both stage drawing events on their premises. Lastly, The Idler Academy offers art classes while savouring gin-tonics based on Hendricks.

Netil Market

For over four years it has opened on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on premises at nearby Westgate Street. It comprises a cluster of craft shops, bric-a-brac and barbershops and, of course, food stalls. Clearly the perfect spot for pro hipsters. The market belongs to Netil House, a creative community based on Westgate Street. The terrace cafe affords panoramic views of the whole city. The atmosphere becomes vibrant from spring onwards.

One faction of hipsters are advocating rural life in the heart of the city. No wonder, then, that you can find pastry shops offering homemade cakes. Yeast Bakery, also in the market, provides Breton butter-bakes made in a wood-fired oven. At Brawn (open Tuesday to Saturday) you can taste an endless array of organic wines, while at Jones Diary you can buy all kinds of homemade cheeses, and Lee’s Seafood specialises in fried fish.

At nightfall, where better to go than Mare Street. There, Cock Tavern has become all the rage. This pub specialises in home-brewed beer and was last year named Beard Friendly Pub of the Year, a title awarded by the Beard Liberation Front, a group which campaigns in support of beards. You can also sip a coffee while your bicycle gets a looking over at Look Mum No Hands! Now for a secret which only a few people know about – the supper clubs, a number of restaurants half-concealed inside other establishments. Also in this area is Printers & Stationers, housed in a warehouse area at the back of a would-be print shop on Ezra Street.

We shall tell no more – no point in revealing all the secrets at once. So, hurry before these fabulous spots go out of fashion or get overrun. Check out our prices here!

Text by Isabel y Luis Comunicación

Image by Printers & Stationers, Ben Brannan, Thomas Wootton