Buffalo Bill's

"My restless, roaming spirit would not allow me to remain at home very long." -Buffalo Bill Cody

Did you know that chimichanga was originally a Spanish nonsense word that roughly translates as "thingamajig?"

I didn't. I discovered it in the course of my extensive research for this post.

I also found out that, according to Wikipedia, there is some dispute about the origin of the chimichanga.

Did a burrito accidentally fall into a deep fat fryer in Tucson, Arizona in 1922? Or was it later? And why, then, is it called Tex-Mex?

So many questions.

Whatever the answers, disputed or otherwise, there can be no disagreement that the chimichanga, like the tarte tatin, is one of culinary history's more successful accidents.

It has traveled the globe. The manifest destiny of the chimichanga brought about its eventual and inevitable migration to the city of Prague.

I arrived in the Czech capital not long afterward. Back then, I occasionally went to Buffalo Bill's for my chimichanga fix. And I thought it was an excellent version.

The place was run by an older American gentleman who told me he had some of the restaurant's harder-to-find ingredients shipped over from the states.

One day, Buffalo Bill's was sold, the chimichanga changed, and I stopped going.

That was a long time ago.

Much more recently, some friends went there for a burger and a beer and invited me to join them when I finished work.

I did so with a mixture of nostalgia and curiosity.The restaurant, down a flight of stairs from the street, hadn't changed at all, as far as I could tell.

There were still all the Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley photos on the walls, along with the other Wild West Show memorabilia.

My friends both had hamburgers, but they were long gone by the time I arrived. Knowing of my interest in the subject, they told me they enjoyed the burgers and that they were pretty good, but not great.

The bacon burger costs 213 CZK, according to the menu on the Internet. It comes with fries. That's toward high end of the burger price range spectrum, as far as I am concerned.

But it is still cheaper than the Potrefena Husa Burger or the Hergetova Cihelna Burger. Those are good, but the prices are too hard for me to swallow.

Buffalo Bill's beer was a little easier to swallow. I ordered a half-liter of 12-degree Budvar (44 CZK). It was good.

The price was a little higher than average, but this is to be expected at a restaurant in the center that gets a lot of tourists.

In fact, there was a very long table set up next to us where a large group of Dutch wedding revelers were seated later.I was hungry, so I called ahead and had my friends order me a beef chimichanga.

I saw later on the menu that there are two types. There's the "Tex Mex Beef" (196 CZK) and the "Beef & Bean" (186 CZK). They got me the "Tex Mex Beef", but if I were there, I would have gotten the bean version.

The flour tortilla was perfectly fried and crispy on the ends. But it did become soggy in the middle where the sour cream and salsa sat. It was good chunky salsa.The beef filling was better than I expected. It was well-cooked, nicely-spiced, and shredded easily on my fork.

I lamented the lack of beans or rice, but it was my own fault for ordering head blindly over the phone.

I cut it open and took a photo so you could get a better idea of how the beef was.As for the side items, this was really the disappointing part. Shredded red cabbage? A lettuce leaf? This was a little too much East meets West. I hoped was hoping for North meets South.

What kind of self-respecting Tex-Mex restaurant could serve these kinds of side items?

These were the same sides that stopped me from going to Buffalo Bill's when the management changed. I still have fond memories of the previous ownership's side items. I believe there were refried beans, fried rice, and pico de gallo.

Sides? That's what I'm talking about.

V joined us for beer just as the Dutch wedding party came in.

The restless, roaming spirit of Bill Cody took hold of us. Or perhaps it was there all along.

We decided to move on to a bar in Lucerna on Wenceslas Square. It unexpectedly turned into a long evening.

Buffalo Bill's
Vodičková 9
Prague 1
Tel. (+420) 224 948 624


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Red Hot & Blues - Breakfast

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer." -Ted Williams

Back in the day, I used to go to Denny's for breakfast.

By "back," I mean at college. By "in the day," I mean at night -- usually 3:00 a.m. after a session of serious... studying.

By "breakfast," I mean the Grand Slam®. That's two buttermilk pancakes, two pieces of bacon, two sausages, and two eggs, any style.

Back in the present, if you suddenly have a driving inner need for an American-style breakfast in Prague, Red Hot & Blues is an option.I found myself nearby the restaurant early one weekend morning, and on impulse, I went for it. I walked in the door at 8:53 a.m.

According to the website, the restaurant opens at 8:00 a.m., but the kitchen doesn't open until 9:00 a.m. So, I had 7 minutes to think about why that might be.There is a bar in the front room where I ate breakfast.

It reminded me of some other "back in the day" breakfast adventures.Many years ago at a down and out bar, we used to drink pitchers of beer with our scrambled eggs on Saturday mornings. I appreciated a sign on the wall at Paddy's Ale House: "No children or pets after 6:00 p.m."

A necessary sign.

At breakfast, kids were running running around, while an elderly lady spilled a little Busch beer on the bar for her perched mini-poodle to lap up.

But in the front room at Red Hot & Blues, I was alone.

There is a larger dining room that was also empty. It has a glass ceiling that lets the daylight come in and is a bit more cheerful.

And next to that, is the dining area where there is live music in the evenings.

I once had an enjoyable night listening to the talented Jamie Marshall sing and play classic cover tunes on his acoustic guitar and verbally joust with the audience.

For breakfast, they have options like French toast, huevos rancheros, and omelettes.

I ordered their priciest offering, the "Homerun Special," as the clock struck nine. I did this purely out of a nostalgic weakness for baseball-themed breakfasts.

Was it a hit?

I'd say no. They did not hit this one out of the park. Not even close.

I got my eggs scrambled. They were as bland as the day they were laid. As far as I could tell, there was no seasoning, not even salt.

Strike one.There was a reasonable portion bacon, but it was overcooked. It was brittle and broke into small shards.

Strike two.

The two small pancakes were warm, but not hot. They were thin and a little dense, rather than fluffy. I don't think they were made with an American-style mix, such as Bisquick.

I'll mention here that they run a little food shop next door that sells hard-to-find American goods.

I'd call these pancakes low and close to the zone, but not a strike.The toast was cold. Spreading the cold butter on them was rather difficult.

Some foul tips, but with two strikes, "Homerun" was still alive at the plate.

The hash browns were the best part. The shredded potatoes were perfectly salted, and full of onions, fried up perfectly. They helped rescue the eggs when I got them together on the fork, along with some ketchup.

Then, there was the price: 289 CZK.

Strike three!

For scorekeepers at home, I'd note that a few years ago, a Grand Slam® could be had for $3.99. At today's exchange rates, the "Homerun Special" was something like $18.00.

I also had a bottle of Mattoni mineral water for 45 CZK, which would be around $2.80.

Some people might cry foul and say it is unfair or even meaningless to look at Czech prices in dollar terms.

So, I'll compare it with another place in Prague, Cafe Savoy.

About a year ago, I wrote a post about my American Breakfast there, which cost 233 CZK (it is now 245 CZK).

Cafe Savoy is not so cheap, either. But it is a favorite because they serve quantity and quality:

*First, you get fried eggs, great bacon, and well-seasoned chicken breast on thick, quality toast.
*Second, the egg sandwich comes with homemade fries
*Third, there's fresh-squeezed orange juice and special Savoy hot chocolate.
*And bringing it all home, there's homemade jam and bread, fresh fruit, and a fiendishly good chocolate praline.

Now, that's what I'd call a grand slam.

Game over.

Red Hot & Blues
Jakubská 12
Prague 1 - Old Town
Tel. (+420) 222 314 639


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