Soul-warming Soup

My resolution this year is to try a new restaurant every month. My pick for January isn't your typical sit-down and dine restaurant. Instead, it is a healthy happy experience.

About a month ago, one of my students told me about Bio Zahrada (Organic Garden). It is a little shop in Prague 2 which sells organic vegetables, natural cleaners, whole grains and cereals and has a lovely little cafe as well. It sounded like a place I just had to check it out for myself.

I popped in on a Wednesday afternoon. The staff was delightful. They were friendly and helpful. I was given several suggestions about products that were spot on for what I was after. I quickly accumulated an armful of goods. (I can suggest the honey products...yum!)

I still had some time to kill before my next class so I asked what was on the menu. There were several small tables with books, magazines and newspapers at the front of the store. Everything was made of natural wood making it inviting and cozy. Pumpkin was the soup of the day so I decided to warm myself up with a bowl before braving the cold again.

The pumpkin soup was smooth and creamy. It reminded me more of a thick pea soup. The bowl was large, the perfect lunch portion. The homemade bio bread on the side was an excellent companion.

So, Bio Zahrada is a great little place to warm your belly, fill your bags with healthy groceries and have a nice chat with friendly staff. Two thumbs up!

www.bio-zahrada.cz/en

Zanesville Art Museum

When I was a teen, I was a bit of a romantic. I read Jane Austin and Emily Bronte, I listened to Mozart and I had Vincent Van Gogh's works hanging on my wall. I wanted to experience this wider world that I'd heard so much about and had seen so little of. I wanted to be sophisticated.

One of my favorite places to get away and feel fulfilled in my hometown was the Art Museum. For a small town, Zanesville has quite an impressive collection. The museum building is a glassy, open, modern building full of permanent exhibitions of pottery (both local and international), paintings and an Asian art collection.

While I was at home during the holidays, I had some visitors from out of town. I decided to show off the local culture and take them to the Art Museum. It really is a great place to spend a few hours. And a great asset to the community. There was a featured exhibit called: The Photographs of Jane Reece: Will and Energy. She was a Zanesville native born in the late 19th century and one of the first women to really break into the photography industry. Beautiful strong images.

Unfortunately, I also learned that the museum has lost 50% of its funding and is struggling to remain open. If it closes its doors then that would shut out so many people from experiencing art first hand. I see art as important to life because it isn't the creation of one person but a reflection of a people's collective experience. The pottery alone represents Zanesville's people, land, culture, history and world view.

If you are in the Zanesville area, I encourage you to get out and go support the museum. Go alone, take a friend, get your grandparents to go, take a child..... Go.

www.zanesvillemuseumofart.org

Happy 2010!

It has been over a month since I last wrote. It was an exciting, loving, moving, eating, celebrating month.

-I went home! I went to spend three weeks in Zanesville, Ohio. It was great to reconnect with the people I love. Christmas was wonderful, as I have three new little siblings under the age of six. Watching them enjoy the holiday was the best gift.

-I was ill. I had a cold which developed into laryngitis. I couldn't talk for five days! It was a lesson in patience and humility.

-My list of New Year Resolutions is nowhere as impressive as last year. I'm going to continue with last year's (run a 5k charity race, call my best friend once a month, read...) but really my two for 2010 are:

1) Try at least one new restaurant in Prague every month. Considering the great lunch menu deals that most restaurants have during the week, I'm doing my taste buds an injustice by not letting them experience new cuisine.

2) Take at least two cooking classes/sessions. I've found a couple cooking schools that offer a one off course in different international dishes. The most interesting so far is Chef Parade (http://www.chefparade.cz/en/about-us/). I'll let you know how it goes!

So, basically, I want to eat my way through 2010.

-It snowed 30cm here in Prague. Beautiful on the weekend. Incredible inconvenience for workdays.

That's the last month in a nutshell. Expect more blogging from me soon!