Loacker

So, I was doing some research about typical Czech food and I couldn't find anything exciting or that I would consider typically Czech. Most websites recommend:

• Roast Duck (isn't this a French specialty?)
• Beef Goulash (Isn't this Hungarian?)
• Wiener sausages (yuck, not to mention it's Austrian)
• Shnitzel (again boring and Austrian)
• Steak Tartare (isn't it French?)
• Open-faced sandwich (how original)
• Fried cheese (hmmm OK)

The only two dishes that struck me as distinctively Czech are the Smickova (basically beef sirloin with vegetable sauce) and the Kulajda (which is a creamy potato soup with mushrooms).

Am I missing anything or am I better off sticking to French and Italian food?

Dukey1

Believe me, as ALWAYS, it's just you.

Michael

If ducks have been available in that part of Europe as long as they have been available in France, why should roast duck be considered French? Tartare is a French word, but it is more common in Central European eateries than in France. Call it beef goulash, but stew is stew; only the name can be considered pure Hungarian, and I suspect that a Hungarian would say that the goulash in the Czech Republic is not real goulash. Variations of a dish exist from one region to another: pig knuckles are common in Poland, Germany and Romania, to name countries where I had it. The Berlin version is more like a boiled meat while the other versions were baked with a crispy skin. The same goes for dumplings or stuffed cabbage.

Loacker

"The modern version of steak tartare with raw egg was first served in French restaurants early in the 20th century."

"Duck Confit is a French dish made with the whole duck."

"Goulash (Hungarian: gulyás [ˈɡujaːʃ]) is a stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary."


Source: Wikipedia

thursdaysd

Roast duck and duck confit are two different things.

The borders in that part of Europe have changed many times over the years.

janisj

>>• Roast Duck (isn't this a French specialty?)<<

>>"Duck Confit is a French dish made with the whole duck."<<

Duck Confit is not Roast duck.

>>Source: Wikipedia<<

Are you trying to usurp PQ's roll?

lavandula

I think the point is that where food is concerned, borders are very fluid. What is now the Czech Republic was once contained within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Food specialities moved around within that border and developed their own local iterations. And borders change constantly, and people go through those borders all the time.

Yes, the food is similar to the neighbours, it's no surprise because they have the same raw ingredients. You will find differences between how the roast duck is served up in the CR and how it's served in France. And differences between regions in those countries. I don't think the Czechs do duck confit, which is duck cooked very slowly in its own fat.

Goulash is found everywhere from Germany to Austria to Hungary and points in between. In Austria it is served as a kind of gravy over sausages and called 'Saft' (to name just one appearance it makes there). In Germany it appears as soup. In Germany there is a kind of raw meat (formed as a sausage, called mettwurst) which is spread on bread. You might call it steak tartare but it's not, because it doesn't have the raw egg or the same spices. Is it French? Because the neighbours have the same meal doesn't make it the same.

Lavandula

Loacker

Janis, what do you mean? :/ What does PQ have to do with it?

greg

Regional food developed over geographical area not necessarily matching the current political boundaries. Suppose the regions mentioned remained Hapsburg Empire, would goulash be a specialty whether it be in Prague or Budapest, but they are not special if Prague and Budapest are in different countries?

>>> Am I missing anything or am I better off sticking to French and Italian food?

These kind of food also have local variations different from what you find in France or in Italy.

After visiting Italy, a friend told me he thought American pizzas were better than the Italian pizzas. I thought it was a matter of taste. I just left at that.

PalenQ

Are you trying to usurp PQ's roll?

how I roll the bowling ball or how I roll the dice or like being on a roll!

Don't make sense does it?

Loacker

But I mean Shnitzel (glorified nuggets), sandwiches, fried cheese, and sausages are generic food you find everywhere.

Czech cuisine doesn't strike me as varied or sophisticated.

Loacker

Oh, I get it, you meant I post as frequently as PalenQ?

PalenQ, tell us about your experience with Czech food.

janisj

>>re you trying to usurp PQ's roll?<<

Should have said 'role' . . . but 'roll' works too.

>>Janis, what do you mean? :/ What does PQ have to do with it?<<

Finding something goofy on wiki (or in the NYT) and starting a daft thread

PalenQ

My mom's parents were born in Czechoslavkia - they called themselves Bohemians (called deragtorily 'Bohunks' when yelled at school by American kids "Bohunks, go home!.

Anyway at family gatherings a staple, disgustingly to us kids, dumplings.

And a desert kalaches - everyone had to make kalaches.

At home when young mom and siblings also regularly ate fried cows' blood, which was a common farm food (nothing gone to waste) - but that's about all I can recall - those darn slimy dumplings in a meat sauce.

Cowboy1968

I'm with Dukey.
Hilarious.

Loacker

LOL PQ. You must be having nightmares about those dumplings.

Janis, please be nice to PQ.

Offtoeurope

It's your typical Central European fare: goulash, schnitzels, sausages... Nothing memorable.

But then again, no one goes to the Czech Republic for the food.

janisj

>>Janis, please be nice to PQ.<<

That <i>was</i> nice

xyz99

I can't remember a bad meal while in CR - there are a lot more options on the menu than the ones you listed. Central European dishes are similar, but all different in different parts of Europe. Borders and not only were always fluid in that area.

Shnitzel = glorified nuggets???? It might not be some fancy dish, but really??? And then there's the beer

fourfortravel

Living in Vienna and being of Polish descent, as well as a lover of good food, I spend a fair amount of time researching the history of the Central European dishes I am learning to prepare.

Wiener Schnitzel, one of Vienna's signature dishes, is co-opted from the Milanese Cotletta. But it could easily have been taken from the Polish version with pork I grew up eating. Huhner (Chicken) Schnitzel is basically a large, flat Chicken Nugget; in many restaurants here it is even served with catsup. But true Wiener Schnitzel is an altogether different dish.

As for Goulash? "Gulyás" is the Hungarian word for "Herdsmen," and the dish is thought to have originated about 150 years before the Ottomans invaded. (This being an important point.) Herdsmen, having access to a great meat source, would create stews that could sit in a kettle all day and endure harsh weather conditions across the Hungarian Puszta (plains). But the stews did not contain paprika!
 
The paprika actually comes from the New World (namely, Argentina!), and made its way up through the Balkans along Ottoman trade routes. The Ottomans carried the dried pepper spice with them on their invasions, and after their defeats the Austrians took the coffee and kebabs; and the Hungarians, the paprika.

In the late 1800s Goulash was made a fashionable menu in Vienna, the Emperor wanting to perhaps "spice up" otherwise dullish Viennese cuisine? The provinces followed suit...the Czechs and Slovaks added caraway seeds and bread dumplings to their version of Guláš; and the Poles tossed in their beloved mushrooms and called it Gulasz. Even the Viennese fancied up this "herdsmen's stew" with sausages, salt potatoes and a fried egg, and rebranded it as "Fiaker Goulash" (Coachman's Goulash).

"...no one goes to the Czech Republic for the food." Surely, you jest. Come the first cold autumn weekend, DH and I head across the border to hike or explore a castle, the prelude to sitting for the first Wildschwein (Boar) Gulash of the season in a cozy local restaurant, with a bold Frankovka. In the winter, the roast duck with red cabbage calls us back; our preferred setting is a restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking something pretty in Prague.

"Nothing special" is relative.