Eating my way through Central Europe
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YOU NAME IT AND THE CZECHS WILL PICKLE IT.
Prague. Both very old and very new. History everywhere, Mozart and Strauss.
Hotel breakfast buffet like in Munich but different. Pickled things - lots of pickled things. Herring, veg, pickled cheese (!), watermelon (!!), 4 kinds of peppers. Sauerkraut. Kefir, yogurt, Kombucha. Kimchi, of all things.
The kraut is nothing like the jarred stuff we get in the states. It’s fresher. Crunchier. I get it.
And the bread! We went to Tesco to pick up a few things and I’ve never seen so many kinds of bread. They make it all in the store and it smells fantastic! 20 kinds? 40 kinds? Not a loaf of over-soft sliced white sandwich loaf anywhere and no one seems to miss it.
Even the buffet offers some 10 different kinds! They’re serious about this. I didn’t mess around and chose the one on the left.
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I’ve seen them in specialty markets but they’re not commonly seen.
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Oh! Well if you're ever in the North of England, come visit and we guarantee they'll be in our pantry.
I've never been to Germany or Czecho but some of their foods are often sold through Lidl & Aldi. German cheese is nice.
Tesco is everywhere isn't it. I was a bit shocked once taken shopping in Penang; first to IKEA
& then Tesco(bought a suit with two trousers for equivalent £32), and on to the local Macdonalds for a spicy bigmac. -
This bottle cap design is very clever in that the cap doesn’t come fully off. I’ve never seen it before.
All of the bottles are like this - probably a EU regulation. Deserves adoption in the US.
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@Steve-Miller sojnds fantastic!
Re kimchi… When we were in Japan, the first night we stayed at a hotel attached to Haneda Airport (in Tokyo). We pretty much always stay there our first night in Japan. It’s convenient after the exhausting trip and Mr SK can see his friend who lives in Tokyo.
Anyway, one of my favorite things about it is their buffet breakfast< which is a mix of Japanese, Korean and western breakfast foods.
This time the buffet included kimchi, which is not something I would think of as a breakfast food. The buffet opens at 5am, probably because the guests include international travelers and lots of airline personnel.
We were there at 5am (thank you, jet lag) and oh.my.god that kimchi was the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. I’ll never forget that kimchi. It’s funny the things that stick with you.
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This bottle cap design is very clever in that the cap doesn’t come fully off. I’ve never seen it before.
All of the bottles are like this - probably a EU regulation. Deserves adoption in the US.
@Steve-Miller said in Eating my way through Central Europe:
This bottle cap design is very clever in that the cap doesn’t come fully off. I’ve never seen it before.
All of the bottles are like this - probably a EU regulation. Deserves adoption in the US.
It looks like it would be hard to drink from, was it?
Pardon my ignorance, but what’s the benefit of this? Reducing garbage by ensuring that the cap stays with the bottle?
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Easy to drink from, no bottle caps littering the streets.
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I’ve seen them in specialty markets but they’re not commonly seen.
@Steve-Miller said in Eating my way through Central Europe:
I’ve seen them in specialty markets but they’re not commonly seen.
How far away is Crocker Park?
I see they carry them at the Kildeer store, which is the closest one to me. Maybe I'll pop over and check them out!
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Crocker Park is the big shopping center that looks something like an old downtown but isn’t. Maybe 5 miles away. Might have to pick up some beans the next time I go to Trader Joe’s.
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60 MINUTES A SLAV.
Lunch stop in Bratislava. Tourist area in an old part of town. Castle and such. 1500 or thereabouts. Nicely maintained.
Slovakian food is about the same as Czech food and the traditional restaurant was full so we ended up at a cafe kind of place with a rather international menu. Leaned French but had Asian, Italian, and Greek items on the menu. There were no Slavic items on the menu at all. Everything was nicely presented with a lot of bright colors.
They grow a lot of Lavender in the area so I had a drink called a Lavender spritz. Very tasty and smelled like Grandma’s bedroom.
Risotto with pea puree, pea tendrils, green beans and salmon chunks. Astonishing shade of green, very tasty. Sharon’s tomato basil risotto was quite good as well.
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I have been to the Czech Republic often…recently, but also once or twice before 1989. Always for concerts or music festivals. The beer is tremendous. The bread is wonderful. A bit hard to be a vegetarian there (ate a lot of “smaženy sýr” (fried cheese). But some Italian and vegan restaurants have taken hold.
One surprise is the proliferation of tea-houses. Often frequented by younger folks, perhaps it is a reaction to the dominant beer culture.
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HUNGARY FOR MORE
Dinner on the Danube in a long riverboat with a swanky dining room below deck. Buffet style. Our host carefully explained each dish to us before we started and it was clear that she loves these traditional foods.
Salads first, lots of them. Including:
Potato salad. Very unusual - made with yogurt. Far too much yogurt. Just potatoes and yogurt.
Tomatoes and cheese in vinaigrette. The tomatoes were exceptional - does she grow them herself?
Pickled catfish - didn’t see that one coming. Caviar on top - didn’t see that one coming either. Kind of wasted on me as I’ve never thought much of caviair and the fish covered up what flavor it had.
A green salad that started with a layer of deviled eggs on the bottom of the bowl. Nice!
Entrees. Three heavy hitters:
Hungarian beef stew. Not goulash. Not what I think of as stew, either. Beef tips in gravy, nothing else. Really great gravy in the “a real chef made this” style. Very rich, very smooth, very glossy. Served over barley but not pearl barley - more finely ground like rice. I’ll be making that barley at home.
Chicken Paprikash. I’ve made this - it’s a favorite of the toddlers. This one is better. Again great gravy with just a hint of sweet paprika. Subtle. Very nice.
Our host suggested we try the hot paprika paste if we liked a bit more heat. Yikes! This stuff packs a wallop! I’ll be bringing some home.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/07duiMngXCAp4dPORzTdES6Xw
Stuffed cabbage leaves with sauerkraut. As expected, with a softer meat filling than the stuff I get at the deli. The sauerkraut has been caramelized somehow - very nice.
Dessert:
Our host raved about their local chocolate layer cake with crisp caramel on top. This one missed - strictly hotel banquet fare with a hard candy (Lifesaver?) on top.
No matter - I was too full anyway.
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HUNGARY FOR MORE
Dinner on the Danube in a long riverboat with a swanky dining room below deck. Buffet style. Our host carefully explained each dish to us before we started and it was clear that she loves these traditional foods.
Salads first, lots of them. Including:
Potato salad. Very unusual - made with yogurt. Far too much yogurt. Just potatoes and yogurt.
Tomatoes and cheese in vinaigrette. The tomatoes were exceptional - does she grow them herself?
Pickled catfish - didn’t see that one coming. Caviar on top - didn’t see that one coming either. Kind of wasted on me as I’ve never thought much of caviair and the fish covered up what flavor it had.
A green salad that started with a layer of deviled eggs on the bottom of the bowl. Nice!
Entrees. Three heavy hitters:
Hungarian beef stew. Not goulash. Not what I think of as stew, either. Beef tips in gravy, nothing else. Really great gravy in the “a real chef made this” style. Very rich, very smooth, very glossy. Served over barley but not pearl barley - more finely ground like rice. I’ll be making that barley at home.
Chicken Paprikash. I’ve made this - it’s a favorite of the toddlers. This one is better. Again great gravy with just a hint of sweet paprika. Subtle. Very nice.
Our host suggested we try the hot paprika paste if we liked a bit more heat. Yikes! This stuff packs a wallop! I’ll be bringing some home.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/07duiMngXCAp4dPORzTdES6Xw
Stuffed cabbage leaves with sauerkraut. As expected, with a softer meat filling than the stuff I get at the deli. The sauerkraut has been caramelized somehow - very nice.
Dessert:
Our host raved about their local chocolate layer cake with crisp caramel on top. This one missed - strictly hotel banquet fare with a hard candy (Lifesaver?) on top.
No matter - I was too full anyway.
@Steve-Miller your posts are making me hungry!!
Also, isn’t it fun to just enjoy a cuisine that’s different from you normally have! Even some things which are sort of average, every day, it’s just neat to notice the differences.
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Breakfast at the Novotel. Not as extensive as yesterday but still interesting.
Eggplant cream to spread on toast. Who knew this was a thing? Have you ever seen it?
Onions sautéed in butter.
Mushrooms sautéed in the British style, this time tarted up with onions and bell pepper.
The bread appeared to be very healthy but there was no sign indicating exactly how healthy.
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We just returned from Eastern Europe (we started in Bucharest and ended in Budapest). I was so thrilled with all of the eggplant dips/spreads - especially in Romania, but we had them everywhere!
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HOT FOR GOULASH.
Very warm today and we were glad when our guide lead us in to a medieval wine cellar circa demonstration of how to make goulash. I’ve heard of it but have never tried it. Cool!
Our instructor had a little demonstration burner set up and perfectly arranged mise en place on an an adjacent table.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/069WNxzFb5q1NdPcg82-fi3cQ
It’s easy enough to make and it used two vegetables that I had never seen in California but I have seen in Ohio grocery stores - celery root end parsley root. I had wondered what one might do with them and now I know. So do the Hungarian people who shop there, presumably.
I really like it! It’s not quite like any soup I’ve ever had, owing largely to the inclusion of crushed caraway seeds. The noodle making procedure is interesting - you make a standard wheat dough, hydrated to the level of Play-doh, and then pick bits off with your fingers. Those are cooked separately and stirred in at the last.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/06c9JQPx6vUNosLr3N6jB5VgQ
That little red dot on the rim of the bowl is some of that hot paprika. I bought some more on the way out.
