The Czech part
Czech food is slightly better than what I ate in Munich, but still very pork and sausage heavy, and very very salty. I tried several traditional dishes, including the infamous pork knuckle. This was a huge joint of meat (my fist is for size in the photo). It had a chewy, salty skin and then an inch of soft fat, followed by ounces of tender meat. It was absolutely delicious. I did end up removing a lot of the fat however, there was no way I could eat all of it. Alas, even this proved too much meat for my stomach and I had my first (and hopefully last…) bout of sickness during the night. Not quite food poisoning, but it’s definitely going to make me cautious in the future to avoid actual food poisoning!
The dishes were always served with potato and bread dumplings, which I actually had eaten with Eva in Switzerland (Eva’s were better than the restaurants). I really like them, and you can make the potato ones with leftover mashed potato - would recommend.
After my first night in Prague I realised I couldn’t actually remember the last time I’d eaten a vegetable. None of the dishes here or in Munich came with any. Convinced that’s why I felt a bit run down and not the nights out, I bought a huge salad to have for dinner that evening. I actually did feel much better after - remember to eat healthily!
The other dish I tried was again pork, with both dumpling types and pickled cabbage with bacon. Also delicious. Incredibly salty. Luckily I had a beer to wash it down with. On the beer note, it is genuinely cheaper than water or soft drinks. A 0.5l glass of beer would set you back 45 CZK, which is around £1.60.
I gave in and got a chimney cake for lunch one day, they really are everywhere. Of course I know, like any seasoned traveller, that these are traditionally from Hungary and not Czechoslovakia, but here we are. It was pretty good. Unsurprisingly very sickly, but I did manage to finish it.
My absolute favourite thing I ate in Prague was a gingerbread man. I read a food travel blog on the bus ride over and saw that there was a famous traditional gingerbread shop, and as gingerbread is one of my favourite things I knew I had to stop by. It did not disappoint. I ate it on the bus to Brno. My only regret is not buying 10 more!
Little entry from Brno: I had the best coffee of the trip so far here. It was from a little cart in the main square, but the carts were all over the city (above is one outside the bus station). I paid 40 CZK (£1.38) for my macchiato and it was the smoothest, most delicious coffee I’ve had in a long time. I was also very tired. But the coffee was genuinely amazing.
The Slovak part
The day I went on a little day trip I went and bought a packed lunch. I bought Treska and bread rolls, a traditional thing to eat according to our tour guide. Treska means cod but it also means this mayo cod salad, and that’s actually its main meaning because of how popular it is. It’s 40% mayo. I think that definition of ‘salad’ explains Czeckoslovakian food well. It was a wet pate texture, that worked perfectly to dip bread into. It tasted fishy and like mayo, nothing unexpected there. Not sure I’d be able to eat it everyday, but it’s definitely a picnic staple.
Surprisingly, I also had the best banana bread I’ve had in a while in Bratislava. It was moist and perfectly spiced and was the perfect accompaniment to a coffee and relax on the main square.
I can’t not mention the traditional garlic soup and cheese dumplings I had one night in Bratislava. The soup was insanely garlicy, and had some cheese in the bottom which was a nice surprise. The cheese dumplings were surprisingly good. They were made of a soft dough with a salty cheese filling, smothered in more cheese, fresh herbs (dill and chives I think) and little bacon pieces. I’m not sure I could eat more than three though.
