Take everything you know and throw it out the window when it comes to food and traveling to the Czech Republic. Well maybe not everything, but a large chunk of the patterns that occur while living in the United States. The colorful plates of vegetables and meat all together making a rainbow are not the traditional Czech meals that are seen. The Czech Republic is known for their meat, bread, and potatoes that cover the plates in the traditional meals. This was a weird concept for someone who religiously eats a large variety of nutrition. A lesson that was taught to me during me week of experimenting with food was not even Czech people eat these traditional meals due to the level of heaviness that is included.
This first picture shows a rocket salad (arugula and onions), sliced roast beef and potatoes. When I first arrived in the Czech Republic, I thought it was so important to eat all the traditional meals and become immersed with the culture. This meal hit the park running. Their potatoes melt in your mouth while still holding the texture of the potato. The roast beef was tender, yet not well done. The rocket salad had just enough green to keep this American girl happy. (SV. Norbert, Prague)
During this meal, something I learned was it is difficult to customize food off the menu. Asking for no sauce or dairy free gets difficult. This might be more of an issue with translation but often leads to having to find something else on the menu.
Next, the most traditional Czech meal is the beef Svíčková with dumplings topped with Cranberries. It tastes so much better than it looks. Again, with the couple ingredients that are included, they mange to make this perfect cuisine that melts in the mouth with every bite. The downside to this meal is it will leave you full all day! The combination of the meat and bread was very heavy in my stomach. The interesting part of this meal is it gives the sweet and salty taste by including the cranberries. (Staročeská restaurace V Ruthardce, Kunta Hora)
Vegetables and cheese, as simple as it gets. I started to realize that for my heath and well being I needed to start eating more vegetable and less bread. As silly as it sounds being four days into my trip, I was already feeling the stomachache of eating bread and potatoes every day. Prague consists of a lot of walking (roughly 5 miles per day). When you get stomachaches from food, walking gets difficult. This was called the vegetable salad. The vegetable were soaked to make them more chewy than just raw cut vegetables. This meal left me feeling refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the trip, instead of ready to go to bed.
Home sick is the word to describe the next two meals. The first weekend in Prague had rolled around and all I wanted was something that made me feel as if I was home. Not that Prague has not been amazing but trying new food and experimenting every meal starts to take a tole. While on a mission to find a hole-in-the-wall place to eat, a couple classmates and I stumbled upon a pizzeria. The man welcomes us four young Americans in with a smile (which is abnormal in Prague) and walked us through the menu (which was also provided in English). This restaurant is a cozy place right on the outskirts of Old Town, right near the dorm. It brought the American meal to Prague. (Pizza Pasta Cafe, Prague)
Who does not love a good plate of sushi? It is surprising how much sushi restaurants are around Prague. The one thing about sushi here though is it can get very expensive. Most places meals are around 200 CZK ($9.36) where sushi turned out to be 800 CZK ($37.43). Was it worth the spend? Absolutely. Their sushi seems to be fresher with a dryer seaweed. It sounds odd but the dryer seaweed gives more of a crunch. I 10 out of 10 recommend spending the money one night getting sushi here just to have a splurge night.
Jenna in the Czech Republic 