Czechmatediary

Buchlov castle is not only one of the oldest but also one of the biggest castles in Moravia. Its construction began as early as in the year of 1250. As time went by the different owners kept adding on other parts to the already existing Gothic-style central building, which has created rather mixed, yet still endearing, architectural style of today. Buchlov was founded by one of the Czech kings to serve as a strategic defense fort. In the 15th century the king Vladislav II. Jagelonsky gave it away as a gift to one of his knights and since then it has never been owned by a royal family again. During the 17th century the castle was passed down to a fellow who decided the castle was not good enough for him (did it have only 300 rooms and he wanted 500 of them?? Or was the kitchen too small?? Who knows..) and built another residence of his, the Buchlov palace. (more…)

A recently published study called The Facts About the Czech Health Care uncovers a disturbing statistics about the Czech lifestyle. First of all, the alcohol consumption is higher only in Hungary, France and Luxembourg. You are probably thinking, “well, a little bit of beer here and there is not going to kill anybody..”. Sure, but if you add the second sad statistics of this study, which is the fact that every fourth Czech is a habitual smoker, then situation becomes a little more serious. Maybe if the eating habits were more promising yet the study points out that “the fruit and vegetable consumption in the Czech Republic is almost the lowest in all of Europe”. The scientist go further on, predicting if this trend continues into the future by the year of 2010 every fifth Czech will end up being obese. What is the most common cause of death in the Czech Republic?

• more than 50% of deaths are caused by heart diseases
• 2nd most common death cause is cancer (more…)
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The word “goulash” means “herdsman” in Hungarian, meaning that it was originally a meat dish prepared by herdsmen. Starting back in the Middle Ages massive herds of cattle were driven to Europe’s greatest cattle markets in Moravia (hello!!), Vienna and Venice. During those long voyages the sickly animals had to be slaughtered. In order for the herdsmen not to waste any cow they just cut them up and threw them in the pot together with all of the germs, viruses, bacteria or whatever the poor cow died of….and that’s how goulash came into the world! Goulash has quickly become an important part of the Czech cuisine as its taste penetrated the whole former Austrian-Hungarian Empire. This luscious mixture of slow-stewed meat, vegetables and a good handful of sweet paprika just took over Eastern Europe. Beware though when you cook it! One authentic Hungarian website warns that “under no circumstances should flour be used to bind the soup..” (oops, I guess I have a confession to make..). The reason why no thickening substances (flour or cornstarch) need to be used is because the meat itself derives its thickness from tough collagen, which is converted to gelatin during the cooking process.

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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb beef for stew or beef chuck
• 1 onion, thinly sliced (more…)
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