Hello to you all,
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that “Jesus” brought you exactly what you asked for 🙂
How would you like to win a brand new awesome Czech cookbook that will change your life in the kitchen forever?!? You only have to win the following competition: for those who live abroad and celebrate Christmas Czech-style, write a short narrative on how your Christmas Eve went and how you adapted to the “hostile” conditions of non Czech-living. For example, what did you use instead of a carp? Or did you find a carp in some random grocery store (or from some black market carp dealer for ridiculous amounts of money)? What customs did you do? Did you bake Vanocka with a coin inside of the dough? Did you see the Golden pig?
So here is how it will work: write about 600-word long essay/narrative about your experience and send it to me via the Contact page (upper right hand corner) by the end of this year (2008). I will consult with Vaclav Havel and we will decide on the 3 best essays. I will then post those essays and let you, the readers, pick your favorite one. And that chosen talented writer will receive his new cookbook in the mail!
CZ: Ahoj vsichni! Doufam, ze jste si uzili Vanoce, a ze vam Jezisek nadelil presne to, co jste si prali. Co takhle pridat si pod stromecek jeste jeden darecek? Chteli byste vyhrat novou ceskou kucharku? Napiste mi kratkou esej (kolem 600 slov), jak jste vy – Cesi a Slovaci zijici v cizine – stravili ceske Vanoce: meli jste kapra? Jestlize ano, kde jste ho sehnali? Na cernem kaprim trhu? Pekli jste Vanocku se zapecenym penizkem? Videli jste Zlate prasatko? Jake dalsi vanocni zvyky jste praktikovali na Stedry vecer? Zaslete mi ji via “Contact page” (nachazi se na pravem hornim rohu meho blogu), a to do 31. ledna 2008 (!!); my pak s Vaskem Havlem vybereme 3 nejlepsi dila, ktere budou otisknute na Czechmate Diary. VY ctenari si pote vyhlasujete toho absolutniho viteze, ktery obdrzi vyse zminenou cenu. Co vy na to? Tak sup, sup, popadnete tuzku a papir a jdeme na to!!
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!
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I celebrated Christmas with my boyfriend and couple of friends (who are not Czech). I made Czech potato salad the day before so it’s good for our dinner night. I actually did find carp in a store that carries many different kinds of fish and bought two little carps for about $10, which is not that bad. The bad part was, that when I came to the store (Ranch 99 chain store located in California), the carps were happily swimming in a tank full of water and I had a dilemma if to buy already dead fish or this happily swimming carp. After couple of minutes of bad feelings, I opted for the carp to keep the Czech tradition alive. I fried the carp and also made a fish soup, the same way my mom always makes it. I baked Czech christmas cookies till 2 AM the week of Christmas. I also had to prepare something little less strange than carp fish and fried carp with potato salad for my non-Czech friends, so I made mango chicken and rice. Our dinner was on 25th, not on 24th for some schedule reasons, but it felt like Christmas and that’s what matters. Happy New Year!
Wow!!! Great job on your patriotic duties!! I have just one question…WHO KILLED THE CARP???
Here is a funny one. I was invited to my friends Czech class at UT (University of Texas in Austin). Their Czech Professor was great. She was glad to see me and we talked about a lot of things and then she asked me to share with the college kids (in their early 20’s) things about Christmas. They thought she made up some of the stuff she told them. So I told them about oranges and nuts from St. Nicholas (na Mikulase). She asked…where were those oranges from and I said Cuba.
Then I told them about the live fish in the bathtub for couple of days so the kids have a pet and nobody takes a shower in the meantime. They were all grossed out. I told them that it was so cold that you wouldn’t even think of a shower.
Anyway, me and the Professor had a great time.
Gabina
That’s awesome! It is time we we wake this nation up and let them know what the ‘real’ Christmas is like!!!!