Last night I took a long look at our fat cat. And then I started thinking about how did she become so fat (we give her the same food but then she is getting older…) and that train of thought made me ask myself: “Who eats cats?”. Certain nations eat dogs but I had no clue about cats. So I asked my smart husband and he didn’t know either. And so we started a long quest that took us days to accomplish….just kidding! We simply googled the term ‘who eats cats’ and got our answer, which I don’t remember anymore, sorry!
What is more relevant to this blog is that when my husband was finished typing the following letters – ‘WHO EATS CA…” the first google suggestion that came up was “WHO EATS CARP”. That made me laugh pretty hard because that is what I get teased about by him (and other people) when I tell them we eat fried carp for Christmas. My husband teasingly says that in America we use carp as bait to catch real fish.
Oh well, diversity is a beautiful thing and some ‘weird’ Czech tribe that eats ‘weird’ things like fried carp is just the proof of it. Am I right or am I right?
CZ: Zrovna vcera jsem se zahledela na nasi tlustou kocku a zacala jsem premyslet, jak vlastne takhle ztloustla. Krmime ji preci tim samym zradlem…ale pravda je, ze uz nejmladsi take neni. No a pak jsem zacala premyslet o tom, jaky narod vlastne kocky ji. Par narodu ji psy, ale kocky? Zeptala jsem se meho chytreho manzilka, ale ten pro mne take zadnou odpoved nemel. Tak jsme spolu zahajili nekolika-denni vyzkumnou expedici…to vite, ze kecam! Nagooglovali jsme si ‘who eats cats’ a odpoved (kterou uz si samozrejme nepamatuji) jsme dostali behem nekolika sekund. O to ale ted nejde. Co je mnohem relevantnejsi je, ze kdyz manzel napsal do vyhledavajici kolonky googlu nasledujici pismena “WHO EATS CA…”, prvni termin, ktery mu google automaticky navrhnul bylo “WHO EATS CARP”. To me opravdu rozesmalo, protoze tuto samou otazku se mne skadlive pta nejen manzel, ale take moji dalsi ne-cesti kamaradi. Manzel vzdycky take podotkne: “V Americe se pouziva kapr jako navnada na opravdove ryby” :0)
Rozmanitost zivota je krasna vec a to, ze nejaky cesky kmen nekde na jinem kontinentu ji obalovaneho kapra na Vanoce je toho prave dukazem. No ne?
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Hi Tanja-
My parents brought the carp tradition with them when they emigrated from Czech. I remember as a kid that my Mom always had a hard time finding carp in the fish markets. Then someone told her that in the US, carp is considered a “bottom feeder” and not very desirable as an edible fish- that it feeds on the bottom of lakes, with all of the associated debris that’s down there. The guy at the fish market said that Rock Cod was a good substitute, and that’s what we ended up having every Christmas Eve for years and years.
Maybe Czech carp live in more pristine waters?
Regards,
John
Tanja, according to some Slovaks, Czech name for a cat is “roof rabbit” – strechovy zajac. Since poor Czechs that live in drab Czech cities can’t steal poultry or kill someone’s sheep and eat it, they survive on cats. So – you’ve got it in your blood – “mackozrac”.
True about the carp – there’s a plenty of it in Connecticut waters, but people don’t fish for it. They sell it here in some Chinese markets.
John, the carp has been raised in the old country in fish ponds since the medieval times – good source of protein. I was told that the fish farmers put in these ponds some predator fish like pike to keep the carp moving. The whole business is pretty entertaining and once a year they harvest the fish – the harvest is called “vylov” – a bunch of guys go through the pond with a huge dragnet and a big party follows.
I remember when I was about 4 and we lived in Brno, dad brought home a live carp to be eaten for Christmas Eve dinner…since it was live, it had to be put somewhere and that happened to be our bathtub. So for (at least) a day, no baths as the fish swam happily around! On the fateful day, dad went into our tiny bathroom with something that looked like a mallet…i kept asking what was he doing and mom made sure i did not go in for a peek. I heard some splashing around….then we had yummy fish for dinner…baby Jesus came with presents…and we lived happily ever after!
As the Germans say: “Only in Amerika . . . “. If a fish does not turn a profit, requires a lot of prep and does not taste good, it isn’t going to sell in America. If we’d catch and eat all those Asian Flying Carp in the Mississippi River and the Illinois Canal, Chicago environmentalists wouldn’t be worried about them invading the Great Lakes. Longnose Gar is supposedly good eats if you can actually get any meat out of them.
I lived in Prague for one year and just before Christmas there were tanks of live carp everywhere around the city. I loved watching the fish swimming around and watching the people selecting just the right fish for their meal. I was able to try some leftover fried carp at my friend’s parent’s house in Litomerice on Christmas day and it was delicious!
These were some of my favorite commercials in Czech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdRfMf0y8F4&playnext=1&list=PLCAB9ABD4A84FDC88 There are a whole bunch of them, but I thought this carp one was appropriate for the current discussion.
While most of my Czech students told me about the carp tradition, including naming the fish in the bathtub Pepa, few of them actually said they enjoyed eating carp, and most chose some other fried meat as their main course.
I personally never cared for fried carp but strangely enough I really liked the carp soup my mom made. It tasted kind of sweet and had a bunch of parsley in it, eggs and other stuff.
Martine, since I have the ‘mackozrac’ gene in me I should better control myself in front of Soma or she will end up in the oven one day 😉
Sarah, I posted exactly the same ad a couple of months ago – very funny! That just shows you that this carp tradition is buried so deep within the Czech culture (including Czech Christmas commercials) that even though many people do not like the taste of it it is here (or should I say ‘there’) to stay.
The commercials are hilarious!! My fave is the “Vanocka” episode…LOL
Vanocka is also my fave 🙂
I came home from work one day to my brother in law cooking fish in the oven. It looked pretty good, but upon eating it, I made an aweful face and said, “Ugh, what’s wrong with this fish? It tastes really slimy and gross.” He and my husband just laughed and then proceeded to tell me it was carp. I had been telling them for years that American’s won’t eat nor like carp. They had been saying that it was in our heads and if we had it, we’d never notice a difference. They had to admit they were wrong. 🙂
Haha! That’s funny Katko. I think the only way to get rid of the slimness is to dump it in soup – Karp soup.
Does anyone here really LOVE fried carp?
Chci jen neco dodat co se tyce kocek. I’d just like to add something re: cats.
I know a lot about cats and dogs as a former dog trainer and a long time cat owner I’ve read a thousand books both Western medicine opinionated and holistic.
The facts are that cats or dogs were never meant to eat DRY food. Trust me on this because I don’t eat animals and if I’m telling you that your cat should not eat dry food then it really must be true. I wish my cats could be vegan, but they need taurine and what they do not need is grains, corn and gluten=found in MOST cat foods.
If you are buying dry cat food, you should look for: gluten free, corn free, grain free and no artificial colors or bi products.
Wilderness and California Natural are the two carried by most farm and feed stores. I prefer to give my cat wet food. Tanya if all you buy for your cat is wet food, in about a month, she will be back to her normal weight.
If she is overweight and you still give her dry food, she will soon be on Lantus insulin.
Don’t ask your vet about cat nutrition if she sells Hills diet in her office. It’s full of grains, artifical colors and biproducts, but veterenarians get paid a TON of cash to push that food and in return, when the animals get sick they make money, so it’s a double win for them, because for the most part, the illness is diabetes or cancer. Doctors love chronic patients.
Hills is also something that is calculated so they know how to manipulate the meds to keep your pet on it for long.
Give your kitty wet food only. The best is Trilogy or Abitty or BFF which is what I buy. Wildreness is also good for both cats and dogs and you can get all this online. It’s kocour Mikes recomended!
Meow ( and mnau!)
ditto…but, when we had our 2 cats i went a step further (yes, call me crazy) and provided them with cooked and raw “real” meat and fish, raw eggs, cream and butter (ok, i know you’re rolling your eyes) AND let them outside so they could hunt/eat birds, rodents and such…they were the healthiest, most muscular cats with beautiful coats and temperments..never needed a vet. when i was a kid, all of our dogs ate our food (selectively…no vanocka or buchty…) and never had one health problem
In an ideal world Dashenko you’re correct, that is the healthiest way but if you take a look at Earthlinks on youtube you’ll see that the meat industry is extremely dangerous and you can kill your cat with one bad sample.
I don’t risk their lives with raw food, but my baby Maya had a hole in her heart and the vet gave her 2mo to live, said she needs to gain weight and w/ out a cat mother she just won’t. I bottle fed her since her 10days of age and gave her a piece of sushi a day. She is 9 now and healthy. I do give the kitties egg and creme, it’s a special treat they love. One egg in the blender with cream. So yummy for kitty cats!
let me know when you find that ideal world…if i had the $$ i would feed grass-fed organic but…sigh..i love though how you bottle-fed! when mama kitty was birthing (yes i was her mid-wife) and nursing, i fed her egg/cream daily and then helped wean the babies with pureed baby food mixed with broth…my husband still shakes his head. we have no kitties now but i do bake for the local doggies!
Dashenka (haha, only mom still calls me this…eternally 4 years old)
Ah, no kitties? It’s time you become a foster mom! I’m sure thee is a shelter near you that can use your help. Get a large kennel, the huge one for a large dog and keep baby kittens inside….
At least they don’t have to die. 90% of cats are killed in shelters and currently 600 dogs and cats are put to sleep in EACH state DAILY
So sad… I love animals. DUH
Ladies, before I had kids I went even one MORE step further and was warming up Soma’s lactose-free milk (because she is lactose intolerant) in the microwave so it would be warm for her belly: 11 seconds (microwave) in the winter and 9 seconds in the summer. But now I barely have time to give her her dinner. But she makes sure she reminds me!
Tanja you can also try the Greek yogurt. My cats love it. The bacteria in yogurt breaks down the lactose.
Bact to the fish. I usually buy catfish in Costco at Christmas time. It is very simular to carp and Costco gets them fresh. My dad loves fishing we had a fresh fish at least 3 times e week during the fishing season. Stika is my favorite.
VERY IMportant for cats mainly: any drastic hange can hurt them.
Gradual changes are what’s needed and if weight is the problem right now, nothing else, start with giving her only wet food and buy grain free wet food. You will see imporvements in a month.
( my exp. has been that yoghurt and too much cream also gives cats diarhea and they get dehydrated. Dehydration in cats can be deadly. )
PS: we used to eat kapr even here the first 3 yrs or so , now we’re americanized…it’s salmon ;))
for me – very healthy steamed veggies, orzo, crusty yaams =yum!
I love fried carp and I don’t understand what people are saying it’s slimy and gross. I guess it was not prepared right! Carp has actually really good and tender meat, the only problem are the bones. Spoiled Americans also don’t eat liver, giblets, whole bunch of pork parts, rabits, etc. But they rather eat nasty hamburgers or tacos, where you really don’t know what’s in it!!! Sadly I didn’t have carp for many years, my family always made rizky, because my dad said he wouldn’t go running to the ER when someone got a bone stuck in their throat 🙂 Here in the US I wouldn’t even know where to go buy a carp.
Same here, my mom cooked carp like twice when we were really little and then she would just make rizky.
Haha, mas pravdu, jedi mlety maso (ve kterem je namlete opravdu vsechno) a ofrnujou se nad kaprem ;0). Hele, kdyz se ted bavime o kaprovi, urcite se podivej na tohle video:
http://czechmatediary.com/2011/06/17/watch-out-flying-carps/
Eva….you can fry catfish instead of carp. The taste is almost identical:)
My 92 year old mom is from Bratislava and her mother from Burno – at dinner today she told me again about the carp she had from Christmas Eve dinner. I love to hear her stories. I also spent almost a year in Czech. from 10/75 to 7/76 and remember the fish tanks in the butcher shops at Christmas.
I came to the website looking for recipes for Christmas cookies- miss my mom’s nut rolls and nut horns. I will not try my phonetic Czech names for the cookies since I never learned to read and write the language although both my parents spoke it fluently – my dad was second generation. My wish is go back to Prague and live when I retire! Thank you for your website – it’s a joy to read.
Hi Marlene and it’s very good to meat you! I can’t believe your mom is 92 and still alive and well! That’s great – it’s that Slovak gene, I tell you. My advice to you is to collect as many recipes from her as possible and make very careful notes. My grandma was the baker in our house, she passed away about 9 years ago and with her disappeared also most of her wonderful recipes :((
I hope your dream will come true one day. And maybe if the value of dollar goes up again you can actually live a pretty comfortable life there.
Marlene, if it’s cookies you want let me pimp my friend Clara again. Her cookies are amazing and she will ship anyplace. She has a Czech cookiehouse in MA
http://www.klarasgourmetcookies.com/info.html