food

New discovery: Czech bread and livance in the US stores / Novy objev: cesky chleb a livance v americkych obchodech

I found other two grocery items which can be included in our list of Czech/Slovak-like groceries in the US. The first one is Pascal whole wheat bread from Trader Joe’s. It is sold in half-loaf sizes (huge half-loaves mind you) and also in mini loaf sizes. It does not have caraway seeds in it but apart from that it tastes just like Czech bread.

The other discovery is this Kodiak cakes  flapjack/waffle mix from Target believe it or not. The pancakes taste delicious and if you let them cool down they taste just like livance!!!!! I was so excited when I found that out! Now I have to watch out no to make it too often otherwise I will soon not fit in my regular-size pants ;) .

CZ: Mam dva nove objevy, ktere patri do nasi sbirky ceskych/slovenskych surovin v USA. Prvni je cesky chleb z Trader Joe’s (sice nema kmin, ale jinak chutna velmi dobre) a ten druhy objev je palacinkovy mix Kodiak cakes z Targetu. Kdyz tyto palacinky nechate vystydnout, chutnaji uplne stejne jako nase livance!!!! A je to bez prace…

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Tagged as: Czzech groceries, food

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Nothing better than a home-cooked meal…/ Neni nad domaci kuchyni…

images-6I was standing in the check-out line at Target and behind me was a mom of three (how do I know that? Because they were all climbing all over her!) putting her shopping on the counter belt: Campbell canned soups, Lunchabels, TV dinners for kids, chips,…..I don’t think there was one unprocessed thing there. And I felt bad for the kids knowing what crap they are going to grow up on.

We did have pollution from cars and factories, even dealt with Chernobyl but we also had home-cooked meals every day. Our moms did not know any better and none of these pre-made meals were available. Although working full-time, my mom would make us a 2-course meal -  including soup and main dish – every single night. True, the soup was made sometimes from the store-bought package but I am pretty sure the ingredient list wasn’t a page and half long.

Even though I watched my mom cooking my whole childhood, I myself learned how to cook in the US. And I enjoyed the ride and my husband even more! But even if I didn’t have the ‘cooking genes’ and hated every bit of it I knew deep inside that I have to cook when it comes to my family. I would never even think of giving any of these above-mentioned ‘plastic’ meals on our table! [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: food, health

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GMO-free Czech Republic / Ceska republika bez GMO

Did you know that the whole EU is free of genetically modified fruit and vegetables? In fact the EU is sooooo anti-GMO that the Czech scientists would like it to embrace more liberal attitudes toward this issue. Proffessor Drobnik who teaches biotechnology at the Charles Univeristy in Prague believes that genetically modified crops are safe and better for the environment than conventional plants because they require smaller amount of pesticides and herbicides. This in turn makes them less expensive and their yields are higher since fewer plants get damaged by pests. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, food

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Meet the Czech Vegan in America / Poznejte ceskou veganku zijici v Americe

I have never really talked to a vegan until I met Elizabeth via this blog, who comes from the Czech Republic but currently lives in Atlanta. She loves to cook and has a really cool and practical blog on how it is to be not only a vegan but a CZECH vegan in AMERICA. You know what that means? It means that she has to be resourceful enough to create meals like Vepro, knedlo, zelo in a VEGAN way – without any animal products! Now that’s an art.

She recently wrote a post about what she misses about Czech and what she definitely does not miss about her home country. I made such list a couple of years back and I think it’s about time to revise that puppy. Anyhow, I think everyone should attempt to create similar inventory and you may be surprised about what your brain spits out!

Here is Elizabeth’s list (click here).

CZ: Poznali jste osobne nekdy nejakeho vegana? Ja jo a to diky Czechmate Diaary. Elizabeta je ceska veganka zijici v Atlante a ma blog, ktery se zameruje na veganske recepty se specializaci na ceske jidlo. Takze uvarit si nejake to vepro-knedlo-zelo po veganskym zpusobu – tomu se rika umeni!

Elizabeta napsala nedavno list, ve kterem popisuje, co ji ve Statech chybi, ale take co ji tu rozhodne nechybi (podobny pro/proti list jsem si vytvorila v minulosti take, vrele to doporucuji). Mrknete se na nej -  s mnoha body budete urcite souhlasit (kliknete zde).

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Tagged as: food, meatless dish

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A typical school lunch from accross the world / Typicky skolni obed z celeho sveta

A typical Czech school lunch

Sarka is a Czech patriot who contributed t0 a blog called What’s For Lunch? by sending in a couple of photos of a typical Czech school lunch. The creator of this blog had the greatest idea of comparing pictures of school lunches from all over the world and Sarka filled in the spot for the Czech Republic.

You can see that the cute boy is about to munch on a vegetable soup, pork meat with potatoes and vegetables, and kobliha (doughnut) as a dessert. Not bad.

 

 

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Tagged as: children, food

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Russian brotherhood? / Ruske bratrstvi?

Recently my hubby and I went to a Russian restaurant to celebrate our friend’s birthday. I was looking forward to it because I knew that some of the menu items will be similar to Czech food that I love so much. The restaurant was very nice, the food was also very yummy (although quite pricey), but the service was AWFUL! It was so bad that I have relieve to myself and write a post about it.

Actually, I take it back, the Russian bus-girls were very nice but the waiters were just out of this world rude. Let me tell you what actually happened and how it happened to spoil my idea of our Slavic ‘brotherhood’.

There was about 10 of us at the table and when we were deciding on what to order, one girl in the group asked the waiter what was good on the menu. A pretty common question right? [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: food, humor

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Breaking news (chocolate related)! / Zhava novinka (cokoladoveho razu)!

ATTENTION to all fellow Czechs and Slovaks (or anyone who likes  good chocolate): You will be happy to know that Target now carries Milka – the best German chocolate ever. Unfortunately, it carries only one type, which is the ‘boring’ milk chocolate Milka. My all-time favorite is yogurt Milka, which still has not made it to the US.

I took that picture in Target so that you know I am not making things up ;)

CZ: POZOR, DULEZITE HLASENI! Target nyni prodava cokoladu Milku. OPAKUJI: Target nyni prodava cokoladu Milku!!!! Je to sice jen ‘nudna’ mlecna cokolada, ale snad nam brzy dovezou zajimavejsi prichute, jako je napriklad jogurtova Milka – moje oblibena!!

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Tagged as: food, sweet kitchen

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Czech meal to impress? / Ktere ceske jidlo ucini ten nejvetsi dojem?

In a few weeks I am going to be hosting a dinner party for some of our friends. I suggested to make a traditional Czech meal and they got very excited about that idea. But now I am afraid I don’t know what to cook! There is so much (so little?) to chose from!

A regular non-Czech person is not going take a potato pancake or a stuffed fruit dumpling for a main course. No way. Or should I risk it? [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: food, meatless dish

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Another Czech Christmas Cookie Recipe: Bear paws / Recept na medvedi tlapicky

I thought I would translate yet another delicious Czech Christmas cookie recipe but after searching the internet for a bit I realized I don’t have to. I don’t have to translate anything or convert the European measurements because it has already been done! Barbara Rolek, who is apparently a well-known food editor, food writer and restaurant critic for daily newspapers and magazines, has done it all for us. Since her parents were Polish I bet the Czech food is close to her heart (as it is on the map) and that is why she searched for our bear paws. Or maybe the recipe has been with the Polish culture for quite some time? Either way, thank you Barbara for this recipe!

When I was a child, Christmas cookies were my grandma’s specialty. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Christmas, Czech Christmas cookies, food, sweet kitchen

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Olive oil? What’s that? / Olivivy olej? Co to je?

A certain Italian food company made a poll in the Czech Republic regarding the knowledge of olive oil. The results showed that the Czechs don’t know its proper usage. Out of 628 participants (15 to 65 years old) more than half thinks that olive oil is good only for cold dishes such as salads. Some of them even do not like the taste of it.
The good thing is that 83% of the Czech population does buy it and uses it. But what is there to know about olive oil that is so important?
A/ you can use it for grilling and frying (it starts to burn at 210 degrees Celsius which is 410 degrees F)
B/ you should store it in darkness
C/ you should store it in temperatures that do not go above 20 degrees Celsius which is 68 degrees F) [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: food, health, polls

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