What is the best food to try in the Czech Republic?

Czech Republic has a lot of good food. Broadly, Czech cuisine fits into the general cuisine of Central Europe and has a lot of similarities with other Central European food of the former Austrian-Hungarian empire. It tends to be of the solid meat-sauce-potato variety, though local restaurants are definitely beginning to experiment with more international cuisine and fusion. This is great: I would say that Czech cuisine has begun a bit of a renaissance in the last decade that I hope continues.

And yet, some of the traditional foods that have featured on the Czech menu for decades just can’t be beat.

1. hovězí gulaš (beef goulash) When I first came here in 2003 I fell in love with with this dish, originally from Hungary. The Czech version of this is probably falls less on the spicy side and more on the savoury side, with a strong underflavor of caraway seed, which so often grounds the flavor of Czech cuisine. Big chunks of stewed beef swimming in brown stew, with a brace of sliced onions and liberally sprinkled with pepper, with weighty slices of Czech chleba (bread) or knedlik(dumpling) to sop it up, washed down with a cold Czech beer. My god. My mouth is watering right now.

1. For something a little more complex try svičkova. Slices of beef sirloin in a unique and complicated-to-make vegetable sauce, known as svičkova omačka (which literally means candle sauce), topped with a dollop of whipped cream, a smudge of cranberry sauce and served alongside the ubiquitous knedliky(dumplings.)

1. The Czech Republic in general makes good soup: garlic soup is a popular and unique one. But if you are in the Eastern region of Valašsko (Vallachia) of the country, where I live, you really should try a hot bowl of steaming kyselice (sauerkraut and potato soup). I am personally not a fan of sauerkraut, and the Czech national dish of pork-cabbage-dumpling leaves me cold; but this soup, made with cream, potato, chunks of saussage and sauerkraut manages to balance rich savoriness with sour in a way that just works. If you find a place that serves a good bowl of this, I’m sure you willl agree.

1. The Czech bakery produces a number of different pastries — an amazing variety. My personal favorite it závin, a soft, almost gooey pastry stuffed with sweetened curds, poppyseed or (my personal favorite) a sweet almond paste. Whenever my girlfriend brings this home, there goes my diet.

Beyond those specialties, Czech Republic excels in roast meats of various kind. One of the greatest meals I’ve ever had was roast goose on St. Martin’s day(a traditional feast.) You really can’t go wrong with roast meat, whether beef, pork, poultry.

There are a plethora of other dishes that I like, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

I can’t say that everything on the Czech menu is to my taste(tlačenka, utopenec, the aformentioned pork-saurkraut-dumpling, Christmas carp…). But when it is done well, and on a brisk windy autumn day or cold winter afternoon, nothing really beats the best of it.

Written Sept 25