by the Night Writer
It’s not hard to get something to eat here. There are numerous stands and take-away places along the well-traveled routes where we’ve seen some amazing pizzas and calzones, as well as things that we can order by pointing. This evening Tiger Lilly brought home “box kebab” – gyro meat, fries, and cole slaw all piled in a carton similar to Chinese take-away; just 75 koruna (Kc) each ($3). It was a great meal, about as much food as in a Chipotle burrito, but at less than half the cost. I washed mine down with an ice cold “Bud”:
Budweiser Budvar beer, from the Budweiser brewery operating in Bohemia since the 1300s.
If we venture to a restaurant most places have menus in Czech and English. The lunch menu at the restaurant closest to our apartment (and my most likely lunch spot if I don’t “eat in”) is only in Czech, however – and neither of the waiters speak much English. It was a bit of an adventure, but the food was delicious.
As a result of that experience, though, I decided to create a little cheat sheet on my phone of common foods and terms for future use.
(Note: I haven’t figured out yet how to make WordPress import a letter with the little Czech hat over it. Therefore, where you see the ? in the middle of a word, look to the letter immediately before the question mark for the actual letter, then picture a little hat on top of it. Generally, the hat adds a “ya” sound to the letter, except for c’s and s’s, which could be “sh” or “ch”.
Meats
hove?zí – beef
Jatra – liver
kachna – duck
kur?e – chicken
králic?í – rabbit
rizek – steak
sunkou – ham
vepr?ové – pork
Style
grilovaný – grilled
pec?ený – baked
smazžený – fried
uzene – smoked
varene – cooked
Pasta
Noky – gnocchi
Veggies
listový sšpenát – spinach
brambor – potato
r?epa – beet
zelí – cabbage
hribkach – mushrooms
okurka – cucumber
Other
vývar – broth
nudlemi – noodles
knedlík – dumpling
krkovicka – neck
maslem – butter
Stehno – thigh
sýr – cheese
syrovu – cheesy
svíc?ková – tenderloin
omackou – sauce
hranolkami – French fries
cervene – red
chléb – bread
houskovy – bread
rýže – rice
Tatarka – tartar
c?esnek – garlic
Dessert
c?okoláda – chocolate
dort – cake
Medovník – honey cake
slehackou – whipped cream
I’ll keep my eyes open for the králic?í and knedlíks, and stay away from the jatra and r?epa!
