How popular is duck used in the Czech food preparations? Is it mainly prepared for festive occasions? What are the other meats used? (other than chicken, beef, pork, and fish)....What about the etiquette? Is there any specific Czech etiquette as such or is it just the same as for other european countries? I want to know this question as I will be staying with a Czech family (that too with one of the goverment officials in Prague) for 3 days and want to be as decent as I can. So please help me!! :?
The duck and/or goose are considered as a festive meal, but you can find it in a restaurant quite often. The most common meats are pork, chicken and beef. Lamb meat is rather expensive, so it is not too common. You can find horse meat, usualy as horse salami. Karp is eaten mainly at Christmas. No problems getting fresh forelle or see fish (codfish, ...), usually deep frozen. All our American friends had eaten the following way: they had cut the meal into pieces and then eaten using only fork, the left hand hanging down. It looks crazy, but nothing against etiquette. 8)
And you probably noticed them with a fork in their right hand? When I went to UK once, I saw everyone with a fork in their left hand and the butter knife in the right hand. Again, sounds strange to the Americans but like you said "nothing against the etiquette." How does the horse salami taste? I mean is it anything like pork or beef?
If no one points it out to you --this is horse meat! --you may think that it is, as we call it in the US "london broil".. In reality it is better for your health than beef.
As far as I know, the horse salami is only a brand name. There is not much of a horse there. Well... salamis and other things similar have somehow bad reputation here. They are told to contain anything except real meat. In fact, I had the honour to be a boyfriend of some miller's daughter (i.e. daughter of the guy who miraculously transforms grain into flour). And once she told me "who do you think are the biggest customers of mills and consumers of flour? the meat industry!" Also she told me that her father insisted on buying only the most expensive products of this category where he had at least some hope of a percentage of meat. Perhaps an urban legend. Perhaps the filthy reality...:/
Nobody mentioned rabbit meat which is common especially in the country where the rabbit hutches are ubiquitous. (But some people hate it, during and long after the WWII the rabbit was the only easily available meat.) And, of course, game. Deer, wild boar, mouflon, hare are quite common in the restaurants (the huntsmen, poachers and drivers are efficient). In fact, the horse meat is very rare (as we replaced the horses by tractors some time ago and there are no wild horses living in our country).
the only time i have ever had duck in the cz is when i was visiting a good friends family's house and they pulled it out special for me (i love duck!) also my wife makes it on new years day as a special treat so i am thinking it is mainly a festive type of meal but boy is it good with knedliky! the svato martinsky goose dinnerl is amazingly good as well and i noticed that it is right around the same time we (in the us) have thanksgiving so i am wondering if most european countries have something similar in november, a big feast that the pilgrams stole to call their own
duck on new year's day!!!! noooooooooooooo can't eat anything with feathers on new year's day, or you're fortune will fly away (and if you eat anything with scales, it will swim away) should have lentils ...
we eat black eyed peas and hog jowls (cut up and cooked with the peas - not whole) down here for New Year
oh, did we have it for easter? i dont remeber now she only cooked it 1 x and it was quite good...maybe it was for xmas since i dont eat fish...i remeber she always makes a lentil soup and it has something to do with how much money we get for that year so i am guessing that was for new years? i get my days mixed up easily
i think many people don't really follow that saying any more - i should have inserted smiley in my post yes the lentils are to symbolize money - maybe because of "coin" shape ????
