Foods Czechs find odd

Discussion in 'Culture' started by Lorelai, Aug 9, 2010.

  1. Lorelai

    Lorelai Member

    So, just for fun, tell me what foreign foods you've tried that you find strange. A friend finds potato chips rather peculiar. What else?
     
  2. Petronela

    Petronela Well-Known Member

    The bread. Most of my Czech friends dislike the prepackaged bread sold in American grocery stores. The almost sweet flavor, weird texture and not crunchy crust are just strange to them.
     
  3. mbm

    mbm Well-Known Member

    The bread, definitely. And beer and chocolate, too. The Czechs hold their bread, beer and chocolate in extremely high regard and look at other nations' variants with suspicion.

    The Czechs are also deeply suspicious of seafood and some even find it revolting. Not surprising, it being a landlocked country and all...
     
  4. Alexx

    Alexx Well-Known Member

    Sure, bread. The "best" bread in London is sold by Poles :).

    I am looking forward to my September stay in the US, as we plan really low budget, especially for food, grocery stores like Walmart will be our "daily bread". After 3 weeks I will tell you more what I dislike about american food.
     
  5. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    The vast majority of the Czechs do not eat:

    1) worms and insects including larvae (except unconsciously in fruit, mushrooms, etc.),
    2) molluscs (gastropods, cephalopods), even the edible Roman snail plentifully living in our gardens (Helix pomatia) is not eaten but exported to France,
    3) reptiles (snakes, lizards) and amphibians (frogs),
    4) carnivore mammals (dogs, cats, etc.),
    5) rodents except rabbits and hares.

    From this list I have tried mussels, octopuses, frog legs and coypus (nutria). Only nutria was eatable, not much different from rabbit.

    Surprisingly most Czechs eat crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, etc.).

    I don't know what our ancestors ate during the times of famine. They certainly were not too fastidious.
     
  6. Sova

    Sova Well-Known Member

    root beer and peanut butter.
     
  7. kotja

    kotja Member

    Actually peanut butter tastes like Nugeta.
    What is root beer?
     
  8. GlennInFlorida

    GlennInFlorida Well-Known Member

    root beer is a non-alcoholic carbonated drink - think kofola about ten times sweeter...
     
  9. kotja

    kotja Member

    yuck hops beer is best beer
     
  10. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    Most of Czechs would eat it without a blink. It's unusual, but not weird.

    That must be almost saturated solution. 8)

    That list could be much longer, we could include songbirds for instance, but perhaps it would be easier to put it the other way — what’s common in Czech cuisine.

    And we should differentiate also the parts of animals. Czechs avoid brains, for instance.

    Also the way of preparation could be important. Czechs mostly don’t eat raw-meat dishes, the only common exceptions are steak tartare, but even this dish is a no-no for many Czechs like me, dry-cured hams and some kinds of fish.

    I have absolutely no urge to ever eat a mollusc, the same for caviar. Frog is good, but not worth of the fiddly work. I eat rabbits time to time despite I dislike them, so I take you comment on nutria as a recommendation not to try it. I have tried once the oversized jumping rat from Australia (a kangaroo) and was not impressed at all.
     
  11. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    8)
     
  12. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    Alexx, you wont find good bread at walmart. You will be better off to ask a local for directions to a local bakery. American bread is aweful and I'm positive once you have ot, you'll be searching for a bakery.
     
  13. Jana

    Jana Well-Known Member

    Well, so-called Jewish rye bread with caraway seeds is quite acceptable; we used to order Czech bread from a small bakery in Johnson City, but it does not exist anymore, so now I have two options - either bake bread at home or go to Kroger or Wal-Mart early in the morning (before it is sold out) and get that rye bread. It is softer than the Czech one, but it tastes quite good, namely when toasted.
     
  14. stepan

    stepan Well-Known Member

    I remember the old Endwell Bakery on Clinton St. in Binghamton owned by the Tomiska's. In fact we lived with them above the bakery for a while when we first arrived in the US. Their bread was the best bread I have ever eaten. We use to buy their large round rye bread - it was a good 16 inches across - and enjoyed it with butter (and sometimes homemade lard) and salt. It was especially good when I could have some beer with it.

    When the Endwell Bakery closed, the bakery (and the name escapes me - was it the Cottage Bakery?) on Harry L Drive used the same recipe as Tomiska's and thier rye bread was equally good. When they closed, there was no real good place to buy bread unless you went to the Elk's Bakery on Washington Ave. in Endicott, NY. Their rye bread was OK, but better than anything else that one could buy.

    My wife and I have moved several times (Ohio, Connecticut and now in Virginia) and I have NEVER found good rye bread - most is too soft and has no real crust. I like a bread that I can sink my teeth into. Not have a bread that sinks around my teeth.

    I can't wait to visit the Czech Republic and have some REAL rye bread. mmmmm-good.
     
  15. Sova

    Sova Well-Known Member

    Hmmm ... most of my Czech friends who tried root beer told me it tasted like medicine, and didn't seem to want anymore. Also most thought peanut butter was strictly an American "acquired" taste.
    I didn't think Nugeta tasted much like peanut butter at all (my opinion, at least).
     
  16. My Czech friends always used to find Marmite rather disgusting.
     
  17. Yerusalyim

    Yerusalyim Well-Known Member

    My wife doesn't like our bread...I don't either. She can't stand peanut butter...our kids love it though...it's what you're used to I guess.
     

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