WHAT TO EAT IN CZECH REPUBLIC AND SAVE MONEY

Is this situation familiar to you: You just entered a foreign country and spotted McDonald's fast food restaurant and you and your party sprinted so you can have a typical American fast food greaseburger. After all it's been full 12 hours since you left home. I have never understood this kind of mindset.


I'm a big advocate of eating local when visiting a foreign country. So, assuming that you didn't fly all that way to Prague or other destination in Czech Republic to eat at McDonald's what do you do? Where do you eat? I suggest you eat at a restaurant or neighborhood pub serving traditional Czech kitchen. I use the word kitchen because the traditional Czech food is of peasant origin and has little to do with cuisine which suggest a snobbish place and food.


Let's assume that you and your party are frugal travelers and you stay in a hotel or pension in the suburbs. You only have one problem: breakfast! But as luck would have it this problem is easily corrected. I'm saying that breakfast is a problem because no restaurant is open at 8 a.m. Generally, there are very few places that serve breakfast. Pricey high end hotels serve western style breakfast but it is super expensive.


Let's start with the local people. What is the typical Czech breakfast?


Breakfast


Here are your choices for traditional Czech breakfast:


1. Salty rolls either plain or buttered with jam of your choice, milk, coffee or tea.
2. Sweet rolls, doughnuts, kolache (small round pastries with various fillings) or a cut of fruit kolach (tart), milk, coffee or tea.
3. Rolls with cold cuts, pates and cheese, coffee or tea.


Again, assuming that the place where you are staying does not have even a coffee machine you have to do the shopping in the evening. Your best bet is to go to a super market or small neighborhood food store and buy everything there. The milk will keep couple of days without refrigerator and so will the cold cuts. You can buy specialty coffees in a small carton although I suggest drinking milk with your breakfast. And that takes care of breakfast. Expect to spend no more than 30 Kc (Czech crowns) per person unless you splurge and buy the cold cuts and cheese in which case count on spending about 40 Kc..


Lunch


Let me reveal to you a secret so you are not surprised: lunch and dinner are the same. That is the size of the meal in the restaurants is the same whether it is lunch or dinner. The dinner menu may have few meals added and also have few expensive meals. There is no such thing as small lunch unless you eat in bistro, butcher shop eatery, food from street vendors or café. So what do the locals eat? Here are the recommended main choices available daily in most restaurants:


Soups
1. Potato soup
2. Garlic soup
3. Goulash soup
4. Beef broth with noodles


Main Dishes
1. Pork schnitzel with boiled potatoes or potato salad
2. Karbanatky (fried meat patties) with boiled potatoes or potato salad
3. Goulash with bread dumplings
4. Roast pork with bread dumplings and sauerkraut
5. Roast beef with potato dumplings and creamed spinach
6. Roast beef tenderloin in cream sauce with bread dumplings
7. Roast duck with bread dumplings and red sauerkraut
8. Spanish birds (in essence this is Czech bracciole) with rice
9. Steak tartar (raw beef) with toasts
10. Pan fried trout with mashed potatoes


Light Lunch
1. Greek salad in restaurant
2. Baguette sandwich from street vendors or small food stores
3. Open face sandwiches from delicatessen or bistro or baker's shop - this is a must
4. Grilled sausage with rye bread and mustard from street vendors downtown
5. Fried potato pancakes from street vendors downtown
6. Pizza from a pizza shop


There are butcher shops with New York style eateries (you stand at a high table) serving traditional meals. The choices are not extensive but they always offer at least one soup and about 5 or 6 main dishes. If you ever come across one of those you must try it. It is really cheap and usually great.


Expect to spend anywhere from 125 Kc to 200 Kc per person in a neighborhood restaurant (that includes beer, of course). In a downtown restaurant the same meal will probably cost double. Open face sandwiches are 16 - 25 Kc each. Grilled sausages are about 40 Kc.


Dinner


As I have already intimated lunch and dinner choices are usually the same. If you eat dinner at a better restaurant expect to spend up to 400 Kc per person with about 250 Kc being the average cost of a dinner in better restaurant. Better restaurants have contemporary cuisine (yes it is a cuisine) and they may offer French and Italian dishes. Italian style pizza is very popular these days.


Dessert


Czech do not usually eat desserts with their meals. Surprise! Czechs eat various pastries and cakes with coffee around 3 p.m. There is one exception, actually two. Some traditional restaurants offer two desserts that you should try: Crepes with various fillings and traditional round doughnut like cakes (livanecky) with plum butter and whipped cream topping. This is another must!


And there you have it. Now you are equipped with knowledge about what to eat on your next trip to Czech Republic and save some dough.