The best view, stewed head and tripe soup.

Jessie, Tero(our new Finnish friend), and myself went to the touristy city of Český Krumlov to see some sites, relax, and enjoy the beautiful summer day. Here is Tero:

After wading through the hordes of chessboard buying tourists, we stumbled to the outskirts of the bustling tourist town and found ourselves in front of this sign:

U BABY! We decided to have lunch here at this dirty shack on the side of the road. Imagine our surprise when we walked back to the terrace and found this:


With a beautiful view of the valley:Right then we knew we made the right choice.

I ordered the tripe soup to start
Really well cooked tripe, not very chewy at all. However the broth somehow reminded me of ramen, I think there was a lot of chili and MSG in the broth, but it was still very tasty and had a whole lot of tripe in it. A very good starter if you ask me. Please don't be afraid of tripe, it has a very meaty flavor, not at all reminiscent of organ meat or liver. The texture is something most Americans have trouble with, but once you get past that, or learn to love it, it's really a treat.

My main course was a pickled headcheese. This is made by boiling a whole pigs head in water or broth and letting it cook to the point that all the meat falls off the skull. They pull out the head and chop the meat and assembled tasty bits into bite size piece then reduce the cooking liquid a little further. Since there are so many tendons and bones in the skull the broth becomes something like a french aspic, or broth with gelatin suspension. When you mix all the meat and the broth together and chill it in a loafpan, it becomes a large solid mass. Thus, headcheese is born.

We're gonna need a porn shot of this one.
Really good and quite tangy from the pickling process. Tasty and filling traditional food.
Jessie ordered a smoked and cured pork belly, covered in grated horseradish, served with really good mustard on the side. I don't think she really knew what she was ordering. A little too fatty for her likes. I thought it was a pretty amazing dish, I know surprise surprise, Max likes pork belly.

It was a magical lunch! Great food and an incredible view. We sat and enjoyed the terrace for almost two hours. New friends, new cities, this is what traveling is all about. Although travel is really a lot of work, sometimes it's moments like this that make it all worthwhile.

-NOM!

U sadu, creepy babies and venison sausage.

We were by the baby tower in Prague; this is a supremely ugly TV tower that dominates a lot of the views around Prague. When you get closer you realize it's covered in a horde of Honda-sized babies crawling all over it's surface.

When you get closer it gets even creepier, as every baby doesn't have a face, but rather a flat spot that just holds a bar code... David Cerny is one strange dude, but he has some awesome art.

We were somehow still quite hungry and we found a little place called U Sadu that we had read about online. It was in the Žižkov(Jzijkov) neighborhood of Prague, which ended up being one of my favorite parts of the city. Tiny streets and a lot of very small shops, also the worst pho we have ever had. Literally later on that week we bought some Pho instant noodles that both of us agreed were far and away superior to the pho we had in Žižkov.

Anyways, back to the traditional Czech food. I can't believe you are still there. Seriously, I've written more then a half dozen posts about Czech food, and you're still there? You must really like me, or your job must really suck. Anywhoo, Im glad you stuck it through to this point.

Jessie ordered a venison sausage. That's right, they butchered bambi's mom. This thing was a freaking behemoth. Put down the foot long, cause this thing makes it look like an anemic dwarf. It was tasty, but to be honest, venison sausage is a lot like any other kind of sausage, once you mix it with extra fat, season the crap out of it, stuff it in a piece of intestine, smoke it and then fry it... Well it pretty much just tastes like sausage. This place doesn't use freshly grated horseradish, instead you get a pile of mushy blended horseradish.


I had the chicken stuffed Bramboraky which is basically a potato pancake wrapped around a good helping of chicken meat which is then fried. Luckily for me it came with a generous side of salad, with actual real vegetables! Maybe you have noticed, but there really aren't very many fresh vegetables in the Czech Republic. It's just not a big part of their cuisine. I have to say... after three weeks of that, I was really craving some nice fresh vegetables.
And more then what was on this little plate. (I know my mom is shocked, SHOCKED to hear this)

-NOM!

U Jagušky part VII: Roasted Pork Knee

The first time we tried to order Krakonošovo koleno we were told it would take 90 minutes to cook, would we like to wait? (well actually our non-English speaking waitress finally had to write down 90 min. for us to understand what she was trying to tell us) Unfortunately we were starving and I had to settle for something else that day. Pork knee seems to be on the menu at every traditional Czech restaurant. It's very popular and I can see why.

First of all the name, it means Giant knee, but it is also a reference to the largest mountains in the Czech republic named the Krkonoše mountains, and also the deity who's domain was the protection of these mountains against poachers and a champion for the poor. This is a dish designed and perfected by the poor, it uses a scrap piece of meat and turns it into decadence.

It's basically a huge ball of skin, fat and ewwey gooey meat. You Filipino's know what I'm talking about. This is basically a Czech Crispy Pata. This one is roasted instead of deep fried however. You really can't beat the Filipino's version, I mean come on, whats better then deep fried skin and fat?
So this is a really really big hunk of pork. On the menu they advertise it as 1kg, but as a tiny little side note they charge 13kc per 100g so this dish costs 130kc(6.50) if it weights 1 Kg. That will be important later on.

When the waitress (our favorite waitress at this point) comes to the table with our beers, we immediately tell her we want the pork knee, and using my incredible miming skills (she still doesn't speak English and our Czech has not yet improved) I tell her we want a smaller knee so that we can order appetizers first while we wait the 90 minutes for the knee to be ready. I also mimed that Jessie would be ordering other food, and I wanted a knee just for one person. I wanted to get the order in as early as possible to cut down on the waiting. This was a great idea since it really took over and hour and a half for the knee to be ready.
Then I found out why. Apparently my miming skills aren't as good as I had hoped, as they brought the largest knee they could find. 1.95kg. If my math is correct that's almost 5.2 heart attacks on a single plate. Eat your heart out Fettuccine Alfredo (0.95 heart attacks on a plate).

Much like the Filipino crispy pata which is served with flavored vinegar to help cut through the fattiness, this is served with mustard and horseradish. This dish really is almost impossible to eat without the acid and spicy bite from these condiments. The fat in the meat just gets too greasy in your mouth and coats everything. However a dollop of mustard and horseradish bring out different elements in the meat and fat. Supremely satisfying... But I say with a heavy heart (literally) I did not finish the whole knee, in fact I don't think I even got through half of it! After consuming about 2.5 heart attacks of pork, I had to call it quits, I had it wrapped in tin foil and brought it home to butcher and put into pasta later on.

The bill for this behemoth? 255 kc, just under 13 dollars. Worth it? Definitely. More meat then I expected? Definitely. Necessitate a few more climbs up to Prague castle on the hill? Definitely.

I hope you like my new food porn shots, this is my first set of clumsy attempts to use the ¡SUPERMACRO! settings on my camera.


-NOM!

U Jagušky part VI Stump Robber pork neck

Pařez loupežníka Buráska

This means Stump Robber Buráska. I think the stump is a reference to the wooden cutting board this dish comes on. I've never had a pork neck before, I was expecting it to be a little more fatty, and a lot more bony. There were no bones, and little exposed fat. However this was one of the most tender and flavorful pieces of pork I have ever had in my life. I hate to use the word because it's one of the most overused in food writing history, but it was succulent. In the translation of the Czech menu they call it natural pork neck, which may mean organic, or at least an heirloom breed of pig. I want this cut in the US, but I have never been able to find it.

The meat was very simply roasted with salt and pepper. The cut and meat is so good you really don't need to do anything else. The juices running into the circular crack around the cutting board were the best part, using some dark rustic Czech bread as a mop I greedily cleaned my plate. Of course the ever-present mustard and horseradish as accompaniment were a delicious counterpoint to the heavy meat and make great condiments. At 130 Kc this is a great filling and amazing meal.($6.50)(300g uncooked weight).

U Jagušky, will you ever stop pleasing me?

-NOM!

U Jagušky part V: Moravian Sparrows

moravští vrabci = Moravian Sparrows = delicious.

chlupaté knedlíky = hairy dumplings = Yumtastic

So these aren't actually sparrows, the name comes from the small chunks of sparrow sized pork, which is stewed with onion, cumin, and garlic. On the side is Zeli = cabbage, a slightly sweeter Czech version of sauerkraut. This is probably my favorite sauerkraut I've had in the world so far. The hairy dumplings are named this because they are made with grated potatoes. More on this in my Dumplings post.

This is one of my all time favorite Czech meals. Simple, easy, and filling. The sauce is the braising liquid and it all perfectly balances each other, the nice dense potato dumplings, the zing of the fresh zeli, long stewed pork shoulder that falls apart when the fork gets near it. Lets be honest, it would be more healthy with a little green, but I could eat this for lunch every day and never get tired of it. This one I may have to make for myself when I get home.

Here is a recipe I cobbled together

600 g pork shoulder(some recipes are 50/50 belly and shoulder)
15 g oil
100 g onion
salt
cumin
4 cloves sliced garlic
6 g flour
1 tablespoon tomato paste or ketchup(optional but a little vinegar would go along way here)

Pork cut into uniform chunks. Finely chop onions and fry in oil until golden. Add the meat, dusting it lightly flour and brown the meat. Pour some water, add salt, add tomato paste (ketchup), sliced garlic, cumin, and bake or simmer until the meat softens (1-2 hour). Occasionally stir and pour a little water. It'll be important to keep some water in the dish to keep the meat braising instead of baking, but if you add too much water you'll have to reduce the cooking liquid later to get a nice thick sauce. (Finish sauce at the last minute with a little pad of butter for sheen and creaminess)

Serve with potato dumplings and cabbage.

-NOM!

U Jagušky part IV "Very typical czech dish"

Every menu I saw this dish on would then follow it by "This is a very typical Czech dish" Svíčková na smetaně, houskové knedlíky. This is some tender beef marinated and served in a creamy gravy topped with lingonberries compote and some whipped cream. On the side are the houskové knedlíky basically boiled bread dumplings. This is the traditional accompaniment of this dish. The gravy and lingonberries reminded me of Swedish meatballs, but instead of a little mass of mystery meat, it's on a beautifully tender chunk of sirloin. Mopping the slightly sweet gravy with the bread dumplings is a real treat.

They say everyone's mom and grandma make this dish best, unfortunately I never found anyone's grandma to make it for me. However U Jagušky makes a pretty great version which I ate with relish.

I'll talk more about knedlíky more in another post.

-NOM!

U Jagušky Part III Cheese

Pivní sýr or Beer cheese. A soft, not quite runny cheese very pungent in a good way. This one has paprika sprinkled on it. I can't find exactly how it's made, some say it's marinated in beer, or you eat it mixed with beer or you just eat it when you drink beer. All I know it's very very tasty, heavy creamy and soft. The diced raw onions served as an amazing pairing with this strong cheese. It's possible to spread this cheese on bread, but will hold it's shape. Great cheese.


Olomouc cheese spread. Olomouc is a region of the Czech Republic famous for their Olomouc cheese. This is a very stinky sweat sock type of cheese reminiscent of Limburger. They used this as a base mixed with diced onions butter, maybe some flour and milk. It tasted like stinky cheese mixed with raw onions. Incredible. Really a tasty cheese spread. It's not at all creamy but rather a little chunky. I'm not entirely sure if this is cooked at all, but it's served cold. Spread on bread if you like. I actually made a little roll-up with the lettuce on the plate and it was quite good.

Smažený sýr
Breaded and fried edam cheese. Served with a wealth of vegetables, at least it is lot of vegetables for the Czech Republic. On the side is Tartar sauce to dip it in. Very stringy and delicious. Jessie still talks about the big stupid grin on my face when I was eating it. I'm from Wisconsin damn it, I love my cheese!


Now I need to go eat some lunch damn it.

-NOM!

U Jagušky Part II starters and small plates

Let us start at the beginning. Need a small bite to whet the appetite? A little nibble to get the gastric juices flowing? I hope you are hungry. Klobása is the Czech word for sausage. This one is a wonderful pork sausage, fried with punctured skin to crisp the thick natural casings nicely. The uncooked sausage has almost a black skin. Not too fatty because of the punctured skin, it's nice and meaty. Eaten with very good mustard and some freshly grated horseradish it is divine. The horseradish is grated but doesn't have too much of a kick unless you really chew it, the longer you chew the more horseradish kick you get.


The next starter is was a piece of beef brisket. Obviously cooked very low very slow, the salty tender kick of well brined beef, overall just good quality meat that hasn't been screwed up. The brisket is basically the chest of a cow, the big chunk of meat that it rests on when it lies down. It's got huge muscle fibers and tons of collagen running through the meat, making it super tough and chewy, but if you very very slowly cook the meat at very low temperatures all of the collagen, instead of binding up into tough chewy wads, instead relaxes and turns into more of a jello like consistency between every muscle fiber, making it soft, flavorful and amazingly tender.

Add a big dollop of mustard and more grated horseradish and you have yourself a first class starter.

They claim Goulash as their own traditional food pretty much everywhere in the former Austria-Hungarian empire and Balkan states. It's a pretty basic cattleman's stew. The most traditional recipes call for very tough cuts of beef, onions, and paprika(hot or mild). Just like American chili the ingredient lists just grow from there. Purists say you don't need any other herbs or spices then the onion and the Paprika, but you could add garlic, bay leave, thyme, etc etc etc. You can add some root vegetables, and anything else you would use in a stew. This one from U Jagušky is a pretty basic thick goulash with beef and they served bramboráky (potato pancakes) on the side. Simple, easy and hearty.
Next the king of the sausages. The blood sausage. A mix of pork blood and a lot of little chunks of fat and mince meat. Seasoned lightly. Their menu called it a "andouille" style blood sausage but it's definitely not smoked and not cajun. I think it must have been a mistranslation on their menu. It's a very classical Czech blood sausage. Boiled, and served with potatoes mixed with sauerkraut.
The flavor of blood sausage is one that isn't very familiar to most Americans. Blood on the whole is not often consumed in the US. What a shame. This sausage was almost entirely made of coagulated blood without the rice or starch filling common to a lot of French, Spanish and Italian blood sausages. This gives an honest and strong flavor of blood. Cooked blood tastes, looks and smells absolutely nothing like fresh human blood. The flavor and aroma are much closer to the smell of cooked liver, kidney or marrow. The flavor isn't as overpowering as liver, but it has a very similar taste, perhaps because the liver is basically I giant blood filter?

Actually it has a flavor very similar to marrow, which makes sense because the marrow is "stem" cells that will produce all the blood in your body your entire life, so I guess the similar taste makes sense. (Side note, if you don't like the taste of bone marrow... You are wrong)


Now that we've gotten our appetite started with a few light bites, should we move on to the main course? What? Full? But we haven't even had our 1.95kg(4.29 lbs) pork knee yet! What about the cheese course? Don't worry, Czech restaurants usually come fully equipped with a wheel barrow to take you home.

-Nom!

U Jagušky part I

As soon as we got off the metro to our little place out in praha(prague to the rest of us) 9 we were confronted by this little bustling restaurant, U Jagušky. Literally it translates to At the Jagušky, we never found anyone who could properly translate what Jagušky means. We just think it has something to do with witches.

The inside was covered in murals of fairytale stories presumably from the traditional czech cannon. Unfortunitely I don't know any czech fairytales, Altough this one is teaching mermaids to drink I believe.
Also creepy witches lanterns
And really good beer.
They only sell Pilsner Urquell at this bar. And it's really really good. This type of beer is called Tank beer, and you can only really get it in the Czech republic. It's an unfiltered unpasturized type of beer which is stored in large tanks under the restaurants. I heard that large tanker trucks back up to a restaurant and pump the beer into a specifically designed tank. This makes the bottom fermented pilsner style lager, really come alive. Pilsner Urquell I've had in the states was tinny, overly floral, and not a very pleasant drink at all.
While it would be possible to write a whole blog entirely devoted to the beers we have encountered on our trip around the world, I think I'll leave that to the more beer inclined to write about.

For the next couple of posts I am going to delve deeply into the menu of this restaurant, because well basically we ate almost everything in it.


-Nom!

Bavarian Cuisine a La Munchen

Our first night in Munich(Munchen to the natives) we stayed with Stella and Joerg a wonderful native Munchen couple we met through Couchsurfing.org. I mentioned that I hadn't had any true Bavarian food since I have been in Germany(Deutschland to the natives.) So they took us out to a fabulous dinner at Fraunhofer restaurant.


Jess had a roasted pork shoulder with bread dumplings that was dripping in a velvety fantastic gravy. She thought the meat was a little dry but when you keep it well dunked in the pan sauce it turned into a fabulous luxurious meal. The bread dumpling was moist, and very flavorful. It had lot of herb and spices with just enough egg to hold it together. Dunked into the gravy it had me wanting to switch plates with her.

I had the wiener schnitzel(Weiner art) I was told this means it's a Vienna style weiner schnitzel, which means instead of the usual well softened peice of veal instead they used pork cutlets well breaded and pan fried. They were very well done with a little bit of lemon squeezed on top. When I was a kid my mom would make this style of wiener schnitzel and I would eat it dipped into blue cheese dressing.(for some reason they didn't serve blue cheese dressing here)* It had a really fabulous potato salad on the side. Perfectly cooked potatoes with still just a tiny bit of bite like al dente pasta, lathered in a creamy vinegary dressing. I was very well pleased.

I wish I had the chutzpah to take a picture of the meal that Stella had. She ordered pigs lung with bread dumplings. LUNG! The last great adventure for me! I have eaten pretty much every part of the animal, I love stomach, intestines, kidneys, liver, heart, skin, marrow, pig ears, feet, etc etc etc. but I have never heard of anyone making lungs, the membranous almost plastic-like organ into something edible! Her dish looked like finely chopped liver in a very thick soup. I was instantly jealous and ashamed of my silly weiner schnitzel, I could have ordered lung if I had only known German(Deutsch to the natives)

The way it's prepared leaves the final result quite sour but incredibly moist, and soft almost the texture of well prepared liver. The taste isn't organ-y at all but rather sour and a smooth texture that pairs well with the bread dumplings. I don't know a single other culture that has made the lungs into something edible. Simply amazing.

If I go back to Bavaria I am having the lung... And maybe some mark dumplings(Marrow dumpling) I couldn't find any while I was there, and that just sounds too amazing to pass up.


*For one it's not very traditional, and for two, I would have been too embarrassed to ask, let alone eat it that way