Care for Some Water?

You won’t find a Czech restaurant that will serve free water and you won’t find a Czech restaurant that will serve tap water. At the same time, basically every Czech restaurant offers at least one brand of mineral water, which often comes in several varieties: still, lightly sparkling and sparkling. Mineral water, even Czech made, is usually more expensive than Czech beer, sometimes almost twice as much.

If you ask for mineral water at a U.S. restaurant, you may get a confused look from the waiter. Your large glass of iced tap water will arrive free of charge as soon as you sit down and it will be refilled throughout your meal, but mineral water or simply bottled water seems to be an exotic product at many establishments.

The MICHELIN Guide Main Cities of Europe 2007 has just been published. Last year I wrote about the Prague restaurants that received the Bib Gourmand, which highlights “good food at moderate prices”. The same three restaurants that received the designation last year, received it again in 2007. They are: Aromi, Brasserie M, and Le Terroir.

Dana and I have enjoyed both Aromi and Brasserie M. We have not yet been to Le Terroir.

The Michelin Guide is famous for its 1 - 2 - 3 star restaurant rating system, with three stars being the highest.  Prague still does not have any restaurants that have received a star designation. Neither does Budapest, Hungary or Warsaw, Poland. Budapest and Warsaw each have one restaurant awarded a Bib Gourmand.

Once again on the subject of this unseasonably warm weather. Due to the unusually warm fall and almost complete lack of freezing temperatures so far this winter, Moravian and Czech wine makers have not been able to produce hardly any ice wine this year. Ice wine (ledové víno) is a delicacy made from grapes that are left on the vines to freeze and are picked at temperatures of -6°C (21°F) or lower. This dessert wine is one of the most valued Czech wine products and a 2 dl (6.7 oz) bottle can go for 600 (22 EUR/28 USD) - 1000 CZK (36 EUR/48 USD). The 2006 vintage is certainly going to be very rare to find.

You can read more about ice wine on Wikipedia.

I just read a post on another blog (thanks for the duck recipe, Julia!) and was surprised by the following statement: “in Prague, the spice sold as ‘cumin’ is in fact fennel”.

I know that the Czech language is not very helpful in distinguishing between caraway seeds (kmín) and cumin (římský kmín), two types of spices that look almost identical but smell and taste completely different. I don’t see though why fennel (in Czech fenykl) should mess with either of them. True, it also looks similar, but that’s where any shared characteristics end. Who sells fenykl masquerading as římský kmín, and why?

Here’s some brief info on the three types of spices and their use in the Czech Republic:

kmín = caraway seeds
Caraway seeds are very popular in Czech cooking. They’re added to the water when boiling potatoes, they’re sprinkled on pork or duck before roasting, they’re used in sauerkraut, soups, mushroom dishes, and they’re an important ingredient in the traditional Czech kmínový chléb (rye bread with caraway seeds).

římský kmín = cumin
Cumin is popular in Indian, North African and Mexican cooking. It is a relatively new spice on the Czech market. Czechs are still learning how and when to use it.

fenykl = fennel
Fennel is commonly known in the Czech Republic but it is not a very typical ingredient in Czech cooking. Ground fennel seeds are traditionally used in some Christmas cookies or gingerbread.

The other day I had the pleasure of enjoying excellent, genuine Moravian slivovice at a Prague café. If you like slivovice or would like to know what the traditional Moravian plum brandy tastes like when it’s top notch, try Slivovica Žufánek. You can find it at many Prague restaurants and bars. The plum brandy and other products such as pear brandy, walnut liquor or mead are made by the Žufánek family in Southern Moravia.