Category Archives: seasonal food and drink

Food Festivals Promotion 2016

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Olena Kagui at the PragueLife website has compiled a list of favourite food festivals and events for 2016.  The article is a promotional piece that includes links to official sites so I am repeating most of her information here and adding my comments and links. 

Dim Sum Pop Up: From Tuesday March 15th – Saturday 19th from 17:00 and 22:00 you can try delicious filled Chinese dumplings. Sample steamed, fried or pan-cooked Dim Sum at La Bottega di Finestra located at Platnéřská 11, Prague 1. Pork with shrimp, duck with bok choy, seitan, dried shiitake, lotus noodles, beef tongue and pork Jiaozi are all on the menu.

Soup Festival / Polívkování: Try out an alternative breakfast on Saturday March 19th and stop by for some soup at Náplavka from as early as 10:00. Discover soups from around the world including: Armenia, Austria, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam. Oh, and don’t forget to sample traditional Czech soup too!  Polívkování Event page on Facebook 

Prague souping among food festivals

My review of this soup festival include a rant about inadequate space.  

Herb Festival: Come discover the secret ingredients to most of your favorite meals on Sunday April 23rd. Enjoy workshops, a series of lectures (in Czech) and of course a tea tasting! The herb festival will start at 9:00 and end at 19:00 and will also offer a presentation of quality teas and information about leading a healthy lifestyle. BYLINKOFESTU 2016 Event page on Facebook

AsianFest Prague: Spend April 30th in Asia without booking a flight: enjoy Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. The festival will be split into several ‘worlds’ with their own unique decorations, performances and workshops to enjoy while devour your favorite exotic food. Hmmm, the festival was expanded and moved to July for 2018 but then “postponed” until May 2019 due to unspecified difficulties.  Best do some Googling in May.

Bohemian BBQ: “Smoke will rise from the Vltava River in downtown Prague,” reads the description on the official website. On May 21st – 22nd the 2nd annual Bohemian BBQ competition will take place at the Anděl side of Náplavka. Meat lovers can come and indulge in barbecue and beer: you can even sign up to be a judge and decide what meat was prepared the best.  www.bohemian-bbq.com

Barbecue contest among food festivals in Prague

My insider’s tip is to wait and watch for the contestants to take their plates to the judges then most of them give away free samples–beware some charge.

Prague Food Festival: The 10th annual celebration of one of the largest gastronomical events in Prague will take place May 27th – 29th. There will be more than 42 degustation stands located over 3 hectares of Prague Castle grounds. This year’s special includes meals and drinks that will remind visitors of the 14th century and times of Charles the IV. www.praguefoodfestival.cz

Taste of the World: On August 27th – 28th you will get the chance to taste food, wine and beer from 15 international restaurants and wineries. You can find cuisine from 5 different continents all in one place. From 11:00 – 22:00 at Písecká Brána at K Brusce 5/208, 160 00. The evening will be filled with music and folklore to accompany the delicious food. Event page on Facebook

Prague Burgerfest 2016: Taking place on September 10th – 11th, you can experience the largest Burgers festival in Central Europe. Partnering with Jack Daniel’s, the event will also feature live music and performances. The festival in 2015 received over 40,000 visitors over the two days and ate almost 60,000 burgers. Don’t miss out on some juicy international burgers and great atmosphere! It smells good!  www.burgerfest.cz

If you like eating and drinking with 40,000 other people!  Personally I took one look at the hordes and went for a walk in nearby Stromvoka Park and ate a sausage from one of the food stands there.  But I did attend in 2014 and really enjoyed it.  My report with photos

I will wrap up with my personal favourite food festival: Vibrant Colours International Festival usually held near the end of August.  Review with video 

Dobrou chuť

Dresden: Christmas Charm

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Dresden Christmas market pyramid

Wow, we were impressed with Dresden, its Christmas markets and its people.  Of course it doesn’t have the beauty and charm of Prague but we found the people exceptionally friendly and the markets were clean and very charmingly decorated and seemed to offer better products and food.

They all had a Christmas pyramid as well. These are a traditional toy or decoration only a few inches high and powered by candles.  Now they are huge and elaborate.

Dresden is a pleasant train ride from Prague Strěkov Castle, Labe River Czechalong the Labe River that becomes the Elbe in Germany.  Near the border is the Strěkov Castle privately owned by the Lobkowicz family whose palace at Prague Castle we especially enjoyed.

The Striezelmarkt in Dresden is one of Germany’s oldest Christmas markets; starting as a one-day event in 1434.    The word Striezelmarkt comes from Strüzel, the name of a type of cake sold at the market. Now famous as Stollen; it is a light airy fruitcake which is quite low in sugar and sold everywhere in town.  Of course we bought some.

Oldest market at nightQuote from Karin:  “Going to the Christmas Market at night is really special!  It takes on a completely different look!  The smells of the food cooking in the open air, the mulled wine, the lights, the stalls; it is all very exciting!”

Hot food at the night Christmas market

 

 

Here are a few shots of booths, pyramids and music. I especially enjoyed seeing the flame broiled salmon because I had wild Pacific salmon cooked that way as a young man and never tasted its equal since. (Click to enlarge or to play the video.)

flame broiled salmon on wood planks  wood carved Christmas decorations  figurines of village scenes decorations  toy soldier nutcrackers         

Since our time was limited, not to mention our energy level, we looked at a lot of the buildings in old town but did not go inside any museums.

Orangery Dresden  Crown gate orangery Zwinger Dresden  Public buildings along the Elbe River

Fine Arts Academy, Dresden

The gold statue on top of the glass dome is Fama (means ‘rumor’), a Roman goddess described as having multiple tongues, eyes, and ears. She is also said to have lived in a home with 1000 windows so she could hear all that was being said in the world.

Castle Square, Dresden with Cathedral

In front of the Cathedral is a stone with a large N commemorating where Napoleon reviewed his troops before a victorious battle.

 

Frauen Church, Dresden

The Frauen Church was our favourite because we went inside–and I bought Karin a charm for her bracelet that depicts this symbol of rebuilding Dresden.

interior of Frauen Church, Dresden

We took the tram into Aussere Neustadt (Outer new town) to see what a normal neighbourhood was like–much like Prague with graffiti and all–and to see the Old Market Hall and the Pfund Dairy Restaurant.  We didn’t get any good photos but this is where you go to see normal city life and find non-touristy restaurants.Augustas, Saxony ruler

Everywhere we went we saw references to Augustas, Dresden’s equivalent to Prague’s Charles IV. He was one of a long line of local Saxony rulers, all of which are depicted in The Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes), the world’s largest porcelain artwork made with tiles from nearby Miessen.  This photo shows a small part.detail of Miessen tile mural in Dresden

So I will close with a great photo.  It looks like a collage but is just good composing by my star photographer and researcher, Karin.

Frauen Church and Christmas market

 

More Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad

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You may think that living in the middle of the city about three blocks from a tram stop and a Metro (underground) station that we get tired of the same urban scene.  You would be wrong because in many ways we see variations every time.

The major differences are as we walk through our local square, Jiriho z Podebrad.  We are frequently surprised by events that we had not heard about and sprang into existence while we slept.  Other times we enjoy watching the preparations days in advance of a major festival.

Below is a video (slide show) of a recent regional food fair; just a typical walk through our local square.

More about daily life around the square:  https://parosparadise.com/CzechMates/2013/05/19/a-day-in-the-life/ and

https://parosparadise.com/CzechMates/2015/03/29/prague-festival/

Burčák season & festival

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Burčák is slightly fermented grape juice, usually sold at about 4 to 7 % alcohol but can reach 10% or more if not consumed in a few days.  It is known as Federweisser or young wine in Germany and other names through out the world.

It is said to be more popular in the Czech Republic than other countries and you certainly see it everywhere here between late August and early November.  There are many folk stories about its effects from exploding bottles to thoroughly purged intestines. It does contain large amounts of vitamins B1 and B2.

Since we are red wine drinkers in past years we enjoyed a glass or two of red burcak but this year at the festival I saw one made from Müller-Thurgau.  It was so good that I bought a litre bottle that has to be drunk within three days or who knows what will happen.

Below is a short video of the autumn season wine festival held at our local square. When we dropped by after 8 PM. I was very impressed by the great quantities of burcak and wine that were being consumed by the crowd.  The booth I bought mine from earlier was sold out.  All these people had no worries about what to do with leftover wine.