With a Side of Fried Cheese, Please

the much beloved fried cheese

It’s about time I write about one of my biggest loves – food! Up until a few months ago, I have never had a bite of Czech food. Sure, I’ve heard of and had goulash, but isn’t that originally Hungarian? Anyway, Czech food remained a bit of a mystery to me, as most of the emphasis was placed on the spectacular and cheap beer.

On one of our first nights here, our entire dorm went to a nearby restaurant for some Czech food. I ordered a potato-chicken-cream sauce medley, and oh, was it glorious. It was hearty and heavy and delicious. And vegetables? It seems that every veggie dish comes soaked in butter or baked with a thick layer of cheese on top.

With the temperature in Prague still hovering around 0 Celsius, this type of food is exactly what you need to brave the winter chill. Every dish is comfort food, drenched in cream, topped with cheese, or paired with potatoes. Those sausage stands at Wenceslas Square offer an amazing alternative to the typical late night (or early morning) snack of pizza and chips. There’s nothing like ending the night with a warm Bavarian sausage with a generous splash of mustard on top. And for the few, lonesome vegetarians out there, there is the tasty option of having a fried cheese sandwich. A thick slice of Edam cheese, it is fried to perfection so that the center is warm and stretchy. For the topping, you can choose from mustard, ketchup, or my favorite, tartar sauce. Yum.

It is all finger-lickin’ good, but rather dangerous for the waistline, especially when beer is the drink of choice. But it sure does get you through the long winters, and with snow still falling this time of the year, I can now see why Czech food is as heavy as it is. But I must conclude this blog post now, because it is stirring up an intense craving for some of that hot, melted cheese.