A Taste of Europe - Czechia

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One of the things I really liked doing with my kids when we studied geography was to learn about the foods that are associated with different regions, ethnic groups, or people groups. There were a few school years when we made it an ongoing project to try foods from the countries or regions we studied. It's been a few years since we did that as part of our homeschool, but the spark of interest is still there - at least for me! And honestly, I need some help and fresh ideas for meal planning too. Since I'd noticed that today (September 28th) is considered a national day in Czechia, I decided to see if I could come up with any meal ideas and then revive this tradition of sampling foods from around the world.

Since today has been a super busy day, and since I didn't come up with the idea until last night, we did not have this for dinner tonight, but it's on the plan for another night this week, and I will do my best to update with how it turned out!

First, a bit of geography and history: The dominant mountain system of Eastern Europe is the Carpathian Mountains, and three landlocked nations share parts of these mountains. Today's Czech Republic - or Czechia - was formerly part of Czechoslovakia, a nation created by the Allies after World War I. The Communist Party in Czechoslovakia was overthrown in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and in 1993 the nation split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Today, the Czech Republic boasts one of the strongest economies in Eastern Europe. There are three main regions of Czechia - Bohemia, the Sudetenland, and Moravia. 

St. Wenceslas Day is celebrated on September 28th. It is the feast day of the patron saint of Bohemia. You may be familiar with the name Wenceslas from the Christmas song 'Good King Wenceslas'. It is the same Wenceslas, a Bohemian duke who ruled between 922 and 935 AD. His grandmother had raised him as a Christian, and during his reign he was supportive of the church, and his main policy goals were to unify Bohemia and to make peace with Germany. On September 28th, 935, Wenceslas was on his way to mass when he was attacked by his brother Boleslav and killed by his supporters. Since he suffered a martyr's death, he was soon venerated as a saint, and the Holy Roman Emperor made him a king posthumously. 

St. Wenceslas Day has also been considered a national holiday as 'Czech Statehood Day' since 2000. The St. Wenceslas Festival is a popular autumn celebration throughout Czechia. Apparently larger retail stores must be closed to commemorate the holiday.

And now, the food! I'm not sure what foods are most often associated with St. Wenceslas Day, but I did look around on the Everything Czech website for some ideas about traditional Czech foods and recipes. Looks like they really like garlic (as do we!) and sauerkraut (not so much), and like many other European countries, they have their own signature breads, cookies, and sweets. Pletenic, or Czech Sweet Braid is a braided sweet bread filled with poppyseeds or apples; and Vetrnik is a traditional Czech cream puff. Or how about Czech Farmers Cheese Bundt Cake? I was also interested in Czech Dumplings and Scrambled Eggs and several other recipes at the Everything Czech website. Potatoes, cabbage, and hearty stews are typical Czech fare, and they use sour cream in a lot of dishes. 

At present, my Czech menu includes Spicy Kielbasa Buns and Czech Sweet Noodles with Tvaroch (Ricotta or Cottage Cheese). I'll be mixing up the bread dough for the kielbasa buns, so hopefully I'll finally get the chance to make some Kolaches for dessert!

See my related post: A Taste of Europe - Garlic Bread Slovakian Style

Information gathered from these websites: Office Holidays, Radio Prague International, Global Table Adventure, and Everything Czech.

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