Food!

I was initially enamored by the cheese and sausage available in the centrum, I have also recently come to appreciate the liquor and tea available also. Thinking of the centrum, as Lenka mentioned to me once, I can't help but remember that Kladno really is a very sporty town, it seems that the majority of the rest of the shops are clothing shops, and at least half of the clothing shops are athletically inclined.

Anyhow, back to the food.

Fresh bread, fruits and vegetables are very reasonably priced. Also reasonably priced are the mineral waters, available in various carbonation concentrations. I do lament how uncommon freshly ground coffee and pepper are. Also, brown sugar and vanilla are no where to be found. I had to look in the biggest store in town to find sesame oil.

They most have done something to the milk, but my first cup of instant coffee was really good, making me think that every cup I make is going to be good, but, some how, it isn't. Also, eggs come in metric amounts, 5, 10 and 20, and are individually stamped with a number. 20 turns out to be a nice number of eggs :)
















From Lenka again, I think Czech food are foods you can get on a farm, like potatos (bromory). I have potatoes about every other day, then again, I did in Alaska also. The grocery stores have much more fresh bread and fruits and vegetables proportionally, than prepared foods. To make non-czech food, especially asian, foods and seasonings, and sauces come in packets, making me think asian foods are pretty new to the culture. Or, shedding my american self centeredness, maybe Americans eat a lot of asian food. Also, grocery shopping is never for more than the next few days, most people's cupboards are pretty small, and fairly empty, which must be a consequence of eating fresh food.

So, to make cookies I've found actual vanilla beans, which are sold at the close "small" grocery store, Albert, and I am trying to make vanilla from scratch. Luckily there is a lot of vodka available (in the jar in the picture below). In the picture below, I think the packets with the picture of the a coffee-sugar cake are baking powder, which is the closest thing I've found to baking soda. Also, even though they have an aisle of chocolate (half of the facing aisle has sugary sweets like gummy bears, the other half carbonated drinks like cola), they don't have semi-sweet chocolate morsels, so I cut up chocolate bars.

















...and drink!

The beer is wonderful. I don't know what they are yet, but every beer I've had I've really liked, even the light beers. Who knew.