GLOSSARY OF FOODS AND FOOD TERMS
Bramborove Knedliky: potato dumplings.
Briosky: brioches. A rich light yeast bread or roll made with cream and egg yolks, shaped with the characteristic round knob on top.
Bryndza: cheese made from sheep’s milk.
Buchty: sweet yeast buns baked with Povidla (thick plum jam) or apricot filling. Thin rolled squares of dough are dabbed with the preserves then pinched together so that the jam is sealed within, then baked.
Cevabcici: seasoned ground pork shaped into fingers, grilled, and eaten with onions and dark bread.
Chlebova Polevka: caraway-flavored soup thickened with stale rye bread crumbs and garnished with diced smoked meat or sliced sausages.
Dusene Zampiony: mushrooms sauteed with butter and caraway.
Falsche Polevka: an intriguing name, literally, “false soup,” suggesting that any soup not made with meat is unreal! Actually a soup made with a vegetable stock, but a browned roux, or butter or goose-fatbrowned onion helps to give the taste of meat.
Houskove Knedliky: one of the most popular dumplings made of flour, milk, and butter-browned bread cubes patted into a sausage shape and strung in a napkin for steaming. When cooked it is sliced with a strong thread and served with gravy by itself, or accompanying almost anything.
Husa: goose.
Jelita: blood sausage, served fried.
Jiternice: a sausage of lung and liver, served fried.
Kachna: duck.
Kapani: small drops of soft dough either poached or fried before adding to soups. Similar to the Austrian Spaetzli.
Kapr: carp.
Karbanatky: patties of ground meat, breaded and fried.
Kapr na Cerno: whole carp or steaks of carp served with the famed black sauce made from beer, sugar, vinegar, prunes, and raisins.
Klobasy: thick-skinned sausages that explode juicily when eaten.
Knedliky or Knedlicky: dumplings. The variety made is staggering. Anything that will form a stiff dough and can be steamed or poached seems to qualify — rice, potatoes, many vegetables alone or in combination, chopped or mashed, bread crumbs or cake crumbs, brains, liver, ham, smoked meat, mar-row — all combined with enough egg, milk, and flour or crumbs to be shaped. May be served alone with sour cream, cream, chopped nuts, caraway seeds, poppy seeds, gravy, fruit sauces, or served with meats, fish, or in soups.
Kolace: round flat yeast buns with a dimpled hollow that is filled with jams, usually Povidla.
Kynute Houscove Knedliky: yeast dumplings with sauteed bread cubes blended into the batter before steaming.
Kynute Knedliky: simple yeast dumplings poached in salted water. Sliced with a thread to serve. Leftovers are breaded and fried.
Kure: chicken.
Liptovsky Syr: known as Liptauer cheese, a specialty of the Slovakian peasant. A delicious soft blend of sheep’s milk cheese (sometimes cottage cheese) and seasonings. Served with dark bread and beer or wine.
Ovesna Kase Slana: a supper dish of oatmeal served with browned onions on top, eaten as a main dish.
Ovocne Knedliky: dessert dumplings filled with fresh or preserved fruit then boiled and served hot with sugar and butter or cottage cheese, sour cream, or buttered crumbs.
Parky: sausages. They are eaten at any meal and at any time as a snack, and people who live in Prague generally insist that all sausages, wieners, and frankfurters were invented there.
Pecena Husa: roasted goose, often accompanied with bread dumplings and red cabbage or sauerkraut. Traditional Christmas Day dinner.
Polevka: soup.
Polevka z Hovezi Ohanky: lightly spiced vegetable and oxtail soup. The meat is served separately.
Povidla: thick preserve of dark plums, usually simmered for two days. It is lightly spiced with cinnamon and anise.
Prazsky Salat (Prague Salad): julienne strips of meats, pickles, onions, and tart apples bound with mayonnaise. Other versions may include fresh or cooked vegetables lightly tossed with a vinegar and sugar dressing.
Pudink: pudding.
Raznici: thinly sliced ham or pork, grilled and served with chopped onion and dark bread, and eaten as a snack.
Slivovitz: clear potent plum brandy.
Smetane: sour cream.
Svacina: late afternoon snack of coffee and sweet breads.
Svickova: beef marinated in spices and vinegar then braised. The pan juices are blended with sour cream. Result: tender beef in sour, creamy sauce.
Uzenazstvi: beer taverns, where good beer and good talk is enjoyed.
Veprova Pecene se Zelim: roasted pork served with sauerkraut and flavored with caraway seeds.
Vursty: another name for sausages. Similar to the German Wurst.
Zajic na Cerno: cut-up braised hare simmered in a spiced sweet-and-sour sauce similar to the black sauce used on carp.
Zavin: stretched strudel dough.