5 Czech Winter Foods and Where to Eat Them

With its variety of roasted games dishes, thick sauces, soups, and hearty dumplings, Czech food seems to have been made for wintertime tables. If you haven’t mastered these dishes or at least discovered the best spots for eating them, now is the time to learn!

Roasted Goose (Pečená Husička)

Roasted goose with dumplings and red cabbage is a warming winter meal best eaten on November 11, paired with St. Martin’s wine, the Czech answer to Beaujolais. The Svatomartinské feast heralds the coming of St. Martin on his white horse (an allegory for the snowy season).

Try this Czech holiday classic at the Feast of Saint Martin on Náplavka or hit the road to the St. Martin’s wine festival in Mikulov, starting November 10.

Gingerbread (Perník)

Try all kinds of gingerbread including sakrajdička, a gingerbread strudel filled with plum jam, at the delightful Perníčkův sen (Gingerbread Dream) a fairytale cottage in Old Town.

Potato Pancakes (Bramborák)

Try them at a Czech medieval tavern—we reviewed a list of worthy places below or see our story on one Prague family’s Hanukkah latke tradition for a good recipe.

Žemlovka

Goulash

While it seems synonymous with Czech cuisine, goulash didn’t actually arrive in Czech lands until 1910 via the cookbook Household Cookery by Magdalena Dobromila Rettigova, who presented the Hungarian recipe for goulash, while Hungary itself was first introduced to the dish by the invading Turkish army in 1526.

The Czechs have certainly made it their own often infusing theirs with the national beverage and serving with lots of raw onion on top. Try some this weekend at the Pivo and Goulash festival at the Karlín farm market this weekend or see our article above to make your own.