Mňam! 15 scrumptious Czech food and drink sayings

This is an updated version of an article published in 2018. See the original here.

A sampler of sayings

• To have a dumpling in one’s throat. / Mít knedlíkv krku.
  Eng: To be speechless; to have a frog in your throat.
• Without work, there are no pastries. / Bez práce nejsou koláče.
  Eng: No pain, no gain.

• To walk around hot porridge. / Chodit kolem horké kaše.
  Eng: To beat around the bush.
• To be in the rice. / Být v rejži.
  Eng: To be in the soup or hot water; to be in trouble.

Drinking wisdom

• A different kind of coffee / To je jiné kafe
  Eng: Used to describe something that is vastly better than something else (i.e. In a class all its own.)

• Beer makes beautiful bodies. / Pivo dělá hezká těla.
  Eng: A warning against the misleading effects of alcohol perhaps?

Daily bread & butter

• Everywhere bread has two crusts. / Všude je chleba o dvou kůrkách.
  Eng: Life is pretty much the same wherever you go (the grass isn’t always greener).
• Whose bread you eat, sing his song. / Koho chleba jíš, toho píseň zpívej.
  Eng: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

• Better at home a slice of bread than a whole cow abroad. / Lepší doma krajíc chleba než v cizině kráva celá.
  Eng: Home, sweet home.
• If you have butter on your head, do not go out in the sun. / Když máš máslo na hlavě, nelez na slunce. 
  Eng: Fly under the radar and out of the spotlight.

Cooking & eating

• Hunger is the best chef. / Hlad je nejlepší kuchař.
  Eng: Beggars can’t be choosers.
• What you cook at home eat at home / Co se doma uvaří, má se doma sníst.
  Eng: What happens at home stays at home – don’t air the dirty laundry.

• Love goes through the stomach / Láska prochází žaludkem.
  Eng: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

Fruity phrases

• The cherry on the cake. / Třešnička na dortu.
  Eng: The icing on the cake.
• Pack your five plums/ Sbalit si svých pět švestek.
  Eng: Get lost, pack it in, pack it up.