Valerian got a funny Slovak cookbook a few years ago, Z Kuchyne starého Prešporka (from the kitchen of old Pressburg) by Peter Ševčovič. Pressburg is the German name for Bratislava, and the book is full of quirky cooking advice from the Bratislava of yesterday, collected from average and not-so-average people, since there are some recipes for living on the street, including how to cook pigeons and alley cats. I’ve skipped right over those to a recipe for a Slovak favorite, even today: vianočka, a kind of sweet braided bread. [Read more →]

It happens early every summer. The tiny potatoes appear and I start to look for them at the local markets. [Read more →]

Lángos (or langoš) is the fast food of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It is probably the best way you can use flour, yeast, potatoes and water (oh, and a liter or so of frying oil). Like hot dog stands in New York, lángos stands in the cities of Central Europe feed crowds and crowds of people.

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