Archive: Society | Lifestyle Lifestyle
Czech food in the spotlight, again
A friend of my wife’s once said the good about the Czech Republic is that
wherever you go from here, the food is always better. That’s probably no
longer true, if it ever was, but Czechs have certainly had a tough time
adapting the often appalling communist-era fare into a modern cuisine. But
in some ways, such as in the quality of groceries, Czechs are still stuck
in the past. More
Fashion designer heads to Zambia to create new brand with local talent
A Czech clothing designer Beata Rajská announced this week that she is
going to the African country of Zambia to teach youngsters there how to sew
clothing. The highly successful designer will be joining the staff at a
vocational school run by a Brno-based organization Njovu. Masha Volynsky
spoke to the NGO’s director, Vendula Jičínská, and asked her about the
project that Ms Rajská will be helping with, in the next ten days. More
Petra Veselá – Coffee connoisseur
Petra Veselá is one of the Czech Republic’s leading experts on coffee.
The author of a publication simply entitled Kniha o kávě (Book about
Coffee), she is an internationally accredited expert taster and runs
courses for baristas in how to prepare the perfect cup. We met for a coffee
at one of the handful of cafés in Prague where Veselá considers the brew
to be of a genuinely high quality. The first thing I asked: when did her
interest in the beverage begin? More
Czechs celebrate 7th annual Marriage Week, but marriage rate still falling
Marriage week as a way of celebrating and nurturing the institution of
marriage was established in Great Britain in 1996 and has since taken root
in ten more countries. At the time of its establishment marriage was the
last thing on Czechs minds. The country had recently returned to democracy
and young people were on the brink of discovering the world, living a
Western life and developing successful careers: everything their parents
had been unable to do for four decades. As a result the tradition of
marrying at 18 and having a baby within a year or two died a quick death.
Marriage, at least marriage before one’s 30s, became an unfavourable
prospect and many Czechs who embraced a singles lifestyle found they liked
it too much to give it up or no longer knew how to go about changing their
life. More
ProtiMysl – a blog dedicated to the latest trends in the Czech Republic
When Barbora Jarešová, the head of marketing at a Prague global real
estate services firm, started blogging about cool places, hip design and
trendy restaurants in the Czech Republic, it was mostly for her own
pleasure and to inform close friends of what’s happening in Prague and
other Czech cities. On her website, ProtiMysl, readers can see gorgeous
photographs of little-known and unique locations – and to many
foreigners, it comes as quite a surprise that there is more to Prague than
dumplings, beer and art nouveau buildings. Barbora talkedabout what she
would like to change about the country’s reputation, what reactions to
the blog have been like so far and about her time spent abroad. More
Lori Wyant Selby – owner of hit Prague burger restaurant The Tavern
On the border of the districts of Vinohrady and Žižkov is where you will
find The Tavern, a cosy bar and burger restaurant that has become a big
hit
since it opened just over a year ago. Indeed, a leading Czech food critic
recently offered a simple explanation as why to The Tavern is always full:
Because it has the best burgers in Prague. It’s owned and run by Lori
Wyant Selby
and her husband Dean, an American couple who are long-term residents of
the
city. More
Ježíšek vs. Santa and carp vs. foie gras: how families with different backgrounds celebrate Czech Christmas
On Christmas Eve, most Czech families will like every year sit down to
special dinner before rushing to the Christmas tree. They will unwrap their
presents and some might sing a few carols, and even engage in some
traditional Christmas customs such as floating walnut shells, halving an
apple or even pouring melted led. But most people are just likely to sit
back and watch TV which each year features all the popular fairytales. But
what happens in families with mixed backgrounds? How do they celebrate
Christmas and explain the different traditions to their children? More
Magazine
In Magazine: why did many young Czechs roll up their trouser legs on a cold
day? Czech travel agencies publish a list of the most amusing complaints
made by their clients and, Czech fisheries produce a healthier breed of
carp. More
Collecting the unusual: A look at the Curiosity Collectors’ Club
Collecting as a hobby is popular in the Czech Republic as it is throughout
the world: the country has no shortage of those who collect prints, coins,
stamps, and works of art. But the country also boasts a high number of
collectors focussed on more unusual items: from pocket diaries to fruit
& vegetable labels, from historic puppets to paper tissues. The
country’s Curiosity Collectors’ Club, based in Prague, was founded more
than 40 years ago, and now has 1,000 members. Recently, I caught up with
the group’s chairman Ladislav Likler to learn more about the art of
collecting – specifically collecting the “unusual”. More
Stinky cheese sweetshop opens in Loštice
It is the country’s most smelly specialty – Olomoucké tvarůžky –
dubbed by foreign visitors as “the stinky cheese of Olomouc” is not
something you can easily overlook. Its pungent odor hits you the minute you
open the fridge and will render you a social outcast several hours after
consuming it. However many consider it to be one of the country’s biggest
delicacies and the Czech Republic fought and won a six-year war with
Germany and Austria over a protected geographical status trademark. More
+1
+10
