Rotted shark, anyone?
Touring Europe, Feargus O'Sullivan has tasted some memorably repellent dishes. Here are his all-time 'favourites'
Czech Republic
Lard-loving Czechs damn anything they find boring as "neslany, nemasly", which means "not salty, not fatty". Happily for them, little meeting that description finds its way on to their plates. Plonked goutily in the middle of central Europe's dumpling belt, the Czechs' take on bowel-paralysing Euro-stodge lacks the occasional delicacy of the Austrians or the tangy seasonings of the Poles. A typical Czech plateful consists of great slabs of greyish flesh slathered with fatty, tasteless gravy, mopped up with dumplings that taste like kitchen roll dipped in egg. Still, what Czech cooks lack in imagination, they compensate for with meat - lots of it. Telling a Czech you don't like meat is like expressing a dislike for oxygen. The bezmasa ("without meat") section of a typical menu does not contain vegetarian dishes, but ones that have an ever so slightly lower tonnage of meat in them that the rest of the card, as the Czechs think that eggs and vegetables must be lonely without pork fat to keep them company. That people with standards so low for anything savoury can produce such exquisite cakes and beer is one of Europe's great mysteries.
Bron: Guardian Online
Voor het volledige artikel: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1783596,00.html. (Holland wordt ook onder de loep genomen.
Wat het Tsjechische gedeelte betreft, vind ik dat de schrijver gelijk heeft over de vegetarische dishes. :tomaat: Maar dat knedliky smaken als een deegrol met eismaakje is wel een beetje overdreven.