Brno, Czech Republic

I spent the last few months traveling from London to Beijing. Here is a taste of one place we spent time. Follow the links to read about others.

November 11th-15th, 2005

We left Liszó, Hungary, spent one night in Budapest, and then headed to Brno, Czech Republic. There we visited a friend from college, Chris, who has moved to Brno with his awesome girlfriend Kate. They have a beautiful apartment and were kind to let us stay with them while we were in town.

John and I arrived a bit worn-out from our quick-paced recent travels and spent a lovely few days with them eating, drinking, playing pinball, cooking, visiting the Mies Van Der Rohe Tugendhat home, and watching VH1's top one-hit wonders.

John and I had not had a chance to cook in a very long time. We jumped at the opportunity to use their kitchen and decided to try our hand at making pierogi. This was our first attempt and it went fairly well. Next time we make them from scratch I think I will have to research dough recipes better. The one we found made decent wrappers, but they were a bit too thick and bready for my tastes. A more delicate recipe would do the delicious potato filling wonders.

I also made some marjoram and olive bread. Typically I would not have chosen marjoram, but it was one of the few herbs I could identify in the grocery store. It worked pretty well, but didn't add too much flavor. I also used both green and black olives, chopped.

Both the pierogi and bread turned out well. We bought a selection of delicious Czech beers and shared a nice dinner with Chris and Kate. It was nice to relax with them for a few days and it certainly prepared us for the transition into a nice and slow six weeks in Poland.