Most Czech dishes can be simply explained: meat and a form of potatoes or bread. Traditional Czech food is pretty heavy, but very good for a cold or rainy day. My great-grandparents are Czech and cooking is really important to my family, so I grew up eating my family's Czech food. But I still had so much to learn about Czech food!
The most traditional Czech food is svíčkova (Sveech-ko-va). Svíčkova is a meat and vegetable dish. Every time I've asked a Czech person where to get the best svíčkova, the only response I've heard was "my grandma's kitchen." But my grandma never made svíčkova, so I went to three restaurants to try theirs. It was really good and the sauce was sort of sweet. Yum!
Most other classic Czech dishes are also popular in other Central and Eastern European countries because of how young a lot of the countries are. Guláš (or Goulash) is a meat and paprika stew with potato dumplings from Hungary. Řízek (or Schnitzel) is fried chicken, pork, or veal, served with potato salad and cranberry sauce.
My favorite Czech meal is smaženy sýr (ž makes the same sound as the S in viSion or the G in miraGe). Smaženy sýr is a fried block of cheese, served with boiled potatoes or french fries. I was pretty doubtful at first, but it's so good!
