As I make my way through the small, winding streets of Český Krumlov (ČK), Czech Republic, I can't help but notice the sweet smell of trdelníks, or sweet pastries, everywhere. I liken it to the unmistakable U.S.A. theme park smell of warm fried dough, cinnamon and sugar. This week, I am in the Czech Republic for the first time. I am attending a workshop focused on genomics with many people worldwide, including people from Brazil, Nigeria, Hong Kong and Japan. With that mouthwatering smell, naturally, we have all wanted to try the famous trdelníks, and there are multiple stalls in ČK dedicated explicitly to serving variations of the pastries.
I tried trdelník, a sweet pastry popular among the paying tourists of the Czech Republic. Before my trip to Southern Czech Republic, I had never heard of such a pastry. During my short day trip to Prague before coming here, I did not see any stalls serving these, but I must have entirely overlooked them (or under-smelled them). Despite being very popular among Czech vendors, trdelníks may have first originated as a Slovak, Romanian or Hungarian pastry.
