Na Zdraví!

It's that time of year again!  The 5th annual...

For 17 days (May 17th - June 2nd), you'll have the chance to imbibe in more than 70 brands of Czech beers.  Beer, food, music...need I say more?  

This year the festival returns to Vystavyště Holešovice (Prague Exhibition Grounds), which is a gorgeous building that was founded in the late 19th century and is used to this day for fairs, exhibitions, concerts and other activities.

For details and more information about the festival, please visit Czech Beer Festival

Na Zdraví!

You are ordered to drink wine today

Oh, how we thank thee Martin, for today is St. Martin's Day and we must drink young wine!

(Well, if you say so...not that this is a difficult request)

St. Martin's Day, or the Feast of St. Martin, is a time for feasting celebrations, for it's the time when autumn wheat seeding is completed.

A Czech proverb associated with the Feast of St. Martin is this:  Martin přijíždí na bílém koni (Martin arrives riding a white horse).   The white horse represents snow, and the saying signifies that the first half of November in the Czech Republic is the time when it often starts to snow.  There used to be (and I'm sure still is in some parts of the country) a festival (posvícení) complete with roast goose as the main feast dish.  Even without a festival, many restaurants and homes will be making roast goose with red cabbage and either bread or potato dumplings.  Mmmmm....

St. Martin

And this shouldn't come as a shock... there's a legend associated with the goose!  No, make that two legends!  One legend states that the goose is eaten because geese disturbed St. Martin’s sermons, thus they are now being punished in the pan.  The other legend states that St. Martin was so modest that he hid in a goose house to avoid his appointment as bishop, but the cackling of the geese gave him away.

Another tradition (and my favorite one!) is the praise of young wine...because young wine deserves to be celebrated!  The first bottle of the new vintage is opened every year on November 11th at precisely 11 am in every wine bar and restaurant (and home) in the Czech Republic.  I wrote about young wine during Burčák

season here - and now we get to uncork those bottles.  Look out for drunk happy people!

The St. Martin’s tradition is like the French celebrations for Beaujolais nouveau, however, the Czech ritual is much older.  These celebrations date back to the times of Emperor Josef II.  It was on this day that people were able to start pouring young wine from the autumn harvest.

Emperor Josef II

I say we pop open a bottle.  I mean, it's noon somewhere, right?

13th Annual Czech Street Festival

For those of you in and around NYC, don't forget that tomorrow is the 13th annual Czech Street Festival on 73rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.  Get your beer on!

Oct 1, 2011 1:00 PM

CZECH STREET FESTIVAL & STAROPRAMEN PARTY

Come celebrate Czech Independence Day! 13th annual celebration!! Czech Street Festival starts at 1pm on 73rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. STAROPRAMEN PARTY starts at 7:30pm at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street. Taste CZECH BEER - STAROPRAMEN!!

Come celebrate Czech Independence Day and savor the pleasantly smooth taste of Czech beer Staropramen!!
Enjoy live music, Czech food, children’s performances, souvenirs and much more!

From adults to kids, entertainment is guaranteed!

FREE RAFFLE - win a trip to Prague for two ~ Sponsored by STAROPRAMEN

Staropramen Premium Lager will be available from 3pm at the Bohemian National Hall.

NEW LOCATION!
Czech Street Festival starts at 1pm on 73rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues
STAROPRAMEN PARTY starts at  7:30pm at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street

Program:
CZECH STREET FESTIVAL
1:00     Performance by Children from the Czech and Slovak School School in Astoria
1:15     Opening Ceremony
1:30     Pajtasi dulcimer band
2:45     Czechoslovak - American Marionette Theater & Vit Horejs
3:30     Performance by Skyline - Concert
4:45     Raffle Draw
5:45     Please the Trees – Concert

STAROPRAMEN PARTY: 
7:30     Skyline
9:00     Please the Trees
10:30 Skyline DJ's Project

Program is subject to change.

Pig Feast and Beer Festival

The pig feast begins this Saturday, September 25th, at 11 am at Žluté Lázně

Enjoy delicious meat, meat, and more meat.  Wash it down with our favorite beverage, unfiltered beer.  Is there anything better?

Yes, why yes there is.  

You can also learn how to make jitrnice (Czech liver sausage).  Also to be enjoyed with a cold brew.

And don't forget it is Burčák season so plenty of that will be available along with slivovice...that delicious Czech plum brandy with 50% alcohol content.

Careful, or you'll end up like this guy:

There will also be old Bohemian music as well as various attractions such as the "beer wave", which is supposedly similar to the mechanical bull.  Let's see, lots of food, even more beer, lord only knows how many shots of slivovice...hmmm, this should be very good.

PS - entrance is FREE!

A wolf in sheep's clothing

The most dangerous beverage in Prague (and no it's not absinthe, although that's a close second) is most definitely Burčák.  

I don't like autumn, but it does bring with it Burčák season - and I love me some Burčák!  So hurry - you have until about November 30th to indulge in this ridiculously good young wine.

For those of you unfamiliar with this oh-so-good sweet nectar, Burčák is the fermented young Moravian wine that is available several weeks into the start of the grape harvest.  It's very sweet and damn good, but beware, for Burčák is known as a wolf in sheep's clothing (and, um, I can attest to that).

Besides its dangerously good phenomenal taste, there is a curse of Burčák.  You see, while it only contains about 5% alcohol, it continues to ferment while inside your body.  That sounds much worse than it is, and if you're like me you're probably visualizing some yeasty beast growing inside you.  Gross.  But no, nothing like that.  It simply means that the alcohol level of the insanely delicious sweet beverage you've been consuming for the past four hours (perhaps less, perhaps more) has grown to that of a normal, matured wine (approximately 13%) while in your body.  This most certainly explains why more than half of the folks I met at the Burčák festival were happy drunk (self-included).

Enjoying Burčák in Náměstí Míru, Prague

Although you can find Burčák this time of year at many establishments (especially wine bars) throughout Prague, I suggest going to the source.  Head to the wine region of Moravia and enjoy harvest celebrations in the town of Znojmo, as well as other large wine areas such as Mikulov and Valtice.  "Czechs but especially Moravians have a very deep, traditional relationship with Burčák, because it is a traditional Moravian beverage.  Though Austrians and Germans also produce and consume young wine, only Czechs have Burčák, the name now protected under new legislation within the new EU.  Following EU accession the only true Burčák can come strictly from Moravian or Czech grapes."   

Indulge - before it's all gone!