culinaria eugenius in prague: street food

With Europe enthralled by the World Cup soccer matches, non-sportsfans like me need not fear.  Y’all can sit on cobblestones and listen to the deafening buzzing hum of horns punctuated by the crowd’s roars.*  I’ll be peripatetic and peripheral, scoping out the street food set up to feed the masses.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Prague lacks street vendors in general.  I’m not sure I’ve even seen a mobile ice cream cart.  So we lucked out with the conference date.  They served Czech fast food — instead of hamburgers and hot dogs, a delicious grilled sausage (above) and chicken kebabs in a bun; and instead of elephant ears:

trdelnik, a cinnamon-sugar-coasted pastry baked in coals.  The dough stays soft in the middle, and you can wear it as a bracelet, thanks to the way in which it is rolled on a metal tube. But the most delicious treat of all is the stand with the spits of whole hams roasting.  Good god.

The ham man turns the wheel and slices off what you want.  N.b., he is wearing an old-school butcher’s apron.  I want one of those.  Will seek out in London later this summer.

But when the meat and bread products get old, you might choose a fruit cup, Prague style.  I saw these pints of berries at the open-air market, and had to try one.  No competition with Oregon, but it was nice to eat fresh fruit, and in season!

*It’s 1 a.m. and yet another parade just came stomping down the main drag near my hotel, singing “Olé Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé!” so I am going to be quite grumpy.