Tips for the Best Food on Your Travels. Eat Like a Local!
I write food guides about places I've actually visited and dishes I've tried myself.
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I believe my food guides will help you discover the very best of the local food scene. Don't be afraid to try new dishes. You'll love the local specialties!
Bon appétit on your travels!
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Dejvická 34 Restaurant, Prague: Lunch Menu and a Late Dinner
My third stop at Dejvická 34, chef Tomáš Černý's restaurant and the only Italian place in Czechia holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand. This time it was the lunch menu with mushroom soup, rabbit schnitzel and apple strudel - plus a few à la carte dishes that are served in the evening as the Pozdní dejvická večeře (Late Dejvice Dinner). To top it off, an alcohol-free Riesling from the house where Beethoven once lived.
Michelin Restaurants Czech Republic (Prague): Complete Guide, Contacts (2026)
The Michelin Guide is a prestigious gastronomic ranking that awards extraordinary restaurants around the world. In the Czech Republic, only one restaurant has two stars in 2026 - Papilio. Eight restaurants then have one star - La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise, Field, Casa de Carli, Entrée, Essens, La Villa, Levitate, and Štangl, eighteen other establishments hold the Bib Gourmand award, and another 52 establishments are listed on the Czech Michelin list.
Mămăligă: Cornmeal Porridge, the National Dish of Moldova and Romania
Mămăligă is a porridge made from cornmeal, water and salt - in Moldova and Romania it's cooked in a cast-iron ceaun pot and stands in for bread on the table. It owes its spread to Ottoman taxes, which ignored corn as animal feed. It's served in many forms, from a firm side for meat to a dish in its own right with salty cheese and sour cream.
Miel ca la Moldova: Moldovan-Style Lamb
Miel ca la Moldova, literally lamb as in Moldova, isn't in any cookbook - it's the name Chișinău's Acasă la Mama Restaurant gave its lamb. Fatty meat roasted until tender, with prunes and pieces of sautéed apple - a textbook case of the old Moldovan habit of adding fruit to meat. I declared it the best dish of my Moldovan trip.
Colțunași: Boiled Dumplings Made with Unleavened Dough
Colțunași are boiled dumplings made with unleavened dough, a dish Moldova shares with Romania: they're filled with brânză cheese, potatoes with onion, cabbage or sour cherries, and served hot with cold sour cream. The name literally means little socks and has the same Italian root as calzone. What sets them apart from Russian pelmeni is the ready-cooked filling; their closest relatives are Ukrainian varenyky.
Cighiri: Pork Offal Meatballs Wrapped in Caul Fat
Cighiri are meatballs starring pork liver, lungs and heart, wrapped in pork caul fat and fried in lard. A festive dish of historical Moldavia - today's Moldova and Romania's northeast - cighiri were traditionally made at the December pig slaughter, and these days they turn up on restaurant menus too. The caul, called prapur, holds each portion together, adds fat and bakes until crisp.
Pârjoale: Big Moldovan Meat Patties
Pârjoale are big patties of ground pork and beef, held together by bread soaked in milk and grated raw potato. They're coated in breadcrumbs and fried until golden. Their home is the whole historical region of Moldavia, from Chișinău to Iași in Romania - but the name once belonged to a bone-in chop, and the potato only found its way into the recipe over time.
Murături: Fermented Vegetables That Never Met Vinegar
Murături is the umbrella name for vegetables put up for the winter, traditionally fermented in salt brine: cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage, but also stuffed eggplants, apples and even watermelons. Moldova shares the word with Romania and the principle with all of Eastern Europe. Fermented vegetables have their own entry in Moldova's national register of intangible heritage, and in winter they go with every fatty dish.
Zeamă: Moldovan Sour Chicken Soup
Zeamă is a sour chicken soup with homemade noodles and lovage, one of Moldova's best-known dishes, shared with Romanian Moldavia. The broth from a home-raised hen is soured at the end of cooking with a fermented wheat bran liquid; in a ranking of the world's chicken soups, zeamă took third place. It's eaten with sour cream and a hot pepper - at weddings, when you have a cold, and at an ordinary lunch.
Borș Verde: A Sour Soup of Sorrel and Spring Greens
Borș verde is a sour spring soup of sorrel and the first spring greens that Moldovan cuisine makes with potatoes, egg and sour cream - and in restaurants with beef, too. Despite the name, there are no beets in it, and it's not an exclusively Moldovan invention: all of Eastern Europe knows the same soup under different names, from Ukrainian green borscht to Polish sorrel soup.