Eggs and more

Hello and welcome to Radio Prague's special language programme, the ABC of Czech. Today I'm joined by Jan Velinger. Today we kick off a brand new series in which we look at Czech vocabulary and idioms relating to food and cuisine.

It being Easter Sunday, we naturally start with the Czech Easter menu. The egg is a primary symbol of Easter and also the basic ingredient on the Easter table.

Eggs - vejce are more often referred to as vajíčka - which is the diminutive form. Decorated eggshells are called kraslice. Most often they are chicken eggs, slepičí vejce, but for a nice big kraslice you can use kachní - duck - or husí - goose eggs.

There are many ways in which eggs - vejce can be prepared. One is boiled - vařená. The safest way is natvrdo - hardboiled. Some may prefer them softboiled - naměkko or something in between - nahniličku.

Many people like scrambled eggs - míchaná vajíčka or egg omelettes - vaječná omeleta. Poached eggs - ztracená vejce - literally lost eggs, are not as popular as in other cuisines.

Eggs are also an important ingredient in Easter dishes. A special Easter sweet bread, called mazanec, is made of eggs, flour, butter, salt, sugar and raisins. A similar-tasting pastry is jidáš - as in Judas. It is served with butter and honey. A special sponge cake is made at Easter in a lamb-shaped baking mould - velikonoční beránek - the Easter lamb.

Lamb is not very popular in Czech cuisine but at Easter some people make an exception. Rabbit is also an option on the Easter table. A meal which is only made at Easter is a special kind of stuffing - nádivka or sometimes called hlavička. It's made of soaked bread, smoked meat, chopped herbs, including young nettles - and of course, eggs.

So those are some of the most typical Czech Easter dishes and if you liked any of them you can look up the recipes on our website.

So Happy Easter - Veselé Velikonoce and dobrou chuť - bon apetit.