When I chose to go to Prague, I was excited to see gothic architecture, some beautiful castles and churches, and walk along the Charles Bridge. I was unsure of the food culture, so I took to the internet to find what the people of Praha eat. Immediately, I came across trdelnik on instagram and learned that the snack is a churro-looking street food stuffed with ice cream, nutella, appel strudel, or savory items. After passing the images around, my friends decided that we would be idiots not to sample it while we were in Prague so we began looking for it.
After we stepped out of our hostel for the first time, we made it to Old Town Square where we encountered lots of street food. As we walked past the food kiosks, we passed large hunks of ham or Czech prosciutto on rotisseries and could smell potatoes and cabbage cooking in large pots. However, the best smells came from the trdelnik stands, where there were large cylinders spinning in a chamber with dough draped around it. The doughs were coated with cinnamon and sugar and the aroma was heavenly.
However beautiful the treats were, my first encounter with the snack was not what I had envisioned. I ordered a trdelnik with swirled chocolate and vanilla soft serve and raspberry sauce, and was honestly disappointed. The dough was cold from the ice cream and was more hard than chewy, indicating to me that I had not been served a fresh batch. The cinnamon and sugar was tasty and soft serve is always good, so I obviously finished it; I knew that I could do better.
So, the next night, we were at the food stands near the Opera House, and we all decided to try some more. This time, I ordered the apple strudel trdelnik, and was much more satisfied. This time the dough was fresh, although still not hot, and the apples were delicious.
While trdelnik is definitely a yummy treat, it is far from the best thing I have eaten while in Europe. However, it is definitely one of the best looking things I have eaten, possibly ever in my life. So, is it a bit of hype on instagram? Yes. But, if you go to Prague and don’t at least try it once, you will have missed out greatly.
Conosco I Miei Polli 