
The Communist Cookbook That Defined Prague’s Cuisine - UpshotKnothole
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-pragues-food-like
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lainga
There is an episode of _Chef 's Table_ on Netflix dealing with the same effect
on Russia's cuisine, and how this chef was trying to resurrect all sorts of
traditional Russian dishes which had in effect been lost for 80 years because
they were seen as too bourgeoisie. It incidentally also went into how the
Western sanctions against Russia had only strengthened his project, because it
led to an ersatz locavore movement and forced him to use Russian-available
ingredients. For example, he tries to use only honey instead of sugar, because
the latter wasn't really present historically in Russia.

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contingencies
Interesting. Honey is super expensive though.

FYI _bourgeois_ is the adjective (or single member of the social caste),
_bourgeoisie_ is the pronoun for the social caste.

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jpatokal
Historically in Europe it was sugar that was super expensive, and honey was
the only widely available sweetener.

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contingencies
Of course. So how and when did they begin to make jams and marmalades? It
seems... post new world.

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lainga
Well, marmalade is descended from the Greek _melmelion_ , meaning "honey
fruit".

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contingencies
Mmm. Honey marmalade with an ancient Greek connection. Subtle overtones of
anti-capitalism, retro cool and holistic herbal healing. Think you just
spotted a new hipster breakfast trend. Sourdough it, mix with your Euromuesli,
gourmet burger/wrap or pizza that stuff and cash in. Minimalist line drawings
of naked Greek athletes: boom. Fad.

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titanix2
One thing I discovered and really liked during my stay in CR is soup. Contrary
to potages or soups of my country they often contain meat, and ingredients
with various textures. I liked it so much I bought a book on the topic:
Polevky by Alena Doležalová. It’s filled with beautiful pictures and most
recipes features variants.

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l5870uoo9y
One thing they haven't forgotten is how to brew beer. If you visit to Prague I
would recommend visiting one of the old state-run restaurants, Lokál Dlouhááá:
[http://lokal-dlouha.ambi.cz/en/](http://lokal-dlouha.ambi.cz/en/)

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awiesenhofer
Second that recommendation! While not state-run anymore all the "Lokáls" and
Kantina serve amazing food with lots of ambiente from the old cold war times

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yread
> ambiente

incidentally (or not?) this is the name of the company that runs them

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carlob
I think there is something misleading about comparing high cuisine with
middling cuisine. Like when people compare French and British cuisine: the
former developed as the cuisine of kings in the 16-17th century and then kind
of trickled down to expensive restaurants, while the latter developed during
the industrial revolution and was something that every salaried man could
afford to eat at home.

A similar story happened with communist cuisine: as a matter of fact most
people were not eating that well before WWII, and for them communist cuisine
was definitely an improvement. The majority of the population could not afford
restaurants anyway.

If you're interested in this kind of topics there is "Cuisine and Empire", by
Rachel Laudan (that's where I took most of the ideas).

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macspoofing
>A similar story happened with communist cuisine

Let's be clear about this though. The communist government mandated the
specific recipes. It wasn't something that developed organically.

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vetinari
While we are clearing things up: the purpose of specific recipes was
standardization and quality control. The purpose of ČSN was something like ISO
today.

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macspoofing
No it wasn't. There is always a level of social engineering and control behind
decisions like that from communist government. Not to mention that it would
have been intimately tied to a deeply flawed economic model (which resulted in
predictable outcomes like shortages AND rationing, which then resulted in more
direct government control) and pure corruption with decisions benefitting
party-connected individuals.

It is nothing like ISO.

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vetinari
Yes it is. Your post is reflection of your opinion of the system, formed by
whatever means, but it hasn't shown any sign of trying to understand the
problem that the system was solving. In this case, how to make sure an
unified, standardized product is being produced.

After 1989, many foods that were produced by these recipes (ČSN means
Czechoslovak State Norms) went downhill quality-wise, by trying to make it
cheaper to produce (by changing the ingredient mix in favour of the cheaper
ingredients, using cheaper substitutes, etc).

How do I know? I was born, raised and lived in that system. I've seen it
firsthand.

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macspoofing
>...but it hasn't shown any sign of trying to understand the problem that the
system was solving. In this case, how to make sure an unified, standardized
product is being produced.

Yes. They were trying to solve a non-issue in a way that aligned with the
ideological (social and economic) position of the communist movement. I get
it. I just refuse to interpret those kind of actions in a charitable light by
linking them to modern professional organizations that create voluntary
standards. It's similar to looking at the way the Venezuelan government
destroyed their economy and arguing that it is no different from typical
social welfare policy of a Western market-based nation because it was all done
to combat poverty or something.

It's pure distortion to interpret this cookbook as _merely_ a quality or
standards measure. It misses the mark and distorts the reality of why it
existed.

>How do I know? I was born, raised and lived in that system.

I grew up in Eastern Europe. I've seen it first-hand as well.

I understand that not every law or regulation was meant to be push an
ideological position but let's be clear, it is no coincidence that the
identified problem and the particular solution on this matter just so happen
to neatly align with ideological considerations. Considerations like:

1) top-down regulation that mandated what a 'real' Czech meal is.

2) needing to wait years for permission to deviate from the official recipes.

3) maintaining the system long past the original problem (if it ever existed)
became a complete non-issue.

4) mandating meals that align with the optics of what a 'proletariat' meal
should be.

5) aligning this policy with economic policies that combat self-inflicted
problems of shortages, inflation, lack of external trade.

etc,etc,etc

>many foods that were produced by these recipes (ČSN means Czechoslovak State
Norms) went downhill quality-wise

Maybe, but I think even that interpretation is flawed. What you interpret as
quality going 'downhill', is really a product stratified across different
price/quality levels to cater to different markets. You can get high-quality
meals for more money, and lower-quality meals for less money. That does not
mean quality went down, it means choices increased when a suffocating and
market-distorting regulation is lifted.

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david927
The entire article suffers from a common misconception that former communist
countries "suffered horribly from lack of innovation," when it was a negative
against many other positives of the time. Food was cheaper and higher quality
than now. For example, Czechs still love this cookbook because it set a high
bar for quality of ingredients for schools and work cafeterias. They don't see
it as _confining_ as much as _defining_.

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nickray
Is there any English translation of the original? Would be curious to see the
actual recipes!

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dejv
They were not really good anyway. They took classic local recipe and
standardize it to lowest denominator and made them cheap and failproof. There
is new wave of interest in Czech traditional cuisine + there was always
homemade versions, but I dont think there is any cookbook translated to
English.

If you are curious search for Austrian, German or Hungarian cookbooks, all of
those share the same roots and overlaps.

