Zahradníček’s blog for English speaking students

Part twenty nine: Niva, or tvarůžky?

Cheese is not a typical Czech product. The most famous cheese country is probably France that gave
birth to Roquefort and all blue cheeses (although Italians believe that the oldest blue cheese is
Gorgonzola), camembert-like or brie-like cheese and many others. Dutch people have their famous
Gouda and Eidam, Swiss people their Emmental, even English have their Cheddar.

Maybe we should start with saying that the Czech word sýr is not as large as the English word
“cheese”. Especially some soft and not salty cheeses, that can be used to make cheesecakes or
tiramisu, should be rather translated into Czech as tvaroh. As mentioned last week, even Czech
Tradiční pomazánkové is a kind of cheese, similar to Philadelphia.

Czechs have their own variants of all the world cheeses. Some of them have the usual names – brie,
Eidam, Emmental (or ementál), sometimes you can also find a Cheddar (or čedar). Some of them might
have different names: Cammembert-like cheese is usually hermelín (but sometimes also plesnivec and
sometimes král sýrů what means king of cheeses). The blue cheese is usually sold as niva, and this
name is used for cheese that is made in different dairies. One of them comes from a small dairy in
Otinoves, a village close to Moravian Karst. For long years, it got mature in one of Moravian karst
caves, Michálka; now it is already not possible because of hygienic rules, but it is still one of
quite traditional and very good blue cheeses. You can also buy it fresh directly in the dairy (an
maybe to combine it with a trip to the Moravian Karst); but it is only open 7.30 a. m. to 5 p. m.
on workdays and 7 a. m. to 1 p. m. on Saturdays.

Some Czechs like processed cheese; children often get bread with processed cheese as a snack. But
now it is less common than in eighties, as many people stopped buying is because of addition of
emulsifier to these cheeses. It is partially rational, as some of the emulsifiers are really not
very good for health, on the other hand, it is also a part of a general hystery against food
aditives (even the aditives that are completely innocent). – Some Czechs also like steamed cheeses,
smoked cheeses, and sometimes also steamed and smoked cheeses; you can also see many of them on
advent markets and many other outdoor events. They are mostly imported from Slovakia (less
frequently also from South-East Poland), as they are traditional products of the Carpathian
mountains. Another typical chees from Carpathian mountains in bryndza, a soft, quite acid cheese
made of sheep milk. Fresh, non-pasteurized bryndza is a probiotic containing lots of enterococci.
Bryndza is a traditional Slovak cheese; but be careful when travelling through Europe – in Romanian
language “brânză” (read: brynzeh) means just “cheese”. Slovaks make a sauce of bryndza and cream
and they pour it on potato gnocchi called halušky; with some particles of bacon, it is a typical
Slovak meal (available also in Brno, for example in Skanzeen in Olympia, formerly also on Pekařská
street). It is called bryndzové halušky and of course, for best halušky you have to visit Slovakia,
or more precisely, Slovakian mountains. If you buy it on náměstí Svobody in Brno (or also the some
halušky with cabbage, another variant sometimes called strapačky), it does never taste so good.

Czechs also like aromatic cheese, that is traditionally served with Czech beer. Sometimes, bread
with such an aromatic cheese can be also obtained in pubs as “something to eat with beer”. One or
them is romadur, what is a Czech (and also German) name of the remoudou cheese from Belgium. – But
even more aromatic, and the only really Czech (more precisely, Moravian) cheese are Olomoucké
tvarůžky (Olmützer Quargel in German, no translation exists for English). Usually a packet contains
four or more pieces, that is why we have it usually in plural (tvarůžky and not tvarůžek). The
cheese is very aromatic (some people compare it with Malaysian/Singaporean durian, or Icelandic
kæstur hákarl), but it contains nearly no fat, so it is very dietary food. Despite its name, it is
not made in Olomouc, but in Loštice (30 km NW from Olomouc). In Loštice, you can find a small
museum and a special restaurants, that serves even sweet meals with tvarůžky. It is just on you, if
you would find it tasty or not.

                                                            Ondřej Zahradníček, 10^th December 2019