Summer Challenges

A bit of a detour in this post...I promise I'll get back to the travel posts right away (I'm leaving on Saturday for another round of travel, so I better get done with Mom & Dad's visit and my trip with Dasa!!!)

One of my colleagues at work, Charity (I hope you don't mind being named in the blog), has returned Stateside for the summer. But before she left, she and I were talking about what I was going to be doing all summer, etc. and she said, "I should send you some challenges or something from the States for you to get out and about in Ostrava!" and I replied, "Bring it!". *this may not have been the actual conversation*

So it was a few weeks ago that a challenge arrived on my facebook wall:

 I think you're ready for a challenge. Find a farmer's market to go to in ostrava. There's one alternate weeks at Futurum and Saturdays on Hlavni Trida. Find the most attractive vendor and ugliest vendor and buy at least one thing from each. Then find a way to turn your buys into a meal or dish. bonus points if you take photos of the vendors. Challenge part two: go to the produce section of a grocery store and buy some vegetable or fruit you don't know. Write down the Czech name. Go home and ID the vegetable/fruit and research and prepare a dish from it. Then share your research and result on FB. You've got till next Sunday ... And go!

Bila kedlubna

I accepted this challenge....well, OK, I've completed part of challenge #1. I have not been able to get to a farmer's market yet, but I'm still trying. I DID, however, get something at the grocery store and cook it. I picked up a bila kedlubna. Oooohhh....look at my Czech!! As it turns out, a bila kedlubna is a white turnip. Something that I had never cooked with before. A quick perusal online and I found a recipe for a spring frittata. Now, I know it's not spring anymore, but I liked the look of it and the fact that a lot of veggies could be used in it AND I have never cooked a frittata before. Here is the result:

Frittata with turnip, spinach, onions and mushrooms

A tasty summer dinner!!

SUCCESS!!!

Challenge #1, part 2 complete. 

Then I received the next one:

Challenge 2: Evaluation. Hopefully it's a hot one there . . . this week, go to at least three ice cream stands in Ostrava. Try flavours that you've never had before and write a review of each experience, you could include things like: customer service, attractiveness of the server, ice cream texture, price, accuracy of supposed flavour title, level of summery-ness, etc. By next Sunday, write a blog compiling your reviews of the three ice cream stands. **IF** by some twist of fate you don't like ice cream, you can substitute the ice cream for three ledova kava (iced [with ice cream] coffee) drinks throughout Ostrava or another fitting Ostrava treat.

Hmmmm......since it's been extremely hot the last few days, this was definitely a challenge I willingly, nay, gleefully accepted!!!

Ice cream stop number one: on Postovni near the post office. For 10 czk. (that's about 50 cents to my American friends), I got one scoop of Modra Zmrzlina- blue ice cream, or sometimes referred to as 'smurf' ice cream- in a regular sugar/cake cone. Customer service at this window was pretty good. The kid behind the stand was in his late teens...as soon as he understood that I was speaking English, he switched to English. He was not attractive (I mean, I may be a cougar, but this would have been robbing the cradle!!!!), but he gets bonus points for trying to upsell. When I said one scoop, he acted shocked and said, "Really?! Just one!?". And not in a "Americans are fat and obviously want 20 scoops" kind of way. Once I paid and turned to leave, he said, "Bye!". Pleasant enough for the Czech Republic. Now to the ice cream itself.....here is a picture:

Modra Zmrzlina (Blue ice cream)

How to describe it....um, well, I was disappointed. It tasted nothing like a smurf, which I imagine is sickly sweet and yet slightly cheesy, and not what I imagine blue to taste like, of freedom and sky. It tasted like.....vanilla ice cream dyed blue so that your tongue turns blue. That's it! Just like Mykala, I was NOT IMPRESSED!!

Not impressed with the blue ice cream!

On to ice cream #2. This one was bought from the window by the Albert's grocery store near my flat. There wasn't a lot of selection, so I went with a flavor I have had before, but not on any consistent basis. Pistachie (pistachio). This scoop was 12 czk., served in a cake cone by a generally pleasant man in his mid-50s. He seemed rather pre-occupied with the soft serve machine and barely gave me the time of day beyond handing me the cone. Meh. But he gets bonus points for wearing plastic gloves....hygiene is good!

As for the taste...this scoop was a bit bigger and it did have that pistachio taste. I would have liked to see a deeper sea foam green color and a stronger flavor. But it was OK. I would have this flavor again, maybe a double scoop, as opposed to the blue ice cream which I would never buy again. 

Pistachie- yum, yum!

Now as for the 3rd ice cream stand......I'll be honest, it's been so hot, I've not been out and about much. However, tonight I ventured out with a friend to get pedicures (which is a whole other post!!). I, also, finally got a fan for my flat....oh the sweet, sweet relief of cool air!!

On our way out of the mall, we stepped outside and were blown back my the stunningly sweltering summer night (oh, look at that alliteration!). We quickly made the executive decision to get ice cream before we walked to the tram stop. And as luck would have it....McDonald's was right there!!

Ice cream #3. I ordered a Magnum Dark Chocolate Classic McFlurry, which I've never had before so I feel I stayed true to the challenge!! This was the most expensive ice cream in the challenge, not shocking. It was 50 czk. ($2.50) (which is kind of a lot) and served to me by a man I believe was the manager. Very efficient, if not overtly friendly, service. 

Alas, I have no pictures of the McFlurry.....but it was delish. Vanilla soft serve with chocolate-fudgy-ish swirls and tiny medallions of dark chocolate. Yum! And it was much larger than the two cones. 

Final analysis: Ice cream is good no matter where you get it from!!!! Haha!!

Which brings me to my next challenge....

Challenge 3: correspondence. Remember those days when you first went overseas and you sent postcards galore? Your challenge is to visit 3 papirnictvi and buy some Ostrava or Czech postcards (pohlednice). Think of people you wish you'd maintained better contact with, get their addresses, and send them some notes. Send me one to prove you completed the challenge. Go to the post office Saturday.

Now.....I'll need some help with this one. I need people to send my cards to!!!! If you, my dear reader(s), would like to receive a lovely postcard/ note from me in the mail, please send me your address!!! You can either leave it as a comment here, send it to me on FB, or email it to my email address. I'd love to send you something....and if more than 2 people respond, I'll send more than 2 cards!! Let me know soon.......

So....these challenges have been fun. I like having some sort of activity to do and it gets me out and about. I'm seeing and experiencing a bit more of Ostrava/ Czech life. 

Charity, keep 'em coming!!!