Soup culture

As part of our program, we offered lunch.  To us Americans, this meant sandwiches,  cookies, and fruit.  But as we quickly learned, lunch to the Czechs meant soup, even on a very hot day. I of our crew, had the most experience creating these big stewing potfuls of meat, veggies and noodles. My family is East European, so maybe it's in my DNA.

By default, I became the camp  cook, arguably a more vital position than that of head teacher. I rose early each morning and started a broth.  Tastes vary by culture, but over time I figured what the students would eat.  I learned to use pork to flavor my cooking, which I never have, when producing borscht, leek and potato soup, corn chowder, and mushroom soup with potatoes.  I won't bore you with the recipes, but I'll be happy to share them.

These dishes were money savers as well as crowd pleasers, and talk about food and cooking helped build a bridge to our students. Meals in the Czech are pricey if you eat out or buy a lot of prepackaged food, but the produce here is extremely inexpensive.  I'll miss that.