Tesco

Tesco is like a British version of Wal-mart. You can buy clothes, electronics, housewares, groceries, etc. In the local shops most products are in 4 languages - Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian. Not much help.

At Tesco, you have the same thing but a lot of the products there often have some English on the labels. I was finally able to find fabric softener at a Tesco because the label said "fabric softener". But that was it. I couldn't read anything else (instructions, ingredients, etc.) because the rest of the label was in Czech and Slovak. But hey, I'll take what I can get.

Grocery shopping takes me longer here because most of the time I have to figure out what I'm looking at. Here's what I picked up today.
Instant coffee, tea, butter, 3 croissants, rye bread, 1 liter of orange juice, 2 liters of skim milk, and 1 liter of apple & black currant juice. This was all I needed and it was all that would fit in my backpack. The grand total came out to 231 Kč (~$12.80 U.S.).

The apple & black currant juice tastes like cran-apple juice, but a little sweeter. I wonder if I will ever get used to buying milk that is not refrigerated?

Hemet, California

Hemet is a small city in California.  It is 315 miles (507 km) from Prescott and about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.  From Prescott it's about a 5½ hour drive.  My grandparents retired here back in the early 1980s and this was the first stop back in Cali in order to visit my uncle.

Hemet was founded in 1887 and incorporated in 1910.  It's a small city with +78,600 people.  It is basically a working-class retirement town.

The biggest claim to fame that Hemet has is "The Ramona Pageant".  It started in 1923 and is California's official outdoor play.  In fact it is one of the longest running outdoor plays in the USA.  Aside from the play, Hemet also now has the new Diamond Valley Lake.

For my Euro crew, everyone knows that Tesco is the UK's largest retailer.  Is is actually the world's 3rd largest retailer.  Well, despite the fact that the U.S. market is tough for UK business, Tesco opened its first "Fresh & Easy" in Hemet back in 2007.

Fresh & Easy is modeled after Tesco Express so it is meant to compete with convenience stores.  The stores are 75% smaller than the average American supermarket.  Today, you can find +185 of these stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

My visit to Hemet was really nice because I finally got to meet Francis.  She was a very good friend to my grandmother.  After my grandmother passed away last year, I started sending her postcards to Francis.  She is just the sweetest person.  It's nice to finally be able to put a face to a name.

Dr Pepper

One of the things that I miss about living over here in the ČR is Dr Pepper. I never drank it hardcore but I would enjoy the occasional soda. I think that I may miss it more simply because it's not available here.

I've had Dr Pepper in the UK but they don't sell it here. One of my colleagues found it at Kaufland and brought me a bottle to work. I went to Interspar and they actually have Dr Pepper in stock. I almost cried with happiness.

Too bad I can't buy it at Albert or Tesco. A few of my Czech friends have said that I need to remove it from my blog's list of things not available here in Czechland. Not so fast! I'm first going to wait and see if this is just a passing fad. I got all excited last year when I saw passion fruit juice at Tesco. I was so happy that I bought all 8 liters they had on the shelf. And I've never seen it since then. But here's hoping that I'll now be able to enjoy a cold Dr Pepper whenever I feel like it.

Flour

Flour is very different between the USA and ČR.

In the USA, flour is sold by its intended use: all-purpose flour, cake flour, bread flour, etc.

Over here, flour is sold according to how coarsely it has been ground.  Wheat flour is the most common type of flour but there are several textures.

For pastry flour you need to look for Hladká mouka výběrová.

Hladká mouka, "smooth flour" is the equivalent to all-purpose flour.  It's used for thickening soups and sauces, as well as, for pie crusts, Czech pancakes, and Christmas cookies.

Polohrubá mouka, "semi-course" is the equivalent of high gluten flour.  Czechs use it for making coffee cake and Christmas or Easter sweet breads.

Hrubá mouka is "course" flour and is the equivalent of first clear flour.  Czechs use this as the main ingredient for bread dumplings or noodles.  It can also be used in some cake recipes.

Pšeničná Krupice is the coarsest flour.  Very similar to semolina; white whole wheat.  It's normally used to make dumplings.

To make self-rising flour you combine 150g (1 cup) of flour, ½ teaspoon of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of baking soda (bicarbonate soda).  The baking powder is sold in 12g or 20g sachets in the market.  The only place to buy baking soda is at a pharmacy.

American Bisquick

This is all way to complicated for me.  I love my Bisquick.  It's a boxed mix of flour, salt, baking powder and shortening.  I've received a few care packages which has kept me from having to deal with the Czech flour situation.

British Bisquick

Bisquick isn't available here but it is available in the UK.  Nat normally grabs me a couple of boxes every time she's back there for work.  The UK Bisquick comes in a different box but it's more or less the same.  Except that the American version is bright white while the UK version has a beige tint to it.

Here's a recipe I found online for fake Bisquick.  Combine 1 cup of flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of oil or melted butter.

EDIT:  Natalie found 100g sachets of baking soda at Tesco. 

Sokolská Flat

For those of you who have waited patiently, here are the pictures of my flat. It is on Sokolská street in Brno's Veveří (Vuh-ver-Zhee) district, about a 10-minute walk to the city center. It is around the corner from the botanical gardens and a police station. My building is the one in the middle. It was renovated a few years ago and my flat was built on top. My flat is a 3+KK which means it has a living room, two bedrooms and a kitchen. It is 80 m² which is just over 861 sq. feet and that is huge over here.

When you walk in to the building you find the mailboxes on the left. Very tiny. I'm told that you have to go to a post office to pick up packages. Subtle, huh?




Straight ahead is the elevator. Just open the door and get in. When the door closes behind you then push a button. The elevator goes up to the 4th floor (a U.S. 5th floor) and then you just walk up one flight of stairs.

Here's the front door and now let the tour begin...

When you walk in there are wardrobes on the left and right. Straight ahead is the kitchen. On the right is a hallway leading to the toilet and the bathroom.


So going down the right hallway we come to the WC (water closet). Of the flats I saw with a separate toilet, ½ had a sink and ½ didn't.

After that we have the bathroom. It has an electric skylight, sink, groovy heated towel bar, and my shower! Love the shower!!

It also has a combo washing machine/dryer. Dryers are very rare over here. Everyone just hangs clothes up to dry. The loads are small and take a really long, long time. But I don't have to schlep clothes, on a tram, to a laudromat any more.

Straight ahead from the entry way is my dining table. The kitchen is to the right and the living room is to the left. The kitchen is big for Europe. It has both an electric and a manual skylight. Here's the microwave I bought at Tesco this week.

The electric kettle is neat. Hot water in less than a minute. I've got a cooker (stovetop), an oven, and a dishwasher. Dishwashers are not too common over here.

I have a fridge and a freezer. The freezer has one big drawer on top and a small drawer below.

Now on to the living room. That isn't a phone on the wall. That's the buzzer for the main building door.

I've got a sectional couch and a TV. I only have basic service but pick up stations in Czech, Slovak, German, French and two English-language news channels.

The white sofa folds down to a double bed.

The flat is a duplex. There are just two rooms upstairs.

Here's my study/guest room. There is a skylight in here too. The single bed is a box with a padded top to sleep on. It lifts up to store your bedding.

My room has a double bed. But Czechs put in two single mattresses. Go figure. There are two skylights and a walk-in closet. This was the only flat I saw that had a walk-in closet.

From the balcony, looking down, is a common garden shared by the building.

My cheap, little camera can not do justice to the view from the balcony. I've got clear views of Petrov (the Cathedral of St. Paul and St. Peter) and the Špilberk Castle. It is amazing at night when they are lit up.

So there you have it.

Who is going to be the first guest from the U.S. to visit?