Homemade Knedľa

Woe is me for living in a place with no Slovak restaurants.  (Let's face it, the States isn't big on Slovak restaurants in general; your best bets are New York or Chicagoland.  There are also a few Czech food trucks in the Northwest.)  If Ahab can't go to the Slovak food, the Slovak food must come to Ahab.

When my dad was making pork for dinner last night, I decided we needed to have an appropriate side dish.  We don't have the right kind of potatoes to make halušky, since it would probably look pretty weird made with little multicolored ones.  We did, however, have all the right ingredients to make knedľa.  Knedľa is a big steamed dumpling, usually in the shape of a loaf, though mine turned out a little more round because of how I had to steam them.  Knedľa is most often served with saucy pork dishes.

Although I'd never made knedľa before, the recipe is pretty straightforward: Activate the yeast, mix it with flour, milk, and egg, knead for a bit, let it rise, form the loaves, and steam them.  For the complete recipe and many more Slovak favorites, check out Slovak Cooking.  I pretty much never underestimate my ability to mess up a recipe, but everything turned out okay. 

Here's the bigger of the two loaves in all its dumplingy glory.  The recipe says to cut the knedľa with a thread or piece of dental floss, but I just used a serrated knife.  Next time I'm going to have to make a proper entree to go with it.  Until then, I (and all of my former students and fellow teachers who saw this same picture on Facebook) am very proud of my successful knedľa. 

Inspiration: ASCE

"It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place."
Percy Bysshe Shelley on the English Cemetery in Rome

I think I already know the answer to this question, but: Did you know that there is an Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe?  I only learned this recently, when I'm clearly no longer in Europe. This is the problem.  I learn these things, and then figuratively kick myself, going, "There's a cool cemetery in Montmartre?  Why didn't I go when I was there?"  (Because last time you were in Montmartre you were with a bunch of other high schoolers, Ahab, and on a tour with a tight schedule.  They weren't going to let you wander off to a cemetery by yourself.)  But it's not just Paris; it's Kraków and Porto and Dublin and Vienna.  And on top of that there are the places I haven't been yet, like Berlin and Malmö.

Aside from information about the Association itself and notices about events, tours, and lectures around Europe, the site also has listings for individual cemeteries.  The majority of the descriptions are in English and include general information and history, famous interments and notable monuments, opening times, directions via public transportation, and, of course, photographs.  One navigation difficulty that I've noticed is that although there is an interactive map, clicking on its icons does not take you directly to that cemetery's page.  The best way I've found to navigate is to choose a country from the drop-down list above the map.

Unfortunately, the Association does not include a one cemetery in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.  In my opinion, Olšany Cemetery in Prague rates as "significant," and, although I've not visited it yet, Vyšehrad is full of important Czechs, like Dvořak and Mucha, and on those grounds alone I think it should be included.  It also doesn't have the London cemetery I most want to visit, Highgate.  That said, I'm sure the ASCE has a process for adding sites that I don't understand, and I respect their expertise in matters of historical funerary arts.