Prague, Dec 24 (CTK) – Praguers as well as tourists were queueing for the traditional Christmas fish soup that Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO) with city councillors and unusually also new Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO chairman) served at Old-Town Square in the city centre today.
The organisers have prepared 3000 portions that started being offered around noon.
Prague 1 Mayor Oldrich Lomecky (TOP 09) and his team served 1000 portions of this soup in the lower part of the Wenceslas Square at noon as well.
All fish soup is usually distributed at Old Town Square in one and a half hours.
Not only the homeless, for whom this tradition was introduced originally, but also passers-by, foreign tourists and people who came to the Christmas markets, including whole families with children, could taste the fish soup. Most foreigners praised its mild taste.
The tradition goes back to the medieval habit when monasteries were giving free food to the people in need on the eve of Christmas.
A total of 660 kilos of base material were used for the fish soup this year. A team of cooks prepared it according to an old Czech recipe. The soup was based on a fish broth made of carp, including fish heads, milt and eggs as well as 100 kilos of root vegetable, 30 kilos of onion, 70 kilos of flour, 50 kilos of butter and 45 litres of cream. Three litres of cognac and some caramel were added to the soup to intensify its taste.
It was served with croutons.
Fish soup is usually part of a typical Christmas Eve’s dinner in Czech families, along with fried carp and potato salad.
The programme at Old Town Square continues at 21:00 when the Vox Pragae mixed choir and soloists from Czech and foreign scenes will perform the Czech Christmas Mass by Jakub Jan Ryba (1765-1815).