aabram wrote:Just came back from trip to Prague and was taken by surprise by the sheer number of Vietnamese restaurants there. Turns out there are over 80 000 Vietnamese in Czech Republic and they're third largest minority group after Slovaks and Ukrainians.
According to Wikipedia:
"Vietnamese immigrants began settling in the Czech Republic during the Communist period, when they were invited as guest workers by the Czechoslovak government. Migration was encouraged by the Vietnamese authorities, with the intention that the migrants would return with skills and training. Following the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia, many Vietnamese decided to remain in the country rather than return home."
Totally was not expecting that. I did have some very nice Vietnamese meals in Prague and can recommend small Vietnamese restaurant in Old Town: Bánh mì ba. There's a Korean restaurant just across the corner there as well and they have many Korean dishes usually not seen in Korean restaurants in Europe, such as tteokbokki, but flavour of the dishes is slighty milder and sweeter than you'd get in Korea. But that Vietnamese place is so good! It's really tiny and crowded at lunchtime, but well worth checking out.
Well, Nguyen is the second or third most common surname in the Czech Republic. The vietnamese minority is the brightest example of integration here, in some ways perhaps even more successful than the ukrainian one. The slovaks are and aren't a minority. Since they have been a different nation for only 25 years, their position is different.
Despite the whole vietnamese success with integration (the real one, neither assimilation, nor segregation. with second and third generations being bilingual, knowing both cultures, and doing lots of other stuff than just working in a stereotypical vietnamese shop), our vietnamese have got enough confidence for their own restaurants only recently. During communism and quite long after that, they ran the chinese restaurants, other asian ones were rare. But don't expect real chinese restaurants, I've heard the original traditional food in China is very different and much more varied, based on the region. The tradition of the "czech chinese" restaurants started during the communism, because 1.many ingredients were not available 2.czechs couldn't travel, so how could they tell individual asians and their traditions apart. You can still find these restaurants and they are not necessarily bad. But going for real vietnamese food is a totally different experience.
You didn't discover the best vietnamese restaurant, I guess the one in Old Town may have been a bit too touristy. There is a greal one in Vinohrady. The same owner runs a classical restaurant and also a bistro, where you can even see your meal being prepared.
As to surprises about the Czech Republic and the citizens of asian roots: the leader of one of our most populist and racist political parties is half Japanese. Anything is possible in this country. The sad part is him being in the parlament, but that may hopefully change in a month from now. And his brother, also czech-japanese and much more likeable, is member of a traditional christian party, a devout catholic, also a candidate in these elections, and he works on representing totally different and more czech values.
Actually, this story of two brothers of mixed origin is very interesting to our media and to the general population too. Two men, who definitely don't look like typical czechs yet feel to be czechs and consider this country and culture theirs. Each represents a totally different view on what it means to be czech, european, patriot, protector of our tradition.
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What surprised me in Spain a few years ago: their chinese community! They seem to be just like our vietnamese! A typical spanish-chinese and czech-vietnamese shop is so similar, that I accidentally started talking in Czech in one of those in Spain!