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Czech cuisine may not have the international reputation of its French, Italian or Japanese counterparts, but I wonder if that is just because it has not had the opportunity to flaunt itself on the international stage. While some may snigger, I have to admit that I quite enjoy Czech food, and I would be quite pleased to see my favourite Czech dishes readily available in London, New York, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo.

In the past few years, Prague, Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava have seen numerous restaurants spring up all over the cities, offering a wide selection of food ranging from light salads and sandwiches to hearty meals and deserts. However, whilst visitors from abroad find the meals reasonably priced, many locals cannot afford to eat out and therefore eat at home and only visit restaurants on special occasions. Find out what their home-cooked meals are like in this week's Central Europe Today where Dita Asiedu visits a chef in Prague and makes a three-course

As in any other country, there are several foods and dishes which are peculiar to the Czech Republic. As the country prepares to join the European Union in a couple of years, many people are afraid of losing some specialities of Czech cuisine which do not measure up to EU regulations. Further problems are caused by the fact that the names of some Czech foods - such as Znojmo cucumbers - include place names. Such place names are allowed, but they have to be registered. Alena Skodova reports:

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I decided to go out for a meal. Inspired by the recent events and political changes in the region, we thought we should perhaps try Afghan cuisine as none of us had ever tried it before. Since the fall of communism hundreds of restaurants serving foreign and exotic food have opened in Prague and one can easily find delicacies from the remotest parts of the world...