Being able to go eat physically at a restaurant or a bistro is a luxury nowadays. Due to government restrictions, most eateries have temporarily changed into food delivery service, which might be costly for a student budget. Of course, eating out is one of the pleasures of the Prague experience. There are many hip and trendy restaurants around UNYP that you can enjoy, however eating out every day might not be financially efficient. Cooking for yourself should be an essential life skill that will come handy throughout your whole life.
The most comfortable, time efficient and safe way to buy groceries is through online grocery stores. Three main providers in Prague are rohlik.cz, kosik.cz and itesco.cz. They all work on the same bases and might differ in delivery price and variety of products.
Higher tier physical grocery stores in Prague are Mark and Spencer Food, Delmart and Sklizeno. These options tend to have higher quality, organic and exotic products.
Then there are widely used grocery stores like Albert, Billa, Tesco, Kaufland and Lidl, that offer wide variety of goods for reasonable price.
To maximize efficiency, you might want to cook for more days ahead. Of course eating the same dish 3 days in a row might get repetitive. However, a good thing is to choose 3 recipes, make 3 portions out of each and you can have 9 meals ready to be eaten at any time. This way you will have more options to make your days brighter.
For meal preparation, choose dishes that gives you the most “bang for the buck”. Eating 3 days old cheesy pasta is not something you want to experience. Usually, stews, braises, stir-fries or soup can hold a good quality through longer period of time in the fridge. Stews and braises might taste even better after a day. A good meal prep dish is for example Bolognese sauce or curry. Therefore, think about the lifespan of your meals before you cook them.
Now this depends on you and how you cook. Based on our experience you can get away with a small pot, a large pot and an universal pan. One small pan is not effective for meal prepping. Make sure to buy some Tupperware to have a sanitary way to store your food. You can get everything from Ikea for a very reasonable price.
One day old pasta or rice is nothing to write home about. The best thing you can do with your carbs is to prepare them fresh for a meal if possible. Or at least for the day. Meat, veggies, and sauce will hold a good quality for few days. Therefore we recommend you to stock up on items such as pasta, rice, and potatoes. Preparing your sides usually doesn’t take longer than 15 minutes.
These are general tips on how to cook for yourself at home. It should help you to become an independent individual and grow as a person. It will also save you time, that you can use for more productive or fun activities. You can even go further and agree with your roommates to share food that you both cooked, so you can get more variety. Of course, you can combine this with eating out and treating yourself with a restaurant meal. We definitely don’t want you to miss out on Prague’s rich gastronomic scene. Did you know, that according to HappyCow.net, Prague belongs to top 10 vegan-friendly cities of the world? Thanks to our students, we have listed the best plant-based restaurants around UNYP. Once all restaurants open again, check out UNYP Benefits Program for discounts in eateries around UNYP.
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