Most guidebooks describe Czech cuisine as heavy fare influenced by German and Hungarian cooking traditions, usually consisting of pork, cabbage and doughy dumplings smothered in gravy. Fair enough. But why do so few report that there are more caraway seeds per cubic centimetre in any Czech dish than there are snap-happy tourists on the Charles Bridge on a summer afternoon?

A standard platter looks like a bathtub silverfish convention or a herd, group, gaggle or whatever it’s called of tiny tadpoles in the spring. Between the time it takes to lay down your utensils and order the bill, the little buggers appear to have regrouped and gained in number. Never displayed on a menu, the seldom-mentioned seeds should be added to meal descriptions as a requirement for EU accession - like a list of ingredients on your favourite bottled beverage or a surgeon general’s warning on a pack of smokes.

To find out what the Czech menu means, click here.