Restaurants

(Reviews Resume In January 3 Issue)

Every year as Christmas approaches, vendors set up at busy street corners across Prague. They sell live carp to families eager to follow the Czech Christmas tradition of boney fish and potato salad.

Some city residents even sacrifice showers to keep their holiday carp alive in the bathtub for several days before Christmas—or so I’ve been told.

I never stooped to pry into neighbors’ tubs, or to try the country’s most typical celebratory meal. For some reason an oily fish my dad urged me to toss on the bank when we caught one from a stream that ran...