Czech please!

So Israel, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Malta, Turkey, Romania and Finland go through. Which means we say goodbye to Montenegro, Czech Republic, Belgium, Belarus, Andorra, Switzerland, Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia.

The Czech Ali G looks gutted

Sadly this means we’ll never know what delights were to be had in the Czechoslovak Restaurant, West Hampstead for example, never raising to our lips Zabijačková polívka & chléb (Black pudding soup & bread sounds intriguing doesn’t it?). On the plus side with Switzerland and Belgium going out the chocolate and whaffle count drops, and no one will panic and end up in Belgo’s.

The loss of Bulgaria means we won’t be searching London for a bowl of hearty Bob chorba. And finding some Belorussians who could tell us about their cuisine and how the communists tried to completely reinvent it would have made a good read.

Anyhow, one semi final down, and one to go. Roll on Thursday…  And if you want to take part, I need your full name, your phone number and your blog details asap.