Czech Republic: Prague
What's for breakfast?
Ham, cheese, sausage and rye bread. Alternatively, if you have the stomach for it at that time of the day, hotdogs and beer. If you don't, then Café Louvre (+4202 2493 0949) serves Czech, continental and full-English breakfasts.
What's for lunch?
Try some excellent local fish dishes, such as the spicy fish soup or grilled perch with pesto. Rybarsky Klub (U sovovych mlyunu 1, +4202 5753 3170).
What's for dinner?
Anything from soup to sushi. If you are feeling flush, why not take the gourmet option at Kampa Park (+4202 5753 2685) with a rack of lamb with pumpkin purée, or sashimi of scallops with hot truffle oil.
The local tipple
World-class beer (the Czech Republic is the home of Pilsner, after all) or the herb-based spirit becherovka.
Estonia: Tallinn
What's for breakfast?
Porridge, black bread, cold cuts and cheese are the traditional breakfast foods. However, increasingly coffee and Danish is filling the hole. Bogapott (Pikk Jalg 9, +372 631 3181) does both.
What's for lunch?
Excellent fish and seafood, pickles, potatoes, and bread. Paat (Rohuneeme tee 53, +372 609 0840) is a newish addition to Tallinn's restaurant scene, serving modern Estonian cuisine (grilled halibut).
What's for dinner?
Game, in season. Roast duck, wild boar and elk are often on the menu at Vanaema Juures (Rataskaevu 10, +372 626 9080).
The local tipple
Try the Estonian lemon vodka at Moskva, formerly a Soviet café, now a hip bar/restaurant (Vabaduse Valjak 10; +372 640 4692).
Hungary: Budapest
What's for breakfast?
Coffee and pastries (poppy seed strudel or featherlight doughnuts) at Café Gerbeaud (Vorosmarty Square 7, +361 429 9000) in Pest. You may well be offered a shot of palinka (local brandy) to start the day. Drink it in your coffee or straight up.
What's for lunch?
Sizzled duck breast with paprika at Taban Terrace in Buda (Aprod utca 10, +361 201 1086). Or pizza, pasta, Peking Chinese at one of the hundreds of restaurants that have opened up in the past two years.
What's for dinner?
For grown-up modern reconstructed Hungarian cuisine, Gundel (Allatkerti ut 2, +361 468 4040) is the place. Excellent fish dishes such as pike-perch in a (but not swamped by) light creamy froth.
The local tipple
Lots of excellent wines, especially from Tokaj and Villany. Try Borbirosag Restaurant (Csarnok Square 5, +361 219 0902) in Pest (the name means "wine jury") or one of the growing number of wine bars.
Latvia: Riga
What's for breakfast?
Pancakes with fruit, local sausages and eggs, and lots of coffee. Dzirnavas (Dzirnavu 76, +371 728 6204) serves a big breakfast buffet. Or for coffee and pastries, try the tiny Kafijas Veikals (Maza Pils 6, +371 722 4216).
What's for lunch?
Smorgasbord, with hams, smoked eel, pickled herring, piragi (bacon-filled dumplings), and cucumber salad. Alus Ordenis (Rai'a 15, +371 781 4190).
What's for dinner?
Pork ribs, beetroot salad, green beans in a cream sauce and local Aldaris beer, all in generous portions. Staburags (Caka 55, +371 729 9787).
The local tipple
Home-brewed ale at the Lido microbrewery (Krasta iela 76, +371 750 4420). The inky Riga Black Balsam is a local firewater.
Lithuania: Vilnius
What's for breakfast?
Bacon, eggs cooked any way that you like, and pancakes with fruit jam. At Dvaras (Tilto 3, +370 210 7370), the pancakes come hot from the griddle.
What's for lunch?
Hearty vegetable soup, wild mushroom salad or veal with ceps at Aukstaiciai (Antokolskio 13, +370 212 0169). Look out for the beer snack menu.
What's for dinner?
Cepelinai, a sort of oval potato-dough filled with beef or mushrooms and served with kastinis - a ubiquitous buttery sour-cream sauce. Local Kalnapilis beer comes in clay jugs. Lokys (Stikliu 8, +370 262 9046)
The local tipple
Avilys (Gedimino 5, +370 212 1900), a microbrewery, serves excellent home-brewed beer. For vodka cocktails in an altogether hipper environment, go to Gero Viskio Baras (Pilies 34, +370 262 9819).
Poland: Warsaw
What's for breakfast?
"Milky soup" - a sort of liquid porridge - cold cuts, cheese, honey and crusty rolls. Washed down with tea and lemon. The Pod Barbakanem milk bar (ul Mostowa 27) is one of the oldest and best.
What's for lunch?
Slodki Slony (ul Mokotoska 45, +4822 622 4934) does excellent pierogis - delicious dumplings filled with mushrooms, cabbage or cheese. Stay for the best baked cheesecake in town.
What's for dinner?
Go rustic at Dom Restauracyjny Gessler (Rynek Starego Miasta 21, + 4822 831 1661). The roast duck stuffed with apples is not only very traditional, it's delicious.
The local tipple
Vodka. Zytnia is the best stuff. But for a range of 115 clear and flavoured varieties, go to the hip new Sense Café (ul Nowy Swiat 19, +4922 826 65 70).
Slovakia: Bratislava
What's for breakfast?
The usual cold cuts and cheese, with bread and jam-filled doughnuts. Café Vienna (Nim SNP 15; +4217 529 640).
What's for lunch?
Bryndzove halusky - gnocchi with sheep's cheese and bacon - is tangy and substantial. Pri Kaplnke (Rolnicka 31, +4217 437 111 61) is famous for its lovely terrace with charming staff.
What's for dinner?
Forgo the noodles and smoked meats and treat yourself to some husacia pecienka, Slovak foie gras, at Leberfinger (Viedenski cesta 257, +4217 623 175).
The local tipple
Slivovice, a plum brandy, and borovicka, a gin-like spirit, are the local tipples.
Slovenia: Ljubljana
What's for breakfast?
Jam doughnuts and coffee or yoghurt and fruit. Or pick up an apple or ricotta-filled turn-over at a burek stand, such as the one on Prazakova ulica.
What's for lunch?
For the best beef goulash in town, head for Sestica (Slovenska cesta 40, +386 251 9575).
What's for dinner?
Grab a salad or a wild-mushroom risotto at a gostilne or dining pub such as the Vinoteka Sokol (Ciril-Metodov trg 18, Ljubljana, +386 439 68 55).
The local tipple
You can taste your way through the best Slovene wines and zganje - fruit-flavoured eaux de vie - at Vinoteka Movja (Mestni trg 1).
