We have a nice Polish restaurant less then a mile from the house, so I would say we have Polish food at least once every other week or so. I can also get some Polish items at the local grocery store, like frozen pirogies or Polish kielbasa. Come to think about it I never cook it from scratch at home mainly because so many Polish dishes require such a long preparation time. For instance I can whip up a pasta marinara with grilled chicken in about 20 min, but I need a whole day to cook Polish stuffed cabbage.
I would say we like Polish Food, but for some reason we don't have it that often.
I would have it more often if I had someone to go with me to the 'good' Polish restaurants.
I just had lovely czarnina this weekend. Mmmmm! I would make it myself if I could share it with enough people. But to make a whole quart for just me might not be a very good idea!
Today I've had lovely English fish fingers, fish cakes and HP Sauce, but with "sałatka szwedzka" (ok so the latter isn't strictly Polish obviously lol but it's written in Polish on the jar, lol) and I've had Polish bread every day for the last three days.
Oh, and my mum gave me some of her apple fritters earlier, which are made from a recipe out of her Polish cookbook, and my mum's Polish (obviously). But this is a slightly unusual week, I usually eat Polish food about 2-3 times a week.
Since Saturday I've also had Chinese (takeaway) and Mexican (home-made), and some of those little German pierniczki with icing on, so it's a lot better than Burger King in my house, haha.
And tomorrow I'm going to the big Polish supermarket near town for some shopping, so this self-styled Polish Food Week seems to be continuing. And why not? :)
there is universal food which is the type I tend to eat, i.e potatoes and soups
You right, I could also count American Comfort Food as Polish Food. A lot of those dishes are the same. For instance if I'm having a roasted chicken, mashed potatos with gravy and broccoli - isn't it both Polish and American Comfort food?
Good point, Dice. Things which Poles consider to be solely Polish are, in fact, not. Potatoes are as much Irish+British as they are Polish. Soups are legendary in Scotland too. Bigos is hunter's stew, we have similar concoctions in Scotland. I guess in Ireland too. I had stuffed cabbage rolls (gołąbki) as cheap primary school canteen food. It isn't considered as a culinary delight by a far stretch in Scotland.
As for bogracz, leczo and Hungarian pancakes, well, they are not Polish. Pierogi/pyzy and barszcz are northern Slavic in general.
In NL we consider the Potato as a typical Dutch food :) And soup is a pretty much global food as well. And, like I said previously, I generally like to eat Polish food as it's so similar to Dutch food. I think there is not that much difference in the diverse dishes - with few exceptions of course...
Edit: in fact I think most dishes are in fact a variation to the same theme, if you catch my drift.
but I need a whole day to cook Polish stuffed cabbage.
It does take a while. When my Polish friends cook for parties they spend a phenomenal length of time cooking for it. I do the Scottish food and that only takes a couple of hours. ;)
At the moment I'm eating Polish food a few times a month. I had Polish sausages for breakfast last week...yum :)
In fact I ate some eggs earlier with some Polish bread.
I'm looking forward to my friends boyfriend returning from Poland because he keeps us well stocked in Polish food. :D
Gulasz, leczo and bogracz are available at standard milk bars and also in jars in supermarkets through big-name labels like £owicz and Pudliszki.
I've only met a few who think that and they think so because it is "what Poles eat", LOL. As M-G said above, there is much adaptation. I don't find Polish food much different tbh. Even flaki is eaten elsewhere as tripe.
Look at Czech knedle, very similar. Look at Chinese dim-sum, very similar to pierogi. Lithuania also have sth like it.
Sausages...eggs...you do keep an eye on your shape, now, do you, PD? :)))
Absolutely. ;) You can eat anything you want as long as it's in moderation you know. :)
flaki
tripe
This will NEVER pass my lips again no matter what country it's from or what name you give it!
Look at Chinese dim-sum, very similar to pierogi. Lithuania also have sth like it.
Yep. Many countries have similar dishes but there's usually some difference in how it's prepared or the ingredients or how it's served. It's all good. :)
I thought it was very similar to Italian Ravioli...And how about Knödel in Germany? However, you got them there in a big format and a smaller format - I mean the small format is similar to pierogi. And Gulash is just about the national Hungarian dish - at least, that's how it's presented in NL.
Quite true, PD. I can't remember the Lithuanian name, SeanBM will know (cepeliny or sth like that).
Goulash is seen as Hungarian across most of the world. Interesting you mentioned ravioli, M-G. It is translated in the local mountaineers restaurant as such. However, it is really not the same as the only commonality is the filled nature of it. Ravioli is smaller and has different fillings. Ask PD, Scots eat ravioli from tins (Heinz?).
It was about the idea of a little patch of dough filled with something and then folded. Which basically is also with Ravioli the case. Maybe that's why everybody looked strangely at me when they served pierogi to me for the first time and I asked where the tomato sauce was :))
By the way: although you have them in quick cook packages, a lot of Dutch (I think) eat Ravioli from tin cans as well - Indeed Heinz, but there are other brands as well ;)
>^..^<
M-G (cannot really remember about the tinned Ravioli)
Another food that Poles sometimes claim as their own is herring though I gather that the Dutch eat it very often too. Herring is not particular to one localised part of water. We have it in Scotland but it's not overly popular.
For instance if I'm having a roasted chicken, mashed potatos with gravy and broccoli - isn't it both Polish and American Comfort food?
Nope, its just comfort food. Every european nationality eats it. Mostly on a Sunday with a few extras.
Ask PD, Scots eat ravioli from tins (Heinz?).
What the hell? It must be laden in salt? My local italiano does a four cheese ravioli for six euro. Ten with a glass of vino. Very sexy. Nearly as good as the Italian-Irish waitresses. :)
Heinz do ravioli in tins for sure but not just Scots that eat it. Personally I haven't eaten it from a tin in a long, long time. I guess it's useful for quick lunches etc.
It must be laden in salt?
That's a problem. But now they're saying that brand name breads are full of salt. What is safe to eat nowadays?
It takes a couple of minutes to make a fresh salad etc. You can pre-prepare your meals easily enough the day before. It doesnt take long to make a soup, stew, or casserole in the evening for tomorrows lunch. Hell, it takes minutes to rustle up a bit of ravioli.
Mickey D's is just as healthy as that canned garbage. The thoughts of eating that gloop from a can. *shudder*
Ehm that's one thing for sure that I can say is a really 100% Dutch dish. There is nothing better to a true Dutchman than a salted herring on a bun with diced onions and perhaps some pickles as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soused_herring
All the other countries where it's eaten, like Germany, Sweden and Poland have copied it from the Dutch ;)
It's actually incredibly healthy. I buy them sometimes from the Polish shop as it amazes me that you can't get them here in Dubs, but the ones I buy only come halfway to close to the Dutch ones...:S
How dare you......Heianz beans is food of the gods.....
The god of salt?
Ehm that's one thing for sure that I can say is a really 100% Dutch dish. There is nothing better to a true Dutchman than a salted herring on a bun with diced onions and perhaps some pickles as well.
Let us all pause for a moment to thank the dutch for this delicacy.
In all seriousness, what fish does herring taste like? I never tried it.
In all seriousness, what fish does herring taste like
It has a quite distinctive taste - the salted ones, that is. I actually cannot compare it to another type of fish...Just go to any of them Lithuanica shops in Dubs and get yourself a packet of "matjes herring", clean it from all the oily and greasy crap they put on it and eat it on a white bun with some diced onions. However, the ones you buy there are much, MUCH saltier than the real ones you would get in the Netherlands. But it comes about halfway the taste of the original, which is salted, but not by far as salty as the ones you buy in Lithuanica. They cost about 2 Euros for 3 or 4, I think. Be sure you check the "best before" date as Lithuanica has a bit of a reputation of selling stuff too close to the "best-before" date. Normally this wouldn't be such an issue, but with fresh foods like fish it does matter. And don't keep it in the fridge for too long. Best would be if you eat them the day that you get them. But for the real thing, you really would have to go to NL as nobody makes them better than the Dutch do. And this is not because I am Dutch myself, I compared a lot wherever they sell them.
And this is not because I am Dutch myself, I compared a lot wherever they sell them.
Il wait until I go to Holland so. The famous Shamrock Rovers are in next seasons UEFA Cup(Europa League). We might get a Dutch team.
Whats the name of that sausage you can buy in the Polish football stadiums? Its served with a chunk of bread and some mustard? You can get it in Czech too.
