Life / Polish birthday party? (video) [22]

Dead arms and dead legs were daily ritual, we needed something special for birthdays, so fists into the spine was the choice of the day. It's a wonder no-one was seriously injured, I remember hitting and being hit really hard on birthdays.

Life / Polish birthday party? (video) [22]

We have a similar thing in Scotland called Dumps...you get hit on the back once for every year on you birthday. We used to keep our birthdays secret to avoid getting punched in the back numerous times throughout the day...even teachers would do it (albeit softly!).

Food / Favorite Pierogi? [56]

I had a well tasty one with chicken bits and oats, with bacon, butter and sour cream over it...was well tasty :D

Life / Need to get registered for Nip number. [14]


Is that not the number you need when you are registering with a doctor and such like? And do you not need one to take out a contract on a mobile phone?

Food / How often do you have Polish Food? [49]


I like fatty food...I might have to give that a go!

Food / Bad food experiences in Poland [30]

I got food poisoning once when I ate one of the 1kg Tesco Value pizzas. But really that is not Poland's fault, that is my own for buying a 1kg pizza for 5zł! That and, as those of you who were at paintball will guess, I probably undercooked it.

Food / Why did Taco Bell leave Poland? [82]

You're fishing aren't you? You are, you must be?

No?

OK, I'll bite.

No, it's not true. Poland is not in the dark ages. You can easily get corn and chilli.

Love / ;-) what to cook a polish girl??? [34]


That much I guessed. I always was a fan of Holland, had some great days sitting by canals in the sun drinking beer and eating chips and mayo!

Love / ;-) what to cook a polish girl??? [34]

MareGaea

Yeah, I used to live in Indonesia which is why I thought that. I guessed it would be due to the colonies thing, just like Indian Curries are pretty much engrained into the British menu. Infact the Bahasa language has a lot of similarities to Dutch by all accounts.

Love / ;-) what to cook a polish girl??? [34]

Is this not Indonesian/Malay?

Food / Why did Taco Bell leave Poland? [82]


Actually filled with liver, lung, heart and kidney...ok, so maybe I' not selling it.


To be fair I never eat french Foie Gras because of that, but you can get "ethical" stuff which is also rather delicious. It was more just an example of tasty things coming from offal.

Food / Why did Taco Bell leave Poland? [82]

Not criticising, but you are missing out. Some of the most flavourful, nutritious and interesting meals come from offal. Boudin Noir, Haggis, Fois Gras....the list goes on...mmmmm!

Food / Condensed Milk [13]


Nah mate, just made a massive load of them. Saves me having to make them again next week. I have a fridge full to do me over the weekend (it's all I have to eat...wages are on Monday!). Then next week I will raid the freezer supply when i make square sausage...gotta love square slice and tattie scone rolls!

As for the millionaires shortbread...i find them easier to eat than tablet funnily enough!

Food / Condensed Milk [13]


Various different ones, normally Brakes or Carnation (by nestle).

Food / Condensed Milk [13]


Yeah, I found that when I was buying cream that "do zupy" was more like what we would call sour cream and "do kawy" was normal cream.

I have never used evaporated milk for millionaire's shortbread but I am sure that it is easy enough to make as they are, essentially, the same thing, just more cooking and sweetening.

I am off to the big Tesco on Monday so I should be able to find it easy enough in there...it's only small shops round my house so selection can be a problem at times.


Yeah, I know the ones...are they related in any way to the Maggi that you see in asia? Their logos seemed similar.

Food / Condensed Milk [13]

Yes, that is the problem I have found. I will ask in the shop along the lines of Gaa's idea.

Szkotja
Actually gonna try to make millionaire's shortbread. I would make tablet but i have never managed to get the texture right. It always ends up essentially with the texture of munching brown sugar which ain't so pleasant.

Got myself some decent scottish recipes. Square sausage next week because Tesco have beef and pork mince on sale! Got my fridge/freezer filled with tattie scones at the moment in anticipation!

Love / Help-my polish bf doesn't fancy me! [94]

I wish I could take full credit, but sadly it was a copy and paste job, so he can keep his crown.

tut, tut. link next time please :)

Love / Help-my polish bf doesn't fancy me! [94]

what really makes the difference is if a relationship is in the pre-hole or post-hole stage, and that makes a huge difference to a date.

pre-hole: Guy is nicely turned out and presentable. Can't do enough to keep you amused. will let you buy anything you want from the menu. will laugh at your s***e patter. will pretend to give a s**t about what you're studying or your job. will suggest dessert even though it's over priced and s***e. He'll be all enthusiastic about going to the pub or a club after eventhough he usually doesnt like to do that. Will basically do anything to get his hole.

post-hole: Guy will be constantly checking the phone hoping for a text from his mates or other pre-hole candidates. There wont be so much conversation. Dessert wont even be contemplated. Quick main course after trying to talk about the football. At the end he'll make an effort to ditch you and meet his mates. The hole has been achieved so whats the point in wasting resources?

So basically if you want a good relatinship with a guy keep yer rat in the cage.

Love / Hard to talk things: Sexual diseases - would Polish women be honest about that? [137]


I thought that would be the case, but I wasn't sure, cheers.

Love / Hard to talk things: Sexual diseases - would Polish women be honest about that? [137]


So if someone has a serious STD. Let's take AIDS as an example. If a girl was to knowingly have sex with a guy when she has AIDS and doesn't tell him. Is there precident for criminal charges being brought against her (or in the case of a guy, swap genders) on the counts of knowing passing on what is, for all fairness, a death sentence. Or would it get thrown out on the grounds of "you should have used protection".

For the record...I am not a lawyer...

Food / ALCOHOL CONTENT OF US BEER? [18]


You can say that about almost any country though. When people think of Scottish beer they will think of Tennants (bloody awful, and weak to boot) or some random large brewery owned ales (again, weak and horrible). However I know many a brewery in Scotland that makes lovely beer, and strong beer as well.

When we are defining a countries beer where do we start and stop? Do we classify it by the big names that are available in other countries, or by every micro-brewery? I think beer is too hard to classify, but if you are wanting to pay someone to travel the world sampling every beer in the world to classify countries...then I will volunteer :D

Life / Need to get registered for Nip number. [14]

Ahhh, thanks for clearing that up. I was going to apply for my PESEL soon, but I am guessing that, as I don't have my residency card that I can't get it. I was told by someone that I can just pop into the office, fill in the forms and then (after a police visit to confirm adress) they sent you out the PESEL after 2 or 3 months.

Life / Buying Cigarettes in Poland, Gdansk. [21]

You can get L&B in Krakow in the Kiosks round the main square. I haven't seen B&H or Regal though.

I don't know how much of a market there would be for them. Even if you forget about tax and all that, buying (even in bulk) in the UK would put these cigarettes so overly expensive that no-one would buy them. I mean would you rather buy Marlboro at 9.95zł or Regal for 20-25zł?

It's a no-brainer.

Life / Need to get registered for Nip number. [14]

As you are coming from the EU I don't think you need the residency card. However the advice concerning PESEL is correct, you can use your European Health Insurance Card thing in hospitals, but it's a nightmare the amount of forms and things you need to sign...much easier just to get your PESEL and be done with it (that is also required for buying things on credit, etc as it is proof of you staying here).

As for your NIP number, there is an office near Bratysławska Tram Stop on the corner of Józefa Wybickiego and Krowoderskich Zuchów where you can pick up your form for NIP, once that is filled in (bring a fluent polish speaker) you will need to submit it, then they will ask you why you need a NIP number and so on and so forth. Then you are sorted...ish.

Food / Horsemeat, anyone? [62]


Honestly, if you see no difference between someone eating horse meat and stoning someone to death for adultery then you need your head checked.

Just because we have built up a close relationship and have humanised horses and dogs does not mean that they should be seen as only pets the world over. A lot of people think eating Pork is disgusting, does that mean that we should stop eating bacon to appease them?

(Oh, the answer is no to that last question)


nail

head

hit

Food / AMERICANO COFFEE IN POLAND? [14]


When I think of american coffee I normally think of this drip (or filter) coffee. However a lot of places in Europe don't have a filter coffee machine and so the Americano was born. It is, as has been said, a watered down espresso. I have always been taught that, for best effect, you should put the hot water in the cup first, followed by the espresso...not sure why, but it does seem to taste more filter coffee like.

Food / Horsemeat, anyone? [62]


I don't see how you can call it barbaric? They are slaughtered in the same, humane, way as cattle, sheep, etc. It is just different, you think of horses as pets and, as such you think it's wrong to eat them. Not so in a lot of continental Europe. You need to set a boundary between animals as pets and as food. Horse meat is very low in fat and high in protein. It has a stronger flavour than beef and is recommended to be slow cooked on account of the low fat content. I can't believe that people are actually so offended by this...how different is it to eating a cow to be honest?


I don't think you have a moral right to complain about the Koreans anyway. The dogs that they eat are farmed for that purpose, no different to cows or sheep. But again the fact that you are calling it barbaric for people to eat these things, to me, makes you seem really rather closed minded to other cultures.

Life / Polish health care system, my experience. [32]


I would have, but the woman at the hospital was more telling us to go somewhere else because, if we paid or not, we would have a 4 hour wait and she told us about a place that would be less of a wait.

If I had thought that paying for it would have sped the trip up then I would have, but the woman was having none of it...we were waiting 4 hours no matter what...

I do believe he explained that in the original story, we were not worried about paying, it was getting him seen that was the problem!

Life / More Polish supermarket griping...this time about customers [29]


I think it must be an american thing. I would never even imagine giving up my place in the queue no matter how much I had in my trolley. It defeats the whole queuing process, you take your position and that is how queues work.