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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 15 Jul 2025
Threads: Total: 73 / In This Archive: 51
Posts: Total: 24725 / In This Archive: 10045 		From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

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jon357   
15 Apr 2019
News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

.there is not enough money in budget and we need another tax to top it up.

This is true.

why to charge him still monthly for it?

It's the way schools, local roads, libraries and town infrastructure is funded. Pluses and minuses about whether they're paid for by higher tax centrally or lower income tax and a local tax instead.

About pensions, the state pension is the minimum. Working people are of course expected to pay into a works pension (final-salary if it's a decent one), or a private pension (not always great)..
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

I'm sorry, guys, but I just can't believe you can compare home made soups to instant ones :)

Who does? Home-made are much better. Ready-made (not necessarily instant) are getting very popular in PL though; a lot are manufactured and sold. Perhaps demographics are the reason.

cumin

Kmin Rzymskie? I was once confuse by the name. I bought kminek, expected cumin, and of course it's caraway seeds.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

I think something similar was produced in France too.

It's very possible. Walnut Whips (I used to bring them to PL as presents) were invented by a Frenchman in London. My favourite Polish sweets were called Mr Ron; unfortunately I haven't seen them for years. Raspberry flavour and really nice.

Bialys (bejgel) and the slightly different bagels have their roots in/around Poland. Bialys are named after Bialystok.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

I don't think that council tax is fair.

A lot of people say the same thing, and it doesn't do much for single people and couples. Great for families with teens and grown-up kids living at home.

It should be combination of value and people living in.

This was Thatchers solution, however it penalised poorer people living in big families. The pre-Thacher system was more or less the opposite.

My friends in Poland were bit shocked when I told them that in the past English paid for privilege of having windows.

I think that was because in those days it would have been hard to calculate incomes.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

are from Izrael.

They were certainly named after Jaffa oranges however I'm not sure there was much going on in Palestine at that time.. Jaffa is Haifa now of course, however I can still remember the oranges having stickers with Jaffa written on.

There's a lot of Jewish influence in Polish cuising, preserved fish, chalka (as you mention), Ćwikle and a few others. Kluski are a bit like matzo balls. There are probably a few other dishes that have Jewish roots (and things in Ashkenazi cuisine with Polish roots).

edit: McVities website says this: McVitie & Price introduced the Jaffa Cake in 1927. It contained a simple combination of sugar and tangerine oil to form the sealed layer of jam. The cakes were named after the Jaffa oranges which flavour the zesty centre of the cake.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

I think it would depends on value not size.

There were huge discussions about this in the UK when the Rates changed to Poll Tax and then Council Tax. There were problems with the first two systems. It seems to be better calculated by a combination of the value of the home and the number of people in. In the old system.

This would work well in PL.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Language / Etymology of Paragon [4]

related to the Polish words

What makes you think that?
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

They look delicious! I

I reccommend the cherry ones!

Incidentally, both Delicje and Jaffa Cakes have had lawsuits in their own countries. The makers of Jaffa Cakes sued the government about the level of tax (different for cakes and biscuits). They actually made a giant one as a court exhibit. With Delicje it was about which factory had the right to use the name (different factories in PL had been making them since the 70s).

Jaffa Cakes are nicer though ;-)
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

Well striking against PiS is kind of a loser's game, PiS are proven bad faith

That doesn't mean you give in. Strikes are a fight and part of the long game.
jon357   
15 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

there's no canned soups

I've not seen any for at least a decade in PL, and even then, only rarely (apart from when M&S were there, however their products aren't Polish). Tinned fruit is rare, though it does exist. Plenty of frozen, dried, and bottled. Of the packet soups on that website, only the barszcz is any good (and best avoid the instant one).

The pasztet (potted meat; they call it pie on the website) is fairly standard; worth trying, though that isn't a particularly interesting brand.

Looking at the stuff on the website, it isn't a very inspiring collecrion, however it represents pretty well much of what you'd find in a small and not very good grocer's shop.

The preserves are probably the best bit of that site. Łowicz is an ok brand, made in the town of that name (when I was a kid, we always had Krakus which is good). The first one on the list is translated there as 'plum jam'. It isn't jam, it's powidło, rather different to jam, and I recommend it. It's a more sophisticated product, darker and less sweet than plum jam and with a slightly smokey, pruney taste. Home made is the best, however the jar on the website is fine.
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Real Estate / Price of Real estate for sale in Poland, Białołęka [23]

Targowek

It's really changed a lot, and has less of an inner city feel than Stara Praga. Pelcowizna, between there and Białołęka has changed a lot too. It used to be a little district of pre-war villas surrounded by a post-industrial wasteland. I was amazed at the way it looks now, Good commuter rail links into Centrum as well.

some run down districts 'evaluate' and get fashionable and expensive like Kazimierz

Podgorze just across the bridge from there always seems a nice area.

family living close

Makes a difference, doesn't it.

It's well worth looking at the pollution map in Warsaw; some places are less affected than others and that does affect prices too. That's one reason we like being so close to Kampinoski Forest.
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Real Estate / Price of Real estate for sale in Poland, Białołęka [23]

selling one in Lublin you could maybe afford lock-up garage in Warszawa

Great answer! And something always to consider, especially if you're buying. Great to buy somewhere cheap; not that great when you come to sell again. And if renting, the difference in rental prices is usually smaller than the difference in sale prices.

Worth mentioning that Sh1tty is a juvenile across the Atlantic who couldn't find Lublin or Warsaw on a map.

One thing to add for the OP that's relevant to the thread. When people talk about districts in Warsaw, they often mean the boroughs (Żoliborz, Mokotów, Bielany, Białołęka, Bemowo, Wola, Praga Południe etc, etc). These are actually large areas, each with their own town hall and are administrative descriptions. Places like Stara Ochota, Stare Młociny, Saska Kępa, Kamionek, Powiśle etc) are neighbourhoods (often large ones) within those boroughs.

Warsaw is changing fast, and there's a lot of residential development. the metro (especially the northern part and line 2) are opening up a lot of new districts, plus there are some huge new flat developments, especially to the west of the city.

The district that someone chooses depends on a lot of things, transport infrastructure, the schools, the sort of shops there, whether or not people want to eat out locally, and of course the type of home they want to rent/buy.

The OP doesn't say if they're in Warsaw already, and if they're in a hurry to find somewhere or not. I'd recommend spending a bit of time looking at different bits of the city. What one person would like about, say, Powiśle, might be a negative factor for someone else. About Białołęka, a good (perhaps much better) alternative would be the eastern parts of Ursus (and beyond), or Łomianki. I like Targówek (Sh1tty would be doubtless fizzing with angst to see I'm recommending somewhere with a large PRL-era housing estate!) and that area has changed a lot due to development and an improvement in transport links; especially around Elsnerów, a bit of a no-go area 20 years ago, yet quite smart and safe now.

Warsaw doesn't define Poland

It doies however define this thread which is about Warsaw.
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

for younger generations ( in big cities, working all days) introduction of canned soups could be very convenient solutions.

I think so too. In Poland, it seems there's been a jump in technology and it's gone straight to tetrapaks/foil bags. There's a perception that they're better quality/fresher (in fact there's not much difference) and of course easier to store, in the warehouse get to the shops and more visually appealing.

I quite like tomato soup with 'makaron' from Knorr. I would say it tastes quite nice especially in cold winter day.

I buy packets if it's a clear soup, and add something to them; not much difference to home made.
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Real Estate / Price of Real estate for sale in Poland, Białołęka [23]

the fringes of cities

15 minutes from Metro Centrum? Some 'fringes'.

yourself would personally elect to hide away in a gated community

Never lived in one, thanks, and no plans to...

You're digging yourself further and further into a rather deep hole of your own making. A good rule of thumb while posting online is sticking to things you actually know about. The merits of individual districts of a city you've never visited in a country you'd need a visa to come to is a good example of this.

This rather weird trolling (in this and other threads about things you don't have any experience of or connection to) just distorts an otherwise interesting thread and can't be of much interest or help to the OP. Who asked you a very valid question:

so what Districts have you lived in and why

jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Food / Which ingredients/vegetables/fruits/meats are nonexistent in traditional Polish cuisine? [125]

I once wondered that myself. Here's a (maybe) answer.

Tinned soups (and canned veg etc) appeared in the late Nineteenth Century in industrial cities; Poland was still at that time very rural, and there were fewer issues of logistics; physically gettting a good supply of fresh fopds to urban populations. Plus, they were very secondary to canned meats, stews etc.

Possibly families were larger too, making tinned soups less practical. When they took off in the UK shortly after the war, Poland was of course more of a command economy than the UK; both countries had food shortages and some centralised distribution, however those shortages (and food distribution chains) were different.

Packet soups started much later and are cheaper and easier to produce; plus they suit certain recipes (clear barszcz, chicken broth) better than others.

Stock cubes also go back to the end of the Nineteenth Century, and they are very popular in Poland; if you work all day and live in a city flat, it's far less convenient to make a meat stock than chop veg.
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

I don`t agree with the notion that schools should replace frog anatomy with police handling rules

Why doesn't every country adopt 'rich mazur's' educational policy and teach kids how to deal with cops? Rather than something useless like science.

I'm sure that next time he goes to the doctor he'll be fine about seeing one that has never 'dissected a frog' yet knows precisely what to do if he gets a speeding ticket...
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Real Estate / Price of Real estate for sale in Poland, Białołęka [23]

In other words you had no choice but to locate to the suburbs because you are priced out of the city centre. :)

A lot of assumption there, Sh1tty. And about as wrong as you can get. When you eventually reach adulthood, you'll come to realise that people choose the place they live for a lot of reasons.

Interesting you assume that where we live now is less expensive than Środmieście. Who'd have known that you were an expert on the various parts of Warsaw and their housing stock.

A giant Soviet-era housing estate!

Really? Most of Tarchomin is post-1995. We wouldn't expect you to know that, never having been to Poland..

No wonder you completely avoided providing

Attempting your rather silly rhetoric as usual. And as usual making a fool of yourself.

It's risible that you're trying to troll in a thread about districts in Warsaw, never having been in the city, the country or the continent.

Do try harder...
jon357   
14 Apr 2019
Real Estate / Price of Real estate for sale in Poland, Białołęka [23]

and reckons that it's got the best of all worlds

It's where I lived when I first came to PL, the top end of Ursynów, near the metro station of that name, quite a pleasant place in many ways. There was far less infrastructure in the area back then, however one thing's still the same; due to the architecture etc, it's Miami in the summer, and Scunthorpe in the winter.