Do people in Poland live "better" than here in the UK?

I find the exact opposite. In PL most of the stuff in shops is Baltonowski from factories or big cottage loaves of hard sourdough bread whereas in the UK there are many more small bakeries.

It is however meant to have a softer texture in the UK - the English word bread translates as both chleb and bułka - most of the best British bread is bułka rather than sourdough chleb.

What do you mean by shops ? Tesco in Poland and UK sells the same crap. I mean proper bakeries.Sorry but I don't agree with you,there are hardly any proper small bakeries in UK and if they are bread is not great. I don't want to sound nasty as I live here and would be happy if there were here- I am lucky as in Cambridge market there is bread stand with wonderful choice- proper fresh breads.

When I am in Krakow there are bakeries everywhere with big choice fresh rolls, breads, cakes,....I love 'drozdzowki'- fresh cheese cakes, polly seeds cakes, apple pies,plum pies....

Maybe next time in Poland you need some stronger glasses to notice them.:-)

I have noticed one more thing: in some way breads in UK and USA are similar - majority 'cotton wool'. excluding Poland now- In Austria, Italy, France,Germany- breads are more like polish ones harder, with thick skin.

I exclude London from this comparison as with big food markets it is everything there.

Who mentioned Tesco?


Nonsense. There are several in every town centre in the UK, whereas even small breadshops in Poland just retail factory made stuff.


My friend owns one. All those heavy drozdzowki come from the wholesalers. Exactly the same stock as all the other shops have.


Actually, I live there and see the stuff in the shops. Poorer quality than in the UK and doesn't vary much from shop to shop or even region to region. Maybe you miss it and that's why you think drozdzowki are good.

i lived in the UK too and for me the food was worse quality than in Poland. i also hated sweets and cakes there - everything was too sweet. i guess people are used to food in their own countries. different taste

You must be pretty unique than, guest poster. Most people find exactly the opposite. Perhaps you prefer carbohydrate-heavy tasteless dishes.

From my personal experience I would argue that south of the English channel British food is generally perceived as tasteless/deep fried, and most Continentals who have sampled Polish cuisine do actually enjoy it... and yes, the commercial pastries are overly sugary and horrilble, certainly nowhere near the stuff you find in F, E, I, D...

Exactly - cake with jelly on top, and paczki dripping with liquid sugar.

Outsiders' perceptions of cuisine are often very inaccurate - especially if their only experience of it is as a youngish tourist in big cities. Same with Poland, where deep-fried and tasteless foods abound. That and the staple food being heavily processed pig meat.


Wow - you do seem to meet a lot of people and ask them about their food tastes. I didn't know "most continentals" had even been to Poland.

i haven't met even 1 Polish person who preferred the food in the UK to Polish food(i swear it's truth). it looks like you are offended by this but i'm just saying what i think, member poster.

Not offended, but equally not very convinced about what you're saying. People in PL tend to have a very specific (and often very conservative) view about their own cuisine.

Please don't quote out of context... try to read AND understand at the same time sometimes before posting a reply, ok?

They're your own words as far as anyone can see.

Do you have much experience of the regional cuisine of the UK?

Well I have at least 4 local bakeries here. Bread and all the rest including cakes...

Most of the bread or cake shops in Warsaw don't bake on the premises - they buy in from larger places.

such as?


You're having a laugh mate

Your patriotism is blinding you.


Jon fact

Bang on true. Unless you think Baltonowski or variants of that aren't the biggest seller in PL.

I have at least 3/4 main local bakeries. Even if you go to a shop you can choose from few bakeries from my town

You'll find that most of the stuff sold isn't baked on the premises - also that most of them, even places that do bake, have near identical ranges. Not even much regional variation and very few surprises.

Even places that are part of chains like Greggs and the Pound Baker (which just finish off parbaked goods made nearby) seem to be growing in number, and all the small local ones are still thriving. Also most big supermarkets bake from scratch on the premises now.

Can you give me example of town ( not city) in UK with few bakeries with freshly baked bread on premises?????????

Many supermarkets bake bread on their premises???- yes already delivered there full of chemical and who knows what baked later in the shop. I mentioned tesco as their bread is just awful.

Greggs?- sausage rolls ( with who know what inside ) plus white cotton wool bread.that is the choice.

I don't know why but the only place where bread is not bad and tastes fine is Coop.But again they have more european products, baguettes, small crusty rolls.

Most in the North have several.

It seems your criticism of bread shops in the UK and supermarkets (what is it with Poles and Tesco - why not try Waitrose?) exactly apply to Warsaw and other big Polish cities. Except instead of the fluffy texture that you find in the UK, there's leathery Baltonowski sold on plastic bags, or 'tost'.

Basically, if you know what to look for and where to go, you can find good baked goods in both places. Oif you just go to some random shop, you'll get whatever they have in stock.

Now British farmhouse cheeses - it's hard to find better than that in Eastern Europe.

it's true Waitrose is a much better shop than eg. Tesco. the only place where i could buy eg. millet - although packaged, but still where i lived in the UK in a 200k city there is 1 Waitrose. in my 60k home town i can buy all sort of grain in 1 of several ryneks. there are bakeries on every osiedle. the only thing that makes the UK shops better for me is fish and exotic food. however , as i said before, Poland and the UK have different cuisine, different taste, we even like different type of bread.Polish people in the UK miss different things than eg. English people in Poland.

I live in a town and the bakery a 5 minute walk from my house bakes it's own bread. I certainly don't think it's anything unusual, plenty of bakeries do this.


It's just a matter of taste I think.
Polish bread is far heavier than English bread, and to me it always seems like it's slightly stale. Of course that could be just the particular bread I've tried.

Polish friends here though complain that English bread isn't very filling, and is more air than bread.
I suspect it's just what you're used to, and people tend to miss things from home.

freshly baked polish bread is deliciously flavoursome, combined with english cheese, german mustard, an italian tomato and some spanish wine it's hard to go wrong

don't we eat well in europe!

Try a Morrisons.

Maybe there is something in it- When I visited Lake District there were more nice cakes there , cosey tea-shops.Is it Grassmiere famous if its ginger breads?

When you move south everything is getting more 'clinical-pocessed'.

I go sometimes to Waitrose and yes some things as very good there (deserts ,fish, meat...) but sorry bread is very well presented and rather pricey but not great in taste.

I don't know maybe I am fussy and particular about it.

You aren't alone - I'm the same.

It seems that what a local and what a relative newcomer find in each others' countries are a little different. I suppose people look in different places and have lives that change when they move. Plus the regional thing. What you get in a small town in Malapolska or Cumbria is different to what you'll get in Ursynow or Enfield.

The majority of bread in the UK is made with the Chorleywood process.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

Its isn't really bread in the traditional sense. I can't eat it, I thought I was gluten intolerant but if I avoid that stuff I'm ok. Its not natural...

Its true there are a lot of small bakers where you can buy real bread in the UK. ( incidentally a friend who has a sandwich shop makes his own bread as its the entire profit he makes. The fillings are break even, his income is from the bread..)

Polish bread is usually made in the traditional manner, so I can understand why they complain about Chorleywood bread ('mechanically developed doughs').

A post-war thing at a time when industrialisation became increasingly common. Go to smaller shops rather than buy supermarket muck. Same in Poland where the best seller is an industrialised bread made from liquid yeast, called Baltonowski.

I eat neither.

Something similar happened in the war when cheese production was standardised - now this has changes and there are 300+ varieties. In Poland it's still nearly all factory made.

yes, it is. polish bread isn't very good for sandwiches i think.

Why not? It is good for sandwiches but it doesn't fit in your square lunch-boxes and toasters :-)

I disagree,Polish rye breads great with cold cuts,I usually take couple back to states along with a pack of cubans and usually the customs let me slide if they find it.