Polonian or Polish food in America better?

Polish-style foods are produced in America (sausage and smoked and cold meats, bread, pickled cucumbers, horseradish, pierogi, horseradish, mustard, etc.) as well as imported from Poland. Which do you prefer in terms of taste, appearance, tradition, naturalness, price, etc.?

With all the varieties of food that we have here,the Polish people that emigrated to North America,have a greater choice of better quality meats,produce,fuits and vegetables to make the their famous tried and true recepies such as goląbki,pierogi ,sernik etc.I have been over in Poland years ago and found that just finding the items to make their specialties was a chore and they had to make do with what they could find if they could afford it.Yet,here the abaundance and variety and low cost,it's very easy to make the best of all the famous Polish recepies.

Never understood why ppl buy that. It's about the easiest thing to make: just take a cucumber, peel it and grate it, drop a cup vinegar to it, two or three tbl spoons sugar, a little pepper and there you go. Done in 5 minutes. Even before I learned that this was a "Polish Speciality", my grandmother and mother used to make it and I guess it's just a European dish, not particularily Polish.

Bought a pot of "Polish Salade" yesterday. It was good and tasted exactly like we in NL call "Meat Salade". Just goes to show that Dutch, German and Polish food is really not that different from eachother. But that's why I buy stuff there regularly. You have to keep an eagle's eye on the "best before"-date, but if that date is ok, you're good to go.

>^..^<

M-G (haec hactenus)

I prefer full-fledged Polish food of course. In Southern California, I'll settle for what type of Polish food, I can get my little Polish-American hands on.

Sometimes, even a Polish dog from Der Wienerschnitzel, may help fulfill my Polish food withdrawls, lol!

all of these are exactly the same as they are in PL..


they don't make these in the USA except the pickles and kraut in a barrel


your question really doesn't make much sense as all the foods you mentioned i split in groups by reality.. so both are what i like and both is what i get..

Here's some pseudo Polish food. It's from a Hungarian deli. I love their cabbage rolls and sausage. Pretty close 2nd place to real Polish food.

• 
  pseudo.jpg
  

still no comparison to good old Polish cuisine

• 
  polish_meal.jpg
  

Polish ogórki kiszone are prepared via natural fermentation. No vinegar is used.
The taste is different and too much vinegar is not good for health.

I do love the brine from home prepared ogórki kiszone.
Try zupa ogórkowa - the brine is used to give sour taste (besides the grated cucumbers added to the soup)
I doubt this would be very edible when done with vinegar.

Polish people in Poland have a hard time finding the ingredients to make Polish food? What the....?

IME American raw ingredients don't have the right taste, while the finished product may be okay it doesn't have that Polish taste. I've never had ogórki kiszone in the US that compared with Polish ones.

The same thing works in reverse, I find it hard to replicate the taste of home prepared American food in Poland. I tried using maślanka in a recipe that called for American style buttermilk and the result just wasn't the same... (I like drinking maślanka more than American buttermilk, but it's not so good in cooking while American buttermilk makes any dish it's in better).

I did say "years ago".I am told by my aunt in Zielona Góra that now there is everything on the shelves except no money to buy it with.

There's no problem in and around Detroit, Chicago, NY or anywhere you have Polish delis and groceries, but in many parts of the US twaróg (farmer cheese) seems hard to come by form the reports I have received. People therefore use dry cottage cheese, ricotta or even drained wet (regular) cottage cheese. Conversely, until the advent of capitalism (after 1989), Americans had a hard time making American-style cheesecake in Poland without Philadelphia cream cheese. None fo the twarożki available in Poland produced the right taste and texture.

Its so nice to live across from a Polish restaurant!

Heres to you that live in CA,FL etc.. you gotta drive to the windy city to be in Polonia!!!

Scmaznego:)

I still have some left over,Im stuffed!

^^^ rub it in, why doncha.

[moved from]

I live in the middle of nowhere but my nearest shop is a Polski Sklep.
Just went in and bought a large jar of premium blueberry jam, a large white loaf and some fancy chocolate, all for £3.93!

@rozumiemnic

Ya I buy most of my food from polish stores too. Not only are most things cheaper but they're imports from the eu meaning no nasty corn syrup gmos antibiotics hormones and all that nasty stuff.

Although I noticed that the famous polska orenzada has corn syrup in it. I could've sworn that it use to not because I check the ingredients before I buy food or drinks and that's the only carbonated drink I like. Mostly i just drink tea coffee or water but once in a while I use to drink that orenzada

I live in New Jersey and Garfield is a Polonophile's paradise with a Polish bookstore and a Polish delicatessen. Krakus sour gherkins are the best!!

yes it does seem more wholesome. We also like the sauerkraut and sausages and the soft drinks. Lots of Polish food consumed in this house! That corn syrup gets everywhere, you have to watch out for it.

Yes Krakus is good, isnt it?

Blueberry jam = mega sugar
White bread = mega sugar
chocolate = mega sugar


Sauerkraut = mega salt
sausage = mega saturated fat and salt
soft drinks = mega mega sugar
Sugar is pure poison to the human body.


Everything that is good is bad for you.
(Unless you enjoy oatmeal and raisons with tea like my ex sparrin' partner Atchy does.)

@rozumiemnic

Everything has corn syrup in it here its ridiculous. Sweets drinks meats condiments everything you can imagine. Its not healthy at all. Same w sugar contents a little can will state it has 20 grams of sugar in it that's basically like putting 20 tablespoons in a drink.

Even with waters you have to be careful to see if it actually comes from a spring or is just municipal water basically sink water.. Poland springs actually is having a lawsuit now for deceptive marketing.

Honestly I don't know about krakus as I dontnthink I've ever bought it. I've def had it at peoples house. Still tho even like krakus ham tastes no where near as good as like home made fresh from farm/ranch. My grandparents ran a meat distribution business during prl and afterwards (was actually one of the best money makers in prl due to the ration system and general lack of.meat in stores). I see it around all the time but usually I just get hams salami kabanosy cheeses (esp Bulgarian feta) from the deli counter.

Idk to me the food in Europe just seems tastier in general than us. Even lil things like strawberries they're smaller but they're juicer and sweeter imo. Us restaurant food is tasty at lots of restaurants but itsnoftentimes drenched in butter or other things that are kind to the palate but not necessarily healthy. Like the cooked food at good restaurants id say is better in us but in terms of like stuff you can get at stores or the cheaper fast food or lunch food poland and Europe are better hands down

I know I am having Thai red curry now to compensate..

Excellent choice Roz.
Soda pop is the #1 killer these days. (Average of 34 grams of sugar per 12 oz. !)
Once I quit soda pop, pasta's, ground meats and anything orange (besides oranges) the weight started falling off.
People today don't eat enough greens or drink enough water.
Cabbage is one of the healthiest foods that you can eat.


Polish meats & pierogi are not commercially processed like they are in the U.S.A. and have better seasonings and flavor.
The rest of the Polish foods produced in America however seems much more appealing.
Polish imports are extreme from either being bland or over powering with no happy medium. I.M.O.

The big brands vary their recipe according to local tastes and legislation. For example, the Coca-Cola in Poland is much more sugary than that in the UK or Germany. The same drink in the Middle East is even more sugary.

I know a Pole in the UK who came post-2004 that brings coke from Poland to the UK - he finds the British formula isn't sugary enough for him.


They're certainly commercially processed in Poland. Supermarket meat is injected with water (and is high in growth hormones, antibiotic traces etc. Also most pierogi are factory made rather than home-made. The rise of processed foods in Poland is dramatic.

I used to proofread a Polish meat trade journal. The editor once said that when he started in the business back in the 70s they would take 100kg of pork and get 85kg of ham from it. Now they take 100kg of pork and get 120 kg of ham.

Thank you jon for enlightening me on that.
Just seems that the local Polish shops around where I live "make it look like" the imported meats and pierogi's are hand processed from Poland which makes them look much more appetizing. (and expensive)


Same with ground beef here Roger.
Big stores will grind in ice to bulk the weight.
Get it home and thaw it (yuk) and then try to prove it.

They just implemented a one penny per ounce beverage tax on all sugary drinks in Cook County where I live. I don't care because of the high rate of diabetes and other health issues it causes. There is a lot of whining and protesting coming from the food stamp freeloaders. Geez!

I like water, lots of water, and Piwo!!

Very true as the Pepsi is so sweet in Jamaica that I had to start drinking rum and tonic instead of rum and pepsi.
I didn't want to, I had to. :-)