What Polish foods and brands do you miss when you go to other countries?

Very much so, especially in the industrial North. It used to be a staple food, though not nowadays.

It's one thing I don't miss.

Hell yeas , my wife makes the world best, and when she does, for a couple of days, pigs got nothing on me when it comes to overeating

Yes Polonia buy that **** around the holdiays

Tripe was my first Polish food in Poland and man do I hate it.Last year in a Polish Christening party I took it as mushroom soup and boy that was end of the party for me.Yuck!

Yeah I find it disgusting. There's a lot better Polish foods imo.

Tripe is actually a good way to get to know a country's cuisine beyond the tourist or cliche dishes.

Polish flaki are very good if made right (and a great hangover preventive) I like mixed with leftover kapuśniak.

The best flaki I've ever had was in a Mexican restaurant in Nebraska (of all places). Deep flavors with lots of chili and hominy....

Weirdest flaki I've ever had was Romania where they serve it in cream and vinegar...

Weirdest _name_ for flaki is Slovenia, where they're called vampi I love the idea of ordering vampi (the tripe itself was okay but nothing special).

My mum always repeated that a true male must eat true male dishes: tatar raw beef steak, tripe and golonka. I had refused to eat flaki until the day I came back hungry as a wolf from a kayaking practice - there was only tripe on the menu and I devoured two bowls - I was 13 years old.

Today I relish all three dishes in honour of my long gone mum.

Golonka is delicious; reminds me of the pork hock I used to buy years ago.

Hard to imagine that some people don't like it.

It is very fatty.

Like Jack Sprat, I never eat that bit; there's usually plenty of actual meat on it.

Yes, of course, the most delicious meat that melts on the tongue. But it floats in fat and that puts many people off.

Even if you don't like fat, cooking something with the fat attached does help the flavour; hence golonka being so tasty.

I have no problem with animal fat - I try to eat it every day. E..g, I don`t use butter but melted lard with chunks of fried fat in it.

I don't like it that much unless it's crispy bacon fat. Unless it's what you mentioned that you put on bread. Delicious, though I see it mistranslated a lot in Poland as lard. Lard is the refined kind that comes in chilled block; nobody would eat it as it iss. Dripping is the delicious thing that goes so well on bread.

I will take golonka any day,but tatar raw beef with raw egg is another yuck for me and ofcourse flaki makes me puke.Lard I like on bread with ogorki.and szenka.LOL new people get fooled in a restaurant when they read golonka price on the menu for 100 grams in fine print and is 3/4 times more when the bill comes.I love to watch there faces when they realize they didnt read the fine print.

Then you aren`t a true Polish male. :):)

I bought a big piece of fine beef yesterday and put it in the freezer for a few days to kill all parasite eggs.

I agree there,I can never be.I was not a born Pole,thats why I was naturalised.:):)

Ooops, in a famous Polish comedy naturalisation meant sex change operation. Did they do it to you too?

When in the UK, I would probably also miss smoked eel, my fav, because of delicate fragrant meat. I read that eel isn`t appreciated in Britain. Is it true?

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I checked again its there,so NOT.

Traditional in the East End of London. They have Eel Pie and mash shops.

More like the used to have Pie and mash shops that served jellied eel as well. Pie and mash shops are a dying breed, and only a handful of the remaining ones still serve jellied eel, which is all cooked by a single shop in the East End. He supplies the few others, who each might serve a serving or two a day, if that. People have become quite squeamish about eating it, and are reluctant to even try it. Shame, because it's quite tasty. They are also turned off by the idea of anything savory in aspic (galareta).

Demand for eel has plummeted to the point where there is no longer any commercial eel fishing conducted in the UK for human consumption. What little ends up in the nets is sold to producers of cat food. All of the eel sold in the UK for human consumption is sold by a single fishmonger in Billingsgate, who imports it from the Netherlands. Most of it is consumed as sushi, and only a piddling and ever decreasing amount for jellied eel. Very few people cook it at home, and very few fish for eels anymore.

Also, the meat pies used to contain mutton, which, like eel, has fallen out of fashion and has been replaced with beef.

So British people rarely, if ever, eat eel nowadays, even though it was once quite popular. If they do, it is likely to be as sushi.

The reason for the odd combination of meat pies, mashed potatoes and jellied eel is that many of the poor working class were Catholic Irishmen who couldn't eat the eat meat pies on Friday. Since the owners of these shops were mostly Catholics themselves, they were glad to oblige. Hence, eel to the rescue. Curiously, MacDonald's started serving fish filet sandwiches for essentially the same reason.

Wow, a fascinating story about eel, thanks.

Here, due to its scarcity, eel has always been very expensive - the most of all.

They used to be a form of currency in England, learn about "eel-rents"..... you're very welcome.

historiacartarum.org/eel-rents-project/

historiacartarum.org/eel-rents-project/english-eel-rents-10th-17th-centuries/

There's something of a revival now. Personally I wouldn't touch it.

Eel Pie (and eel and ham pie) has a long tradition. I've eaten eel and ham pie, however it isn't especially interesting and (like eel in most other places, like Poland) belongs to a time when there was less variety of food available.

Interestingly, due to demographic shift away from the East End of London, there are now some new companies (operating in the Home Counties) that supply Pie and Mash and also Eel Pie by mail order. They use eels from Ireland, since eel is no longer fished in the Thames.

I will try anything once. Eels in 'liquor' and mash was honestly the most disgusting thing I have ever tried.

There is no "eel pie". Where you got that idea from, I don't know. The eel served in those shops was jelled eel, served alongside meat pies.

A few shops have started supplying meat pies by mail order. None supply jellied eel, which cannot be shipped by mail.

There very much is; I've eaten it.
Here's a recipe: alleasyrecipes.com/recipes/3/1/eel_pie.asp
And here's another.


Did you expect a deluge of them?


I wouldn't tell that to these guys...
manze.co.uk/chilled-deliveries/

Or to any of the other companies that deliver eels (stewed or jellied).

This one looks pretty good. Eels (including Eel Pie and Jellied Eels) delivered to your home or workplace: sallyjanespies.co.uk

They also deliver (to any UK postcode) smoked eels.

Here in Poland, I've only seen them smoked; and seen fewer on sale nowadays than a few years ago.

A bunch of years ago I remember going on a trip (by car) to a town in the north (Kościerzyna) and all along the road there were people holding up smoked eels for sale.. Does anyone know if they still do that?

I've actually never had eel in Poland, only in sushi bars in the states (where I like it a lot).


Fun direction! The must disgusting thing I ever tried (off the top of my head) was ozory in a stołówka where I work.... I bit a piece and it was like biting your own tongue on novocaine (or someone else's tongue) I almost barfed and couldn't eat for a few minutes. Then I cut it up into the smallest pieces possible (which took a while) and it wasn't bad, not a favorite but quite edible. I've even had it a time or two since, but cut it up before eating.

Worst tasting was maybe fried catfish at a small town diner in backwoods North Florida.... absolutely vile.... (never been a big catfish fan though it's popular in the US south and this was just spectacularly bad).

Weirdest was brain tacos in Oaxaca Mexico. Thankfully there was almost no taste...