Polish & US heat & eat foods?

Has anybody compared heat & eat foods in Poland and the US? Of course, all of it is rather fakey (synthetic this, artifical that, flavour enhancers, aromatisers, food coloring, nature-identical inmgredients???), but some are more successful at deceiving the palate than others. For instance, to my mind quite good are bottled US spaghetti sauces of the Prego and Ragu variety, as are Flaki Zamojskie and a few other brands of tripe soup in Poland. Absolute garbage are the 'gorący kubek' or 'cup o' soup' concoctions where you just add boiling water, let it stand a minute and...vomit.

What do you think about the Polish heat & eat soup in 1-litre cartons: czerwony barszcz, grzybowa, żurek, etc.? Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom if barely edible unless half a Winiary mushroom cube is added and then it comes alive.

They're ok but i prefer to cook my own food from scratch. I don't want to sound conceited, but i am actually a really good cook.

I've noticed a lot of polish families buy these "heat and eat" meals and say they're good.

There is nothing wrong with those at all. They are actually pretty good when one's on the go.


Talk about yuk. Spaghetti sauce is much easier/faster to make then a soup.

This reminds me of a time when I was a teenager living in the U.S. Since we Poles celebrate Chrismas Eve, and most Americans do not, my friends would come around on that day to pick me up. My mom would sit them down before we went out and they were fed the usual traditional dishes - one of them being mushroom soup from mushrooms my parents picked in the forest. My friends did not like it although they did like mushroom soup. The problem was that they never tasted real mushroom soup, but had only eaten that thing called Campbell Mushroom Soup. Barf!

BTW, I haven't been to a supermarket in years; there is absolutely nothing there that I would want to buy. Well, maybe a mop, but I already have one.

so where do you shop?

I find the barszcz czerwony just about resembles the real thing, not bad at all in fact. Goląbki in jars are uniformly terrible. Pierogi - it depends, sometimes they have the consistency of brake discs, others are surprisingly delicate - especially if fried.

Be very, very thankful that Pot Noodle and its kin haven't made it big in Poland (well, I've not seen it anyway). Straight from Satan's bottom.

The food market and neighborhood shops. You know, I go to the butcher, baker, etc. I can pay later if I don't have cash at the moment. You will enjoy this when you get here if you enjoy cooking and eating fresh food. Trust me, my grocers do not need to gas their tomatoes.

I'll second Alex's opinion of barszcz - Krakus. I add a bit of garlic though and a lady down the street makes delicious paszteciki to go with it.

I'll try that. Thanks for sharing the tip.

I agree, the bottled gołąbki (Pudliszki or whatever) are awful. So are the pulpety (taste like they forgot to add ther meat). What about the fasolka po bretońsku? I wonder what Heinz-baked-bean-loving Brits think about it? Never eat them when planning to take your gf up for a several-hour spin in a 2-seater plane!

The US and Canada has made fast food a work of art.Anything edible your heart desires is made into fast food.With both husband and wife working these days,it's nice to be able to pick whatever you like,ready made at the grocery store.What a time saver when both of you are on the go from morning till night.

Yes, all heat n eat foods contain preservatives, emulsifiers, etc; as they got to have long shelf lives and retain atleast part of its taste and nutritional value. The cost too varies from being priced below the fresh food prices to being overly priced many times over the market gate price. Palate is the main judge where heat n eat foods are devoured by the carton by hungry, time starved human who need to satisfy their tastebuds as well as to fill their tummies affordably.

When I was back in the UK, I was quite keen on the more modern and healthy take on heat and eat. Instead of microwave packs, they come in aluminium trays and it's things like salmon en croute, hunters chicken and a huge other selection of raw meat/fish with some veg and semi prepared so all you need to do is put it in the over for 40 minutes. The ingredients list has pretty much all food and very few chemicals and because it's fresh, raw meats/fish it actually tastes good.

I would think of it as a good compromise between healthy/natural and convenient. Unfortunately with a pretty terrible selection of convenience foods here, I just cook everything from scratch in big batches and freeze it to make my own ready meals.

Don't want to p on your parade or anything, but: dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205708/New-salmon-cancer-scare.html

a) It's the Daily Mail...I wouldn't really take anything there seriously.

b) I know the co-op do a salmon en croute which is certified organic salmon...problem solved.

11 year old article

Another thing aive noticed is theyll eat french fries or some other similar condiments or supplements to meal as full on meals. theyll buy just french fries and no burger or coke. what gives?