Is Polish food still more natural than in the West?

You hear about Germans crossing the border to do their food shopping in Poland not only because it's cheaper but also praising the superior flavour and natrualness of the bread, sausage and other products, and many Americans coming for ther first time seem do likewise. My impression is that Polish food has deterioated in the fake-food direction (less natural raw materials, more dough improvers, synthetic aromas, flavour-enhancers, soybean fillers in processed meats, elrs, etc.) compared to 20, 10 even five years ago. The 'gorący kubek' is a prime example of a food product that is mostly chemicals. Perhaps Poland may still be trailing behind the US and Western Europe in that regard, so by comparison Polish food may appear more natural. Any ideas on this?

No, the meat you eat in Poland are mostly processed meat which I think is unhealthy. Fresh seafood is also non-existent in Poland.

We know that nothing can be compared to Mc Donald's.

Are you serious?! There was never more sawdust in the bread and water in the milk than during the good ol' Commie days. Additives and preservatives are not newfangled notions to the Polish food industry either. You seem to have this weird image of Poland as a sort of unspoilt peasant country inhabited by a simple-minded, good-natured folk dressed in old-fashioned garb and subsisting on milk, honey, and bread. Wake up! Communism was not a time capsule, if anything, in many ways it forcibly propelled us far ahead of the "West" (e.g. employment of women, eradication of social classes, percentage of women in higher education, etc).

You can process meat (cure, smoke, season, cook, etc.) without pumping it full of soybean solution to make it expand and produce 3 lbs of processed meat from 1 lb of fresh meat. Ever taste a cheap Polish wiener? If you leave it in boiling water a bit too long it'll swell to 2-3 tiems its size but have no flavour whatsoever.

But back to my original question: Is the stuff sold in Germany, the UK and elsewhere in Europe even worse amd more fake-foody than what there is in Poland? Otherwise why do so many westerners rave about Polish food's alleged natrualness?

At the risk of agreeing with AS, this was my experience too.

In Poland when you say "meat" it seems to generally refer to processed/preserved sliced meats or sausage.

In Britain/Ireland meat means meat - fresh slabs of animal flesh, not processed not cured.

Also, high proportion of pickled stuff in Poland which isn't healthy either.


You sir, are having one almighty laugh surely?


I've never once heard this said about Polish food. Sure, I've heard people say they like it, they love it (or sometimes that they don't like it) but it's so-called "naturalness" was never a reason. Maybe to someone who exists almost only on junk food.

Says the lady that spent 9 days in Poland of her entire life, and one that was disappointed at the beach because there wasn't any waves.

You're just a Poland hater.


Ohh and heres another one that spent what..... 6 days?

Don't know what your beloved Polish friends were serving you but thats not what i eat and i eat a lot of meat.

I think one of the ares where Polish meat excels is the amount of cured and marinated hams, you are truly spoiled for choice.

U seem to forget the mad cow disease... ;-) and pls stop dreaming.

The good natural foods in Poland are in decline due to EU policies, soon it will be as bad as anywhere else in europe. Plus in order to make ends meet, livestock farming conditions have also deteriorated.

Pity we can,t go back to the old ways, sometimes old methods are better than the new.

Yes and no. There's a huge choice, and the best of it is excellent. But the worst, and even the mid-market stuff is truly unhealthy.

Hmmm...something wrong with this statement.

; )


In what sense?

I don't think so. There is a difference between "processed" meat and cured / marinated meats. Processed foods are high in preservatives, msg, chemicals, filler, water, etc. I wouldn't call a nice polewica or proscuitto processed...

Are you joking? There's plenty of research that shows that pickled and fermented foods are amazingly good for you.

true. Great for digestion among other things.

So the "cured" stuff referred to is purely cured and is not processed?

If so, I take it back but I doubt it.

Look, I'm not complaining - I like Polish food generally but I just don't know where this mad myth that Polish food is natural and healthy comes from.

And as for this statement:


C'mon. Please. It's mostly chemicals but still appears more natural to the poor synthetic mouthed westerners ?!


Probably. And even more research that shows it's bad for you in large quantities I'll warrant.


Well, I didn't say that.

That u have the only privilege to eat unprocessed meat on ur island.

Maybe from known sources, like everywhere but in masses, no.

And huge rates of stomach cancer in central and eastern Europe - basically in Europe's wędliny and ogórki belt.

Corellation does not imply causation.

"With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates."

Where Poland is severly lacking are good steaks. When a butcher here receives a nice piece of beef he mauls it until its a shadow of its former self. I shall be going home for a visit soon and first stop steak house.

No body's going to eat a plate full of gherkins though, its a side dish along with other preserved/pickled varieties.

What about salads, they are amazing all kinds of different varieties, in the UK its lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber period for a side, boring as hell and tasteless.


Very true the same with lamb, its not the butchers fault with beef, i commented in another thread i think its associated with the lack of hanging. Fillets is still great as it should be for the price, 70 - 100 PLN / KG, still cheap by Western standards. Lamb is just non existent.

I don't know about how natural it may be. Naturally better tasting imo.

My aunt makes mouth-watering zurek. Think I'll pass on the smalec though. I had a small portion on a piece of bread. I kept imaging my arteries clogging with each and every bite!

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  zurek.jpg
  
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  smalec.jpg
  

The right smalec is great with the right bread, the only Polish food i really despise is Flaki, even the name annoys me.

Who would not like a slice of dark bread smoked slonina and a little onion

True, pickled stuff is pretty good for you. Luckily I like pickled food :) Fermented food I don't know about. Probably Zurek is good for you, I only had that 3 times in my life and I loved it :)


Also true. You could also use a little mustard with your food or have a spoon of Balsamic vinegar before you start eating. Balsamic you can actually drink like that. Important feature is that it seperates fat in your stomach into little balls which cannot be absorbed by the body, so if you take a spoon of Balsamic before you eat, you get less fat from that dinner. Same goes for any sour(y) condiment.

Edit: that's how Megan Fox got so hot :)


What is slonina? Salmon?

>^..^<

M-G (eating a pickle before dinner, dipping your meat into a spoon of Dijon mustard, not the sweet mustard)

here yoou go MareGaea

ukrainians.ca/content/view/1309/2/lang,en/

Here's some flaki served at my cousin's wedding. I liked the taste. In California, Mexican restaurants serve a similar soup, called menudo.

Tripe is actually high in protein. It's also eaten to assist in curing hangovers. The tripe helps absorb booze from the stomach.

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  flacki1.jpg
  

Almost, but not quite nonexistent. There's a market about 50m from my flat. When I want a leg of lamb I order it and usually have in a few days. Otherwise it's only there on rare occasions.

And beef in Poland leaves a lot to be desired.

I like flaki.

nah, I just use in is salad dressing.


I don't know what it does, but I know that anything sour/fermented, including sour kraut is good for the digestion since it contains the natural bacteria which aids it.


is that a fact or she just eats nothing? :)


pork fat.

Oh, it's bacon. Thanks, Marek.

Oh ok, pork fat/bacon. We call that either Reuzel, Spek or Spekvet. Amazing how Dutch, German and Polish food is basically the same.


I just happen to have read a lot about these things recently and since then I know that it splits up the fat in your stomach and makes it harder for the body to absorb fat out of the food you eat. Best food without a doubt however is tomatoes. Good thing about them is that they actually get healthier when processed into ketchup, purée or sauce. The vitamins have gone, however, but that's not the most important element of them - the liposomes or sth like that. They are good for just about anything; they make you look younger, prevents (in men's cases) prostate cancer, are good for the blood and heart and loads of other things. The reason why they are even better when they're processed into sth is that the skin has disappeared and the skin is kinda hard to digest without it, your body can absorp all the goodies, which it can't when you eat a tomato raw.

>^..^<

M-G (tiens)

Elephant meat ;)

No, seriously.. it's a type of bacon-like pork product, I have no idea what it would be called in English (or Dutch, for that matter). It's a bit like the fatty part of bacon, but without much "meat", if that makes any sense.

eta: too late, haha.