What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods?

You're right about that, paw! Anyhow, when I was last in Poland, I was much younger, plus, an inveterate speed walker:-)

I suppose we all have our 'hate food' from childhood. I quite like cabbage and golabki but I really don't like buckwheat....just smell of it gives me nausea.

I tried this years ago. I thought I was going to have a lovely roast beef dinner, and what I got was tripe in milk gravy. I have never forgotten the taste, it is truly disgusting!

Polish-style red cabbage, that's the ticket!

Brawn, or Salceson as it's called in Poland. Yuk.

salceson...I like it with some vinegar on the top.I have not eaten it for ages.

Yes, but I remember that shytty spinach from the times when I was a little boy, that was really long ago, they couldn`t have had frozen stuff then, and it looked the same as the one today. It means no matter if it was fresh or frozen and how you cook it , it always looks like cow shyt. :):)


Yes, one needs to get accustomed to it. But I like it for one thing - it`s fattty. When young, I refused to eat fat in meat or sausage. And I preferred to eat lean fish too. Now I prefer fatty fish like carp or salmon, not to mention my favourite - eel.


Oh, yes, another thing I used to put on my sisters` plates when they weren`t looking during the meal . :):) Probably the invention of communism. :)


Do you really mean the standard, snake-like eel? It`s delicious. It is the most expensive fish available in Polish supermarkets, mostly smoked.

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I once tasted some delicious fish dish when visiting Szczecin. I was told it was a specialty of the region, but have forgotten what it's called.

The only thing I do remember was the barszcz, and that name stuck!
:-)

more like pure green deliciousness (with lots of kminek or garlic or with some vinegar) I grew up watching Popeye cartoons so I eats my spinach...

Carp is pretty meh for me, it has to handled right to avoid the muddy taste... lots better fish around (though I've never been a big fish eater). I have carp on wigilia primarily for the scales (in my wallet now...)

Me too,it tastes of smelly old rivers......my family were more into pickled herring,which I didn't particularly like either,but at least it smelt of the sea.... :-)

A decent dark pasta with spinach (prepared with olive oil, sea salt and pepper) has always been a great go-to dish for me in a hurry. If it's cooked well, it really hits the spot.

same here; I'm not particularly fond of river fish except wild salmon and sometimes trout (so bony). Soused herring in it's various forms is one of the delights of Russian/Polish/Ukranian cuisine.

I remember it from school bland green mash- awful. I wonder if it was usually frozen one. I think that fresh, raw spinach leaves can be eaten like salad. Anyway it looks more attractive in UK on shop shelves.

Bit out of polish food - I like most dishes in UK but there is one thing I hate -egg custard tart. Not sure if we have anything similar in Poland. ?

Most institutional grub I'm sure tastes the same all over - LOUSY!!!

Frozen or possibly from big tins. The fresh stuff (we grow it at home in Warsaw) is lovely.


Not always. I worked for an Italian company and the canteen food was excellent. Even better in office canteens in Saudi and Qatar; no expense spared, all free.

Italy, admittedly, I'd have expected such. Can't judge though the other places mentioned.
Not been inside a German school lunchroom in more than a decade, but there too, I can't remember anything
to write home about:-)

It is,but not really to my taste,if my memory serves me correctly,Mum used to serve it up with raw onion rings.

Ooh, I love them! Never seen them In Poland though. In Portugal they are called Pastel de nata, you can find them everywhere.


Love it :)

Try "Flan" in France.......

The best way to do it. Sledzik often hs thinly sliced raw onions in. Or apple; I make it with both, and some lime or lemon zest.

A quick and easy meal (my invention) is to boil some potatoes, get a big jar of herring in oil -not matjas; that's too salty - btw, (there will be onion in the jar), pour a bit more than half of the oil away, cut the big pieces of herring into smaller ones, a bit bigger than you'd have in sledzik (scissors in the jar works well), drain the potatoes and put them on a very big plate, then pour the herring (the potatoes should still have steam coming off) over the potatoes, and serve. Great on a cold Warsaw evening.

Among desserts, I must confess to a weakness for jableczna with fresh beaten cream, yummy!

I hated flaki till I was 13 when I went to a sports camp. After a strenuous canoeing practice on the lake, we had lunch in a local restaurant and flaki was the dish of the day. I devoured a giant bowl and was surprised it went down so smoothly. :)):

Flaki is a funny dish because it has always reminded me of octopus, squid or calamari - not only with its looks but also with this all dente feeling while gnawing (or chewing).

I'm not fond of the Polish kind; it seems bland. If I buy any, I alsways pour some of the liquid off and add vinegar, whole allspice and peppercorns. It's still limp in texture though and slightly decomposed, rather than crunchy and firm like the British kind.

Why not prepare it at home?

shhh Caprice....:):)

@rozumiemnic
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That's how my mum makes it and how I make it at home.
Cook it for some time with bay leaf and allspice, then add some chopped onions, grated apple, pepper, oil and vinegar.
The stuff you buy in jars is just different.

As for golabki, when I was a kid I just left the cabbage on the plate. Now I don't mind it and I actually prefer the Polish kind to the ones I had in Bułgaria - with vine leaves (or whatever you call it ) ;)

Flaki are fine, not my favorite but okay to have once in a while (I like it slightly thickened with kasza manna).

In my partying days I always had some in jars as it was a great hangover preventer.

I often try to make a point of having tripe when I travel (not always easy...) it's old peasant food and different places have different ways of dealing with it.

My all time favorite was in a Mexican restaurant (in the US midwest) it was a bowl of menudo - deep hot as fire flavor with lots of hominy added (I do loves me some hominy).

Romanian flaki is one of the most interesting - served in a soup that's simultaneously creamy with a tart vinegar aftertaste

Hungarian flaki was kind of meh... they didn't do anything different than they do with meat and the result was underwhelming (I love hungarian food but this was a rare miss for me)

Portuguese flaki with white beans was.... okay? A little bland...

I don't think you would find a place in the UK, that would serve tripe and onions...although my godmother (84) assures me it is delicious.

that sounds familiar, Kaprys..

More's the pity!

I love cooked red cabbage, with some butter, salt, pepper and sugar and slow cooked for a looooong time. It goes great with duck and pyzy...

I remember red cabbage in Hungary that looked like it had been cooked for days... not pretty but the taste was amazing.

I usually do, though sometimes it's handier to buy.


In Bradford, they serve(d) it raw with vinegar. Nasty. My granny used to batter and deep fry it in her chip shop (on Merseyside). Popular years ago, though you probably couldn't give it away free nowadays.