Which foods are generally disliked/unpopular in Poland? Which non-Polish foods are slowly gaining popularity?

With Serbian food Poles will only expand. Bodily and territorial.

Shopska is very tasty (one of the few dishes of ours I actually love). In fact it's named after the region around our capital city Sofia.

DominicB, but what about Polish students in the UK? They're very likely to experiment imo, you know young ppl experimemt a lot. I know I did in NL. ;) Honestly I don't think anyone expects culinary curiosity out of gasterbeiters (they're too overworked and abused like cattle to have desire for anything but bread and cheese at the end of the day). Heck I'm too tired after just an 8 hr work day to cook and many of them work 9 to 12 hours.

Funny you should say that. I sponsored a young Pole through his studies in London, and when he finished his masters, he got a job for the Ministry of Cybersecurity. I still send him a good chunk of money every month SPECIFICALLY so that he has no excuse nor to try any new food he comes across. I've spent countless hours looking for good, but inexpensive, restaurants for him to to try.

I even spent a month in London myself on a culinary vacation last May and introduced him to tons of new foods. (I currently live in a culinary black hole, so the vacation was desperately needed). And I'm planning to take him on another month-long culinary adventure in Puebla, Mexico next year.

I've made a real foodie out of him. But he had two things that few Polish students have: someone to kick their butt and force them out of their comfort zone, and cash enough to experiment. In this case, cash earmarked specifically for experimenting. Without that, it's bread and cheese at the end of the day, as you said.

@jackrussel

The above post was from me. Forgot to log in.

I like a lot of Bulgarian food but Bulgarian versions of dishes shared with Greeks and/or Turks always seem to be... heavier.

Not as heavy as Slovenian (maybe I just didn't know what to order, but while tasty, every Slovenian meal I had was like a cannonball straight in the gut....

Toasted bread? Coz Poles prefer their bread untoasted.

When strangers from western Europe come to EXIT music fest and see this kind of Serbian bread they eat and cry >>>

I know a different saying: The German was crying when he sold his car.

Do they have live music in those restaurants in Warsaw to go along with the dinner, something like this?

youtu.be/sD_hl_HS_h4

[youtu.be/-XLO-Iq4Lx4

;)

- I heard golumbki (aka gołąbki) are essentially greek dolmas - the thing is dolmas are made with vine leaves and not cabbage leaves and it is the cabbage leaves that give golumbki its characteristic taste

I've had something similar in Bulgaria, too but they were smaller and wrapped into vine (?) leaves.

originally turkish... or even further east...

in Bulgaria i've mainly had vegetarian versions which are a little blander...

in romania they make it with pickled cabbage (the pickle whole cabbage leaves or even whole cabbages) to mimic the tart taste of grape leaves... in Hungary they bake it with sauerkraut for the same reason... (and they're much bigger than gołąbki...)

by the time you get all the way up to poland the tartness has disappeared

Similarly I think traditional village kotlet mielony (which are small) are probably a northern version of Turkish kofta.

Are there any Polish-origin foods that are famously disliked/unpopular in Poland? Another nation's example is Scotland's national dish, Haggis, which is hugely disliked by almost half Scotland's population (and is even illegal to export to USA)

I can't imagine something along the lines of golumbki with sour cabbage to be honest

very yummy... my favorite are maybe Hungarian though, very big, spicy paprika sauce and a big pile of sour cream... and they often serve it with extra sausage or boczek because who need arteries?

I teased both cuisines and I founded how is Serbian cuisine most balanced. Bulgarians put too much spices, especially mint. Greeks doing same- too much exotic plants. Hungarians often put too much cayenne pepper. So, how to give you a picture...., if you want to give food to a child, you would give it a Serbian food. Not Bulgarian, not Hungarian, not Greek. At the same time, as an adult you also can enjoy Serbian food.

Though, not that all those cuisines aren`t good. They are testy. But its the question of balance. Digestion and health.

There are restaurants in Warsaw where you can listen to live piano music, Chopin mostly, while eating, drinking and digesting ;-)

@Mad
I think Hungarian would be my choosing from the ones listed ( after Polish of course :P ). Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Have to make myself some Leczo :)

What about "Convenience Foods" (or equivalent) in Poland? Like frozen meals, canned soup (Campbell's, etc), Chef Boyardee, Cup O' Noodles, Kraft Dinner, etc? I'm guessing unpopular in Poland? (if those are even in Poland at all?)

There are plenty of Polish brands of processed foods, and increasingly more frozen stuff. Quite popular here. Not much canned soup; in Poland however there are a lot of dried packet soups.

In Europe, we don't generally get the American brands as much; plenty of home grown ones.

There's also the phony McEnnedy-American-way brand often sold at Lidl... I've bought some of it but it's usually a little off (not necessarily terrible but not quite real American either). I've seen another pseudo-American brand or two as well but can't remember the names...

@forumuser
Canned soup has never been a think in Poland though there are more and more prepared foods available (not so much frozen but ready to (h)eat dinners).

Macaroni and cheese is also not a thing here.

But sort-of-fresh guacamole is now available so, !soy feliz!

next stop: fresh corn tortillas...

The Poles do convenience meals In glass jars rather than cans - I guess stems from lack of availability of aluminium in commie times. Meatballs, tripe, golabki in jars are quite a common meal for guys who like to start the day with a kind of Warka strong.

The producers of those meals are now often owned by Weston companies - Heinz owns Pudliszki, Amino is owned by Unilever and I think Mars and Kraft also bought some commie producers.

The ready to cook chilled meals market is developing but far more slowly than it did in the US for example. It's still quite expensive relative to Polish wages and often if Poles are in a rush they would rather pick up a sandwich or a hotdog.

Yup. Traitors from PO (Puste Obietnice) and their leader Herr TuSSk sold out almost the whole country.

No - all of that happened in the 90s when Tusssk was still a local party hack in Gdansk and you were probably in diapers

Hence the amount of instant ramen sold (and often made) here in PL. Cheap, filling, undemanding on the tastebuds and unfortunately not very nutritious.

What kinds of foods do those imitation-American companies make? (frozen foods, pasta-in-sauce, soup/stew, etc?)

@jon357

Folks in the USA & Canada also buying like crazy, mostly college students and low-income earners in USA & Canada

Ha well I have just packed the spizarnia with ramen and kielbasa in jars ready for a long siege !

@mafketis


What kinds of foods do those imitation-American companies make? (frozen foods, pasta-in-sauce, soup/stew, etc?)

I recently read where Poland considers vodka to be a Polish product and prides themselves on the quality of their vodka. I am kind of a piwo kind of guy but I should probably learn about vodka before I book my visit.

Can I drink flavored vodka or will you take away my "man card" if I do? The type that intrigues me is called wiśnowka (or something like that). Is there a difference between flavored vodka and infused vodka?

True men and true women drink only clear vodka.

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