Regional products from Poland with EU certificates and without

Ironside, thank you for giving me this idea for a thread with your mention of obwarzanek krakowski which is close to bagel. It is
It is a braided ring-shaped bread that is boiled and sprinkled with salt and sesame or poppy seeds before being baked. It has a white, sweetish, moist and chewy crumb underneath a crunchy golden-brown crust.

It is sold in streets from special carts.

Read more on it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obwarzanek_krakowski

In 2006, the "obwarzanek krakowski" was entered on the List of traditional products from the Lesser Poland province in the category of bakery and confectionery products, and in 2010 on the list of protected products of the European Union.

My fave style is salt one. As a child, I found those big grains of rock salt attached to obwarzanek utterly fascinating.

I hated poppy seed ones. Yuk!

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Similar in appearance to a German pretzel but completely different in taste. I remember them from my youth in Katowice.

Quite possible.

The best obwarzaneks are the fresh ones straight from the oven - then they are the crispiest. While the ones who stay too long in that cart become too rubbery from the moisture in the air.
I must say it is a very fulfilling dish - it saved me from starving a few times in my life. Besides, it offers a good opportunity to engage your hands and mind and forget about stress while walking in streets.


I suppose all southern Poland is covered by the influence of obwarzanek. I also found the name in Wiech Wiechecki`s court stories from Warsaw published before WW2. But those warsawian ones must have been different than krakowian.

Next regional product which gained amasing fame in Poland and the world is śliwowica łącka aka slivovitz from the borough of Łącko in southern Poland. It hasn`t received the EU certificate coz according to the Polish law, it is illegal moonshine!!! However, to keep up the tradition, local authorities close an eye and the production isn`t banned.
This is Poland, guys and guyesses - a country where a standard logical approach to understand things is useless. :):):):

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Sounds like a good advertising slogan.

Similar to Abandon hope all ye who enter here :):):)

However, those slivovitz producers invented their own rhymed slogan visible on the bottle:

Strength and beauty is what you get from our slivovitz from Łącko.

Their plum vodka is 70% strong so it indeed gives strength. :):):)

At 70% alcohol?... there's nothing strong... or beautiful about that.

I think Amiga has been testing some of that stuff tonight

Do you mean you normally drink pure spirit 97% strong????

No, he can`t afford it coz he didn`t have enough money for a cup of coffee while in Poland. :):):)

Of course not and no one is strong enough to drink 70%....at least without unpleasant consequences.

I drank it at 17 and survived. :):):) It happened in a village. I was visiting my rural classmate during winter holidays and we went to a local wedding party to watch from behind the fence. Other watchers brought moonshine spirit but didn`t have enough water to dilute it so we drank really strong stuff. I couldn`t refuse coz I was the only city guy among them and they watched me carefully.

Now a riddle: how were the watchers who came to sb`s property to observe the wedding party called in rural Poland????

The name was przychodnioki - comingers!

It is amasing newer generations don`t know this word when I enquire about it among my students or acquaintances. The custom which still prevailed 40 years ago doesn `t exist anymore.

I just reread its ingredients and one of them is fat aka lard. Amasing - I had no idea. It seems that the aim of its creators from the very beginning was to offer consumers a hearty product.

Butter and margarine were too expensive.

Exactly.

Another EU certified product comes from the city of Poznań. I must unproudly admit I have never tried it. :):):

St. Martin's croissants were invented in 19th century to celebrate St Martin`s Day which falls on 11 Nov.

The recipe for them is not simple. Yeast puff pastry is used for baking, which is the kind that after cooling must be rolled out with butter or margarine. The croissants are stuffed with white poppy seeds mixed with orange peel, nuts, almonds and marzipan. The whole thing is covered with icing.

The 140-year-old pastry quickly gained popularity. First in Poznań and the region, and then throughout Poland. It can be bought in confectioneries, shops and supermarkets. However, only a small number of them are real St. Martin's croissants. In 2008, the croissant was recognized as a "Product with Protected Designation of Origin in the European Union". "A special certificate guaranteeing compliance with the traditional recipe is held by 94 confectioneries in Poland" - informs the portal poznań.pl.

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According to a paper on the food culture of the Wielkopolska region they were publicized more widely after WWI because the Nov 11 holiday was associated with Piłsudski who was not popular in the region due to his lack of support for the Wielkopolska uprising....