Taste of food in Poland vs other countries

I often hear Poles (who have lived in other countries) say that food, specifically meat, tastes better in Poland than it does elsewhere in europe or north america (usa/canada) even if it is prepared the same way, with the same spices.

I've lived and eaten in a few countries besides Poland and have never noticed differences in the taste of pork or chicken, for instance.

Are these Poles correct or are they just complaining?

Or maybe they are trying to justify their return to Poland to avoid telling everyone that they utterly failed abroad?

yes, i'm sure they are coming back to Polandia because foreign food sucks... lol

Believe it or not, but i've had people tell me that they left because the food was "disgusting" and the women were "ugly." Coincidentally they all worked menial jobs.

Now, as a polka living in the US, please post something about the differences in the taste of food between USA / Poland.

As far as I'm concerned, the quality of meat far surpasses all but premium, "farmers" meat in the UK. Can't comment for elsewhere, but the quality of chicken is definitely on another level.

If they were eating cheap food (as they undoubtably were), then yes, the quality was probably less.

So if i cooked your favourite chicken dish with 1 american (or british) poultry breast and 1 polish poultry breast, would you taste the difference?

Yes, but my favourite involves plain chicken :)

I can't comment for American food, but British meat tends to be of a very low quality from most suppliers unless it's a "premium" product. I can see how they might complain - they probably also can't cook very well and are used to being fed by Babcia ;)

Doubt it. But Polish red meat is not high quality, simple as that.

Pork/chicken - no idea, but I have heard that Polish chicken is good quality.

And, if you go to a decent butcher in the UK, there is a bigger choice of cuts and breeds...here there is just various cuts without telling you where it's from or what breed.

I don't know... I've never paid too much attention to stuff like that. But my cousin is studying biotechnology and she went to Germany in September to get some scientific experience at a biotechnological institute in Potsdam. She says bread there is terrible. It's rather hard, very "artificial", has a very strong smell of chemicals and even when you put some cold cuts on a slice of bread it doesn't kill the taste and the smell o_O When it becomes stale it's more edible and then she and her friend make toasts out of it ;)

When she visited home for the first time the first thing she wanted was a simple bułka (bun) to eat it on its own ;)

That's all I know :)

Bread in most countries tends to taste "weird" to non-natives. As does the milk. Just one of those things : )

Polish toast bread + Polish UHT milk = fantastic :)

(I love the way that their "toast" bread is so sweet)

Maybe, but judging by her description I suspect that there's simply more chemical stuff added. She said it doesn't become stale for a long time which is kind of weird o_O

Yes, when I lived in Singapore they used to add sweeteners to fresh milk and bread to make children eat it more.

Turkey in Poland is fantastic thats my favourite meat here, English turkey doesnt taste like Polish at all. When i was in the UK recently i stopped in kentucky it was my first return meal actually after driving for 18 hours straight, the meat tasted of nothing. I just ate a chicken dinner know, simply paneed up some chicken breast schabowi (bread crumb) stylee and it was fab. I then checked the price - two very large chicken breasts for 6.92 PLN, cant argue with dat.

Polish produce is great, my favorite aspect of living here.

Are you comparing KFC with a home cooked proper dinner???

I'm comparing English meat to Polish meat, in this case KFC meat, mind you Polish KFC chicken pieces are tiny but at least it tastes like chicken.

Got to agree, though the variety is a bit disappointing.

The problem I find is that if you go to what, in the UK, would be a butcher, you are getting loads of hams and sausages and still a limited choice of fresh meat. In a butcher back home there is a same space as the meat shops here devoted purely to different cuts and preparations of fresh meat.

I actually have the same feeling about the UK food - it's really hard to find something decent. And I don't work in a menial job, I own a business.

Bread - I think the English took care to evolve their whitest and spongiest bread into something so white and cottony that it lost all taste. I bet that they can't concieve why Poles would eat grey rubbery bread - but to me chleb just has more texture, taste, and nutritional value.

Meat - the one in the shops is just poison. The one from the butcher's is all right, I know the best butcher in town. When English complain about meat in Poland, they mean steaks - and we don't have steak meat, because we don't have steaks in our cuisine.

Fish - there are some fish, you can find fish markets in cities. Outside of cities the best bet is Tesco's - the fish is fresh, but no sweetwater sifh, sadly.

Vegetables - no variety, no quality. I forgot how the tomatoes taste. Or what can I eat apart from green beans abd brocooli. shudder. One funny thing - they eat swedes (brukiew), but not turnips (rzepa).

Coffee - pathetic. I import from Germany.

Tea not as I would expect, it's normally very strong and has a different flavour range. No tangy bitterness, a lot of that mellow aftertaste that's sickening to me.

Eggs - ok.

Milk - it's not milk, it's white water after all other products are taken out. But, as with everything else, if you research long enough you can find something excellent. There's one variety of milk in one shop that tasted good - Dairy Crest, small glass bottles with metal cap, 0,4l. No label.

Juice - tastes like cordial, not juice, but of course there is one shop in vicinity which sells one variety in glass bottles that is actually good.

So - if I'm prepared to drive around town for hours, to pick every article in a different store, then I can eat well even in the rainy land. I've even found some President plums once. Oh joy.

Just on that, some of the Poles I know here commented when they first arrived that "all the meat in butchers in Ireland is off". They now know better.

Turns out basically that they had never been confronted with such a relatively large space dedicated to storing, chopping and selling only fresh meat - and of course the accompanying rather earthy/bloody aroma.

No, we complain about lack of variety.

Have you ever been to a fish market in the UK at 6am?? The choice is beyond compare.

You should drink blue milk, it's normal milk. If you fancy getting really good milk then get gold top...that will knock your socks off (unless you are from the country).

So if you go to a supermarket in Poland you get the best of everything in one place? I don't think so. If you want quality food at good prices you need to look for it...

[edit: everything i mentioned is available in supermarkets, unlike Poland, but I try not to go there in order to support local businesses]

Here she goes spouting her aglophobe rubbish again.

Polish milk, especially the UHT stuff is **** and what is this about coffee?? Poland has the same coffee as the UK and Germany so what is she talking about again????

No way, it's fantastic.

Ah, I don't know if you can get milk from a local dairy any more... Have you ever tasted unprocessed fresh milk? Still warm.

that sh1t is disgusting, i was force fed it on my grandparents farm :(

Im not talking about unpasturised Dtaylor but the long life **** (which is available in the UK, ecxept noone buys it). My mum still ahs the local dairy leaving 3 pints of milk outside the door every day. The cream collects on the foil top and i used to love licking it off. Thats milk mmmmmmmmm


Forgot to mention this one. She doesnt know what shes talking about. Juice is much better in the UK than in Poland, it is tull of the nektar crap here. I love my OJ with pulp and tescos does a nice own brand one

Kids... don't know what's good for them.

I loved it :)

I'd agree with Ksysia, in general. Polish food seems more flavoursome.

We are talking about a country that thinks bigos is a flavoursome meal??

Haven't you heard about the subtleties of bigos? Every time you warm it up, it tastes more and more of rotten, smelly old socks ;)

Simple fact to sum it up would be that Britain has 140 michelin star restaurants and poland has????