Taste of food in Poland vs other countries

the whole mućka wouldn't even cover 1/4 of my grill. Maybe that's why you make kotlety out of them instead of steaks.
polish mućka can't compare to a longhorn. I think you guys should set all mućki free or keep'em as pets, like cats or just for milk. get some longhorns instead.

You will not find many beef varieties in Poland so no, our beef is not great. Texas? Pumped full of hormons, I suppose. But the Texas Charolais can be good.

mućkas are cuter then longhorns... hehe...


excuse me? it's straight from a ranch! cut on the field...!
...
;)

The US is a bit odd for beef quality IME - it can indeed be great, but often sh1te too.

I guess it's just the sheer size of the place - different states might as well be different countries as far as food availability/quality goes.

drive down the road, they're running basically out in the wilderness, you wanna pump them full of hormones be my guest, take a gun with you so you don't get run over by a bull.

US beef is hormone free now? That's great. :)

we do keep them mostly for milk, only when they get too old they're slaughtered for meat, that's why our beef is what it is.

We don't have acres and acres of pastures as in the USA or Argentina, neither can we keep the cattle out all year long, so what could we do with the longhorns? Keep them indoors and feed with hormones? Better not I think.

Hormones and electrolytes, yeah they're good for you body... Jola, do you take birth-control pills?

If you don't wanna eat them just read the label on the product before you put it into your mouth. It's not like it's some kind of conspiracy dude. lol

Exactly. There's an exception, though, and it's veal, which is as good as can be, I'd say. If we are talking cows. I'm not sure how easy it is to get veal in Poland now.

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@ dtaylor and others, about cooking: dishes are not to be difficult, they are to be tasty. Whether it takes hours or minutes to prepare, it doesn't really matter, if there's no taste to enjoy. That's what you can't grasp, the basic difference between cooking in the UK, an athletic approach, and cooking in Poland, which is more of an art than simply feeding people in numbers and on time.

Cooking is not a skill that can be learned in school. It's something you grow up with, and soak it from weaning times to adulthood, and still every newly learned dish needs practice and feedback from people who know what they're eating. A good cook can always do something eatable when doing it for the first time, but there's never any guarantee that this is the thing. Cooking is not mixing ingredients as per recipe and following the algorithm. Factory made food will always be substandard, there's no way around it, regardless of additives. Cooking can not be computerised, because the nuances are far to difficult to describe - and can't taught like engineering.

My mother is a good cook. She makes delicious zrazy zawijane po warszawsku. One day she tried rolady, which is basically the same, only different stuffing. We ate it, not exactly bad, but, well, 'silesian kitchen is a bit behind'. Then I had an opportunity to taste rolady made by our neighbour, who was the source of my mother's recipe, and I changed my opinion. It took several attempts for my mother to get it more or less right. She did it in the end, but then she had a life long experience in cooking, day in, day out.

What Britain apparently excels in, is top shelf catering for people who measure their pleasure by numbers on the bill and the ratio of plate diameter to the weight of food. Not the art of cooking as such. Two different things.

Catering in Poland is far from good, I'd say. Only once in my life I found a good restaurant, quite a humble place, and rather hidden, luckily, but there was a cook working there. You ordered your schabowy, and you actually could hear it being thumped for you, and after you ate it you looked with envy at the newcomers who still had enough space in them to eat whatever. Simple dish, schabowy, innit. It's not about recipe only, it's not a skill you can learn from a book.

Not many places sell Nouvelle Cuisine these days, that went out of fashion in the 80s!


What is an athletic approach to cooking?? And saying that cooking is more of an art in one country than another is ignorant and shows a lack of experience. I have eaten dinner in loads of friends houses and their mums (and sometimes dads) would come/be home and start cooking something up for us kids. They took their time and it was, most often, very tasty and delicious food.


I would say that it is a skill that is easier to learn if you grow up with it. But it is a skill and it can be learned in school, I know great cooks whose parents hardly ever cooked. But they took some courses, read some books and were a bit daring and they make marvellous food.

Tell us what's really going on, did you have a selection of bad meals in the UK and think that's what all food there is like?? Because you seem to have a very negative and, I think, unfair view of cooking and food in the UK.

Anyway, Poland doesnt have Marmite and marmite is awesome.

Also British cheeses are fantastic, unrivalled by Poland

OK, OK - so then, why is it do you think that Poland has NO Michelin starred restaurants?

Are you basically saying that Poles are consummate artistes in the home but that restaurants can't replicate this?


And I'm sorry, but that is just rubbish.

and its ironic that the most popular chef on Polish TV is French

Hmm -

Lack of restaurant culture.
Too much emphasis on "atmosphere".
No great tradition of cooking.

Cooking came under the heading Home Economics and was taught in British schools years ago. I don't know about these days. I would say that cooking can be learnt at school.

Some people seem to have a knack for cooking, others not.

There is a programme running on TVN (i think) in which a profesional reorganizes restaurants and helps out with the menu etc.

In each programme we have seen that much of the menu comes straight from a packet, the kitchen staff are in the majority women and they don't appear to be trained.

The fact that women are in the majority shows a difference between an English restaurant and a Polish one, nothing more.

It seems to me that in Polish eateries a chef is employed under the manager and does as he is told. In the UK the Kitchen is the chef's domain and he/she has more say in what is going on.

The end product in the UK can be far superior simply because of the way the restaurant is run.

I can't see much difference between Polish and Brit home cooking. The end product is obviously different, but the ingredients are for the most part the same.

Vegies used here change a little with the season and rising/lowering costs.

Meat: You get what u pay for.

It is an acquired taste.

What people like depends on what food they are brought up on.

One mans Bigos is anothers Smelly shredded sock stew.

Arguing which is better is not really plausible.
Just like arguing which is better Barcelona FC or Manchester United, it depends what you have grown up with.

Having both English and French roots I have been brought up on differing cuisine so i really like most styles of cuisine, there are certain foods I dislike, offal, crustaceans, nuts (allergy), it doesn't matter in what style they are cooked, I just don't eat them.

Listen, half the world eats insects intentionally! I'm not talking about all the fruit flies, weevils an other creepy crawlies that we have eaten by accident.

manataka.org/page160.html

This is such a bourgeois thread. Here we all are in our heated homes, with clean running water, cars, TV's, cooking programs.... whilst the majority of the world is more concerned with when and where they are going to find their next meal.

Not that I'm not bourgeois c&nt myself.

Roll on the cheese platter open a Margaux... perhaps some Tapas..

People don't fancy eating in restaurants, what for. The new elite has to buy Lamborghinis first, dig swimming pools in backyards and pave them with marble, feed the rottweilers, and such. Michelin starred restaurants are the result of a wide network of catering premises, bitterly competing all over the country for the most cherished prize ever, innit. Just like in the UK :)


More or less, yes, excepting the exaggeration. Different discipline, so to speak, and possibly a heritage of the commie economy, to some extent.

Ah, I remember another place in Poland with good food, and the food being fish, and 500+ km from the coast. Another one known to those in the know only, I was lucky. And I don't count small eateries run by families here and there, for the 'extended family' of a handful of guests.


I ate it 6 years ago in a 4 star hotel. Or the 5 star one, I always mix them up. Special function, 'the best chef they ever had'.


fighting for medals and understanding cooking as a competition. It is, in a way, but there's no time limit and such, only the result counts. Result in taste. And this is not measurable.


Well, that's relative, isn't it? Tasty and delicious. My experience is both personal and from my friends, who in their majority confirmed that when the Brits compared their own cooking to cooking of Polish women, the verdict was delivered nearly in awe.


That's the problem, who means what by 'marvellous food'. But I'd take your word for it here... and there comes talent and/or commitment, hardly ever seen in the UK. Not to forget daily experience.


Negative, yes. It's not only experience of bad meals, it's the very 'design' of dishes, which can not work whatever you do. Grilled tomato can never be made good, it's just a waste. Mixing milk with scrambled eggs 'to stop the process right on time' is a crime, or at least a gross misconduct, it kills all the flavour and destroys texture.

Amathyst tried to convince me once that the famous, although not widely known pies are worth any sin. In my experience, if you try to bake a gravy inside pastry the result is just 'typical English food', as expected.

Unfair? I just never happened to routinely eat good English food in the UK, and mostly whatever I tried was just good enough to kill the first hunger, the second could wait no problem.

Good things I found in the UK were (in no particular order):
- cornish pasties, if spiced and prepared properly
- black pudding, if spiced as it should be
- European hard cheese; sliced, you call it? English cheese is under-matured, although I did develop taste for Red Leicester, I must admit; Stilton is not half bad either, but that's rather easy with this type. Lack of proper white cheese is a shame.

- biscuits. Top notch, and the variety to envy.
- Scotch Egg, a clever idea, and potentially really tasty
- ales, no comparison in the world, I am happy to believe
- fish and chips; simple, good, thanks to having sea at at hand
- cold roasts, those from slightly higher shelves, of course; Really good, can't say.
- mint sauce, unknown in Poland, a surprisingly fascinating condiment
- cranberry sauce, almost like the Polish one
- Hellman's mayo
- ketchup, a life-saver. Hellman's or Branston's.
- jams, not bad really
- butter, as above
- chinese eat-as-much-as-you-can
- thai food
- samosa, and those other Indian weird takes on fried stuff.
- spring roll... not so bad, in fact...
- peri-peri chicken, in places
- all day breakfast, to surprise you, because of it's practicality. If you skip the sausages, the tomato, don't ask for hash browns, ignore the toast, specify eggs as fried, forget how mushrooms can actually taste, and have ketchup at hand; keeps you going.

Loved this statement - British cooking is so superior that they prove it to all and sundry by bragging they were mentioned in a FRENCH book.

At least we know who is really really superior.

I'm sure the French in turn are mentioned in German books, and now it's only a matter of writing a Polish guide to German eating - and the brawl gets a new depth.

google.co.uk/search?q=przewodnik+po+kuchni+niemieckiej&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=5xb&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&q=kuchnia+niemiecka&aq=0&aqi=g2g-o1&aql=&oq= kuchnia+ni&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=3a01454bef86f89e

And I see it's being worked on.

Shows how much you understand.

A "French book" ? Well I suppose so in the sense that celsius is a "Swedish measurement scale" ...

The Michelin guide is the bloody international standard for fine dining!!!

From Wiki:The Michelin Guide (French: Guide Michelin) is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term normally refers to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars. Michelin also publishes Green Guides for travel and tourism, as well as several newer publications such as the Guide Voyageur Pratique (independent travel), Guide Gourmand (good-value eating-places), Guide Escapade (quick breaks) and Guide Coup de Cœur (favourite hotels).

French enough.
Same as Lindt is the standard for chocolate, not Cadbury's

Yes, and the international standard for fine dining - do you not understand? It is not merely 'some French book' as you seemed to suggest.


And this has exactly what to do with anything?!

Largely that Cadbury's is not suitable for eating. It doesn't contain enough chocolate to make it a chocolate, it's just a 'chocolate-like product'.

Unlike Wawel.

Which brings me right back on topic - the taste of candy in Poland is marvellous, you can feel the texture of nuts in Michałki, and waffles in Kasztanki. Can't be compared to processed food bars (what a name for a dish - ration bar) like they have everywhere in the West, and they are trying to sell in Poland as well.

The taste of food in Poland is in fact so good, and we appreciate it so much, that Knorr company who make dry soups, spend money to put on their posters 'it's only natural and always was' (which is funny, in a desperate way).

nott

I must admit, that's not a very broad outlook. I agree on the points about black pudding (I like mine spicy), pasties, ales and, to an extent, fish and chips.

But most of the stuff you mentioned are condiments and fast food, not a great way to sample a countries food. Save cheese, and someone from Poland slagging off British cheeses amuses me. Under matured? There are hundreds of mature cheeses in the UK. Plus the variety of cheese in general is rivalled by very few countries in the world. Plus we have a much bigger selection of other European cheeses in the shops than in Poland.


Ok, let's say for the minute this was true. I think you will see that a lot of the brits on the forum have already had bad things to say about Polish food...not quite the awe you are stating. But also, how many British cooks (in the home and restaurants) have ever had the chance or the want to compare themselves to Polish women in the home? Not very many at all. Just like how many Polish people really see what most families in the the UK are cooking at home? You can't gain a proper insight into how a country does it's home cooking by visiting a few people. You do that by living and growing up there. It's hardly a comparison you or I are qualified to make.


Ok, so you had it 6 years ago at a special function. I'll be honest, I know lots of people in the industry and most of them would laugh at the idea of Nouvelle Cuisine these days, saying it's outdated, pedantic and not what most customers want.

Now we can keep going on like this all today, like yesterday, or we can agree that you think Polish food is miles better than British food and I think there isn't really much of a difference in the quality in most homes, and restaurants can be good or bad anywhere you go.

Oh, and just about the milk comment a few pages back ie.white water in the UK. Could it be that most milk with a red top in poland is 3.2% fat and red top in the UK is skimmed milk? That caused me confusion when I first arrived, I didn't look at the percentages, I just grabbed the blue milk and kept getting semi-skimmed.

Well I don't get your point - who is claiming that Cadbury is a quality product?


Haven't had it but yes, I believe it is very good.

I have however had other chocolate products in poland - can't remember - and they were pretty cheap and nasty tasting. But you get these everywhere. Wasn't impressed at all with confectionary in Poland generally though.


I don't even get what point you are making here - you mean Knorr posters in Poland?

Convex stated earlier that much of the ingredients on polish cooking programmes come from packets anyway.

if they were, the office people in all my jobs in Egnland would not have drooled at the tought of Pieguski, sernik, baryłki z likierem and other Polish confectionery.

You had a RATION BAR in Poland, because that's all you recognize as suitable for eating. And if it wasn't to your taste, I can believe it - it wouldn't be to mine.

Sorry, no - that was Wroclaw.

I agree also with cardno85 too by the way.

so true, we learn early in life that taste and then we measure everything according to that.


no idea.


yey.......:)


he, he, I am glad you agree with me:)


some don't see to agree;)


what did I say?

Which was basically my experience with most Polish food so I guess we must agree to disagree on that one.

As Patrycja & Aphro say, probably more a case of whatever you grew up with.


What the hell does that mean?

Anyway, I didn't buy anything - I was given these, whatever they were, in Polish homes.

I just wanted to make the list as long as possible. Not my fault I had to include chinese and thai. :)


Well hidden, then. No English cheese can be properly sliced, it all crumbles to bits.


In Europe, say, the rest of the world hardly makes any cheese. So the 'few' looks a bit different then. Italy, France, Switzerland come immediately to mind.

British cheese is specific. You may like it, I don't really fancy it.


That seems like true, you bloody British chauvinist! :) But there are those new French supermarkets, and Lidl.



This sounds plausible, only tell me why the whole Europe agrees that English food is just bad and that the English can't cook? And that most Europeans agree that French food is superb, that Italian one is good, Spanish not bad, German as it is, and so on?


and I saw it numerous times on TV, during those wannabe chefs' contests. Highly regarded by the jurors.

You might be right, though, I don't really know how you get a michelin star. Doesn't matter to me much, the point is that a hotel does catering, and a kitchen does cooking, and the number of medals in the country doesn't say much about the national kitchen as developed and practised. You can buy a chef, you can't buy a Kitchen, if you know what I mean.

They don't though - they think that the cliché of English food is bad. What they imagine is overcooked beef, fry-ups and take away food and their thinking doesn't go beyond that. It's just a popular image and an unfair one.

And again, not to go on about it, but if what you say is actually true and not just dismissive pub talk from those who don't really know what they are talking about, why does Britain have so many michelin stars? They are not given away lightly.


Yes a hotel usually does catering - not a restaurant. Important distinction. With a few exceptions I would rarely recommend going to a hotel for good food.