Taste of food in Poland vs other countries

Thinking coming from experience, maybe? Or is it just a vicious slander with no funding whatsoever, notoriously and successfully propagated all around Europe by 'we all know who'? Just like those ridiculous fantasies about French and Italian cuisines?


you all keep repeating this question and fail to see the repeated answers

Come to think about it, how many michelin jurors know where Poland is? How many michelins are there in Thailand or China? Those two places in Poland I mentioned are definitely 'worth a detour', which makes them worth 2 stars. They have none, funny.

All of them I would think. And by the way, UK is ranked third per capita in Europe (after France & Italy) in terms of stars.


The guide only covers Europe & North America.

Oh, I'm sorry...so the judge of a good cheese is how easily and well you can slice it??


Ok, in the UK there are over 700 named varieties of cheese, the same as France, 300 more than Italy and 250 more than Switzerland. British cheese is well respected throughout Europe winning numerous prizes and often finding it's way onto cheese boards in many restaurants continent-wide. Also, when comparing to Swiss (almost exclusively cow's milk) the British range of cheeses is far more dynamic.


I'm not saying, like a lot of expats do, that you can't get decent foreign cheese in Poland...it's just that there is a limited choice and it's very expensive.

What do you mean British chauvinist? Because I defend my country's cuisine? Isn't that what you are doing with Poland? And if chauvinist is what you mean...I didn't start saying that women were all the ones in the kitchen doing the cooking, that was you...

Alma has a decent cheese counter.

Not any more, they now have started to cover Asia, they started with Japan, Tokyo has now more stars than any other city in the world ;)

Nott is just a **** waster trying to stir things.

Oh, OK - thanks. Didn't realise that.


Hmmm. Starting to think maybe a bit of:

Unfortunately I think a lot of this problem stems from the fact that there is a certain section of society in Poland (the minority, but it seems like a large minority to me) who think that basically anything Polish is better than anything else in the world.

It wouldn't surprise me if some Poles thought that the oceans were created by the tears of Polish people weeping in sorrow and pity at how inferior every other country is.

; )

...this too.

: )

Yep there was a telegraph article about it some time ago:)

I have just finished a tattie bread sandwich, lovely. Now going into town for some lunch. Thai, Chippy or Pub grub.....hmmmm decisions decisions :D

Cheese that sticks to the knife is not matured well.

I found a good cheese today, smoked. Says Wheatlands on it. 1879. Lemme... oh, sorry, my mistake. Borde Kase GmbH. Corner shop. Selection of European cheeses, plus Gloucester and Leicester.

Seems every village has it's own variety. Problem is, you don't see them in the shops. Problem is, when they appear here and there, the name is like the most distinctive and interesting feature :) When an Italian makes mozzarella, he gets mozzarella. When an Englishman makes a cheese, he gets... say... Billy, got any idea for the name? :)

Well, I don't like English cheese, and we can as well stop here. It's under matured :)


Possibly, but it's no good. Right now I have a Galtee cheese in my fridge, and I have a slice now and then when there's absolutely nothing else there. It has no taste in it. Oh, Ok, I am not saying anything about goat cheese or things like that, it's not what Poles are really familiar with.

Polish imitations are not half bad, if you know what you're buying. I mean matured cheeses. And there is that Polish attempt on the Roquefort type, slightly different, of course, but on a similar level. I'd say better than Stilton, but his would be personal taste, probably. Polish Brie is not bad either.


Chauvinist, yes :) I just don't get it. You Brits have a fascinating history, England is the cradle of the industrial revolution, bigger half of the still functioning technology came from the Isles, The Isles themselves are enchanting, half the famous chemists and physicists were Brits, you made some great literature, you spawned a superpower, you language dominates the world, you invented football and modern boxing and you know your snooker, your Empire girdled the Earth, you were pioneers in some important social changes, like stopping slavery and sufragette movement, you weaselled out of the WW2 having virtually no trumps, English humour is top notch, everybody knows who Nelson was, you Queen is a world-wide icon, and you still defend a thing you call cuisine like your national survival depended on it solely.

The spirit of competition, right, typical British, but I am not for underdogs, sorry :)


What is there to stir, Dave? The horse is dead, stillborn, only you Brits try to animate it with magic of words :)


See? Thai, Chinese, or fish'n'chips. And I just had bitki w śmietanie. Self made, actually, and I am not a woman, never was. And not a cook neither. How many ways of cooking an egg do you know, Dave? What weight percentage of a pig the British butcher throws away, and what is left for dogs from a Polish pig? You'd be amazed. Your dog would starve. Have you ever tasted sadło? I can't even find it in a dictionary for you. You wouldn't believe how delicious a choice piece of pure fat can be.

What can you make from tallow? How do you know that fish is fresh enough, just by looking at it? How do you clean a trout before frying? What do you fry it on to get the most flavour? Why do you add salt to the clear brew, and how do you make it clear? Why add fried onion to fried meat, and what to fry first? What do you do to stewed meat first to keep the flavour? What do you do to cucumbers to make them loose that raw grassy taste? What is the first thing to do to cabbage while cooking it? Which mushrooms are good for drying, which for pickling, which you have to cook immediately? What fruit condiment goes well with duck?

Simple questions, I am not a cook. But I am Polish, so I know the answers :)

Hahahahaha!

Try a Shropshire goats cheese called "Long Mynd".

There is well matured stuff out there if you care to look. It's just that British cheese is so good that people eat it all before it has time to mature.


Galtee? Do you mean this stuff?

theirishshop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=10

Well, firstl it's Irish and secondly it's no exactly real cheese. You'll be saying mcD's put top notch cheddar on their burgers next.

Have you tried Double Gloucester, Wenslydale, Cheshire with Fruits, Apple smoked Cheddar, Cheddar with Guinness, Red Windsor? Some pretty muscly Northumbrian cheeses out there too.

That is complete rubbish...matured brie, camembert, etc. will all stick to the knife when it's ready. Infact lots of cheeses will stick to a knife when mature. You say you don't like British cheese but your example was processed, Irish cheese which hardly counts. As for your statement that you can't find any good British cheese in shops...that is just not true. I have seen small shops that stock at least 10 different varieties of british cheese...plus imported stuff and processed junk.


You are correct, Polish imitations are not bad. The thing is, how can you possibly compare a big company, factory producing imitations of other European cheeses to an original artisan cheese from France, Italy or Britain.

As for your comment to Dave, I know for a fact that he, like most people can fry, scramble, boil, devil and poach an egg. Plus an egg is an invaluable tool for making custard, mayonnaise, pasta and millions of other things.

And Sadło in English is fat, the fat that you have on meat before it is processed. From that you get lard, suet, tallow and various oils. Butchers and abattoirs actually use almost all of the pig, cow or sheep. Maybe you don't see it in supermarkets, but if you actually go into a butcher shop you will see a huge amount of cuts, organs and fat.


This just for fun:
1. You can use it for all sorts of stuff. I personally like it for making meat puddings. But I know it can be used for making natural candles, to turn it into a spread and it has loads of baking uses.

2, 3 & 4. How on earth can you comment on fish coming from a country where fish is mostly smoked or frozen. But you know a fish is fresh by looking at it's eyes and feeling the skin, it should be wet but not slimy. Trout is also better baked than fried because it has a large amount of natural oil that will spoil when it's fried. To clean it you should cut open the belly and take out the guts under running cold water. If it's not been scaled then a good way to get rid of the scales is to take a plank of wood with 5 or 6 nails sticking out and scrape that against the direction of the scales.

5. I'm not sure what you mean by clear brew? If you are meaning consomme then you can use an egg white to make it clear, and you would add salt to take away bitterness and to season.

6. You are missing a step, you don't just add fried onion, you fry onion with star anise and then add the meat...it enhances the meaty taste (aka umami).

7. If meat is stewed properly then it will not lose flavour...infact I have never had a stew that had flavourless meat.
8. I hardly ever cook cucumber, I like it fresh out the garden just a quick rinse and eaten skin and all.
9. I'll give you that one as cabbage is not a huge part of the scottish diet.
10. I am too lazy to give you a whole list of mushrooms for each one, plus lots of them I don't know the names of...just how they look. But a good rule of thumb is that button mushrooms are good for pickling, regular mushrooms are good for cooking now and wild mushrooms are good for drying. But that's just a rough guide of what's in an average shop.

11. Most citrus goes well with duck, but also a lot of sweeter fruits like plum and even apricot contrast the strong flavours of the duck.

I'm not Polish, but I know this because I'm not a 2 year old.

Well done, but while I'm on holiday I prefer to eat out ;)


Depends on what form, but most I have tried and liked.

And on your other point about butchered meat, if you like I could sit here and give you a lesson on butchering as I was brought up with killing and butchering all sorts of animals all through my life ;) So PM me if you need any tips ;)


Shhhh mate, don't give away my trade secrets! Obviously to boil an egg you must stick it in the micro for 7 minutes with my chips and sausages.


Being Polish doesn't automatically make you know the answers ;)

It's rubbish. It's like comparing Smash with potatoes or something.

No wonder it sticks to his knife!!

Basically, this kind of stuff is for kids who won't eat cheese. For those in the UK who don't know it, it's basically the same as Dairylea.

(Galtee, by the way, do actually do proper cheese too & plenty of it)

Apologies to Galtee for suggesting otherwise ;-)


I shared a flat with some Malaysian-Chinese and they only ever ate processed slices (cos it's all the have at home, they told me). One day one of them asked why I had a block of cheddar, rather than the slices... when he tried it he found out. Next thing was he waanted to know which ones to try and how to know which was good.

Polish cheese I'm eating is either traditional Gouda/Edam etc OR rather bland local stuff (Zlote mazur?) or something.

That said, my neighbour's dad occasionally brings me a splendid goat's cheese.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to remember. Rhymes with 'mind'?


Just like in Poland... most of the home made wine just vanishes before time...


Exactly the thing. Irish, I know, we were speaking about British food as well.


Actually I gave up after several tries, no point in wasting money...


I meant hard cheeses. They are supposed to be hard.


Sadło is fat surrounding the kidneys, solely. Well, this source says it can be fat from around other organs too, but kidneys mostly. There's a recipe for preparing sadło: roguski.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=27


I based my opinion on a TV program that presented it as a revelation that you can actually eat liver, kideys etc., popularly known as offal. As they said.


I am impressed, man :)

Well, you missed the point with sadło. And...


Try this: take trout, gut it, wash the inside and only slightly rinse the skin. Make sure you don't wash away the slime, the flavour is in it. Smear it with black pepper inside, thickly, cover it with as much flour as will stick, fry on cleared butter, 5 minutes one side, 3 minutes the other. Serve hot, sprinkle with lemon, enjoy.

Trout has almost no scales, no need to rip the skin.


I meant rosół, which is bullion. My bad. You don't let it boil, only simmer. Yust a few tiny little bubbles of air.


...and fry? You'll burn the onion.


right. And releases some enzymes that help to neutralise undesirable by-products of digesting fried meat.


You fry it quickly on very hot fat, just to create a thin layer of denatured protein around. Juices will go to the brew, but slower. Seems you get your flavour from spices.


I didn't say about cooking. You slice it thin, salt the slices, let it sit until it releases juice. Throw the juice away. Skin is hard to digest, some people may suffer.


Absolved.


In average shop is mostly 'mushrooms'. These are not considered mushrooms in Poland, I meant wild mushrooms.


Hm. Right. Your mother was French, wasn't she? Or Polish. Must be, why else would you be here on PF :)


Oh I see. And while at home you prefer deliveries :)


There's basically one form. Others are products, or dishes made with sadło. See the link above. It's in Polish, though.


I am not a butcher, I just cook now and then. We are talking cuisine here, not slaughterhouse :)


Nor does it make you antisemitic, but everybody knows, innit... :)

You see, I would have at least played around with you for a while, but when you make a food thread about how much you hate Jews...then I guess everyone here can just see what a di(khead you are.!

See you have your own head so far up your ass its bad enough that you have to post questions as if you are the only man in the world worthy (cos your Polish) at answering them. then to make yourself feel superior u have to question any answers you get back. I guess if no one else takes you seriously, then at least you should do it for yourself ;)

It's probably because they don't use hormones and the ground isn't as polluted and there are no feedlots and commerial hog farms or chicken barns. The meat probably tastes cleaner and fresher because they aren't as commercialized.

No, "pinned"

Merged thread:
Do you find a food in Poland more strongly flavoured?

Question to expats in Poland

Do you find a food in Poland more strongly flavoured than in your country's?

Polish food is pretty bland. Not enough spiced up and flavored.

I find the marinated meats quite strong and they frequently taste similar, Auchen do a special chicken marinade with peppers in the summer time and its really nice.

Other foods not so much, thats one of the great things about Polish cuisine, it mostly derives its flavour from the food not additives.

I love Polish food.

Suggest you change the title to Food question to expats in Poland

you're the first expat I've ever heard who said that likes Polish cuisine

Could you elaborate ? Where are you from by the way?


Too late now, knowing all mods done away with my question !

Elaborate? Hm. Spices used are always the same and only a few of them, salt and paper mainly.
Try other cusines, and you'll know what i am talking about.
I am not saying it's not good. I am saying it is bland in comparison.

I did but I don't find them trilling, not as everyday food at last!
Well, I guess I don't need much :)

I think the general lack of spice in Northern European cuisine is consequence of geography. In colder regions food doesn't spoil as quickly and thus it doesn't need spices to mask the flavor of decay nor as preservatives.

Don't forget horseradish !

My main issue with Polish food is not that it's "bad", it's more this stubborn insistence from so many Poles that it is so wonderful. It's just ordinary. Some of it is nice, some of it awful, most just "OK".

Do you find that Polish food is more flavoured or stronger flavoured while comparing to your home food?1

i'm in agreement with this.

Difficult one as there isn't really any such thing as "Irish cuisine" (or British or Dutch etc for that matter)

There are traditional dishes, yes, but they are not eaten regularly at all and depend much more on the quality of the ingredients rather than recipe/national style etc. People simply do not eat Irish food in terms of identifiable dishes.

Typically if invited to an Irish home you will get a meal that has the influence of another country (e.g. French, Italian - whatever) but by that token, I guess this being my home food as such, then yes, it would be more strongly flavoured than Polish food.

What would be the typical dishes you cook and eat in Ireland?

In the UK as far as my cooking goes i ate similar to what i eat here, loads of pasta mostly tomato based sauces, roast dinners, the traditional meat (usually steak) with potatoes some vegetables and a sauce. Occasionally i would eat fish. I ate out a lot in the UK?

In Poland i find myself cooking at home much more than the UK, i find the produce infinitely superior, from vegetables to meat. The meats especially are fantastic and very cheap in comparison.

When looking at typical Polish food golabki, pierogi, schzabowe etc i love all that too providing its been prepared by somebody who knows how to cook, we have a 92 year old lady living near us and shes cooks excellent traditional Polish cuisine.

I really do not like flaki.

I never used to like Kielbasa and i recently discovered the reason, my wife likes the cheap stuff, thats all she buys (i didnt know this) then a neighbor gave me some 29PLN / KG to try and hey presto. Maybe kielbasa is an acquired taste in any case i quite like it now.