Food / Your favourite Polish foods! [180]

Kisiel is made of fruit juices thickened with potato starch, though these days you can buy little packets of commercially produced instant kisiel (horrible tasting). And I totally understand your dislike of it - weird texture!

Love / Polish Pet Names For Girls. [156]

Compilation of polish pet names for girls by the poet/satirist Andrzej Waligórski:

Kotuś, Pieseczek, Chrabąszczyk, Myszka,
Pchełka, Jagniątko, £asiczka, Liszka,
Chrząszczyk, Motylek, Krówka, Biedronka,
Kureczka, Kózka, Wróbelek, Stonka,
Jeżyk, Słowiczek, Słoniczka, Muszka,
Miś, Karaluszek, Świerszczyk, Papużka,
Pszczółka, Jabłuszko, Agrest, Malinka,
Jagódka, Gruszka, Śliwka, Jeżynka,
Różyczka, Bratek, Goździk, Lilijka,
Chaber, Stokrotka, Bzik, Konwalijka,
Burak, Buraczek, Groszek, Marchewka,
Seler, Pietruszka, Por i Brukiewka,
Dzionek, Dzioneczek, Gwiazda, Gwiazdeczka,
Słonko, Słoneczko, Drożynka Mleczna,
Psipsia, Kruszynka i jeszcze parę
- to są imiona Mojej Starej.

Food / Why carp for Polish Christmas? [157]


Not everybody eats carp - in my family we had szczupak - northern pike. Still in aspic, with stuffing, but pike, not carp.

Travel / Starbucks in Poland? [149]


Aaah....a fellow red-eye fan. I thought it was only New Yorkers who ask for that.

Food / Poland known for their sweets? [67]

Prince Polo suffered severe loss in quality since it was bought by Kraft Jacobs Suchard.
I was afraid (and Polish chocolates are a serious matter to me) that similar fate would await the 155-yr old Wedel brand when it was taken over by Cadbury. So far, no tragic consequences. Torcik Wedlowski, which was always superior to Prince Polo, remained excellent, as did their other products.

Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]

Polish surnames ending in -icz indicate roots in the eastern part of Poland - what is now Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine. As for Jewish names w. same ending - the Jewish pale of settlement in czarist Russia was located in those regions, hence the surnames.