New Anglo-Polish alliance in the making?

...'Twas the same with Marmite (according to one poster "aus Deutschland") and Heinz Baked beans from Pittsburgh USA. Looks as though the Anglos have few indigenous foods. Maybe only boiled dinners with all the flavour and nutrition boiled to hell, those awful bready-sagey sausages and that cotton-fluff stuff that passes for bread?! Even the scone is probably Scottish.

Even when England was consideref food purgatory everybody agreed they were good at some things, especially roasted meats (never a Polish strong suit). Lots of good old fashioned American dishes are also based on British forerunners, I think even tuna casserole is probably an americanized version of fish pie.

And Anglos? what kind of goofy insult is that? The only reason I know it's an insult is because you wrote it and you hate everybody who isn't just like you.

Harold, you've just broken up a very, very nice conversation about tea which clearly demontrates that you're not truly British or you are some odd British monster with affiliations to the UKCP. Shame on you!



This is it! Now I can recall I was always offered tee 'with milk', but never 'milky tea' in the UK. What I used to drink, however, was tea somewhere in between 'tee with milk' and 'milky tea' as I used to prefer a rather larger quantity of milk added, but not that much.

Curiously enough, our British friends who visit us in Poland always prefer tea served in the Polish way, that is black tea in a glass (sometimes with a slice of lemon).

One of my memories from England related to tea was when a lady came upstairs to my bedroom in the morning once to offer me a cup of hot English tea. Since at the time I was a young handsome lad totally unaware of this British custom of greeting a guest in the house through serving them tea to the bed in the morning, plus I was lying half-naked on the bed, I simply thought her intentions were .... hmm... different! Very amusing, wasn't it?

Looks as though you're intent on trying to troll further now that you've realised Marmite, baked beans and milky tea aren't British products. Are you only happy when you're being hateful?


That has nothing to do with British food but everything to do with how it's cooked. Ever had watery, overboiled Pierogi?


I haven't heard of this custom either..........it would be more likely you would be offered one when you came downstairs for breakfast......


I think you may well be right Ziemowit ;)

Ohhhh, but the good old American favourite Apple Pie is English !!.

The tea art of 'dunking' and the cultural work break of ' elevenses' are both quintessentially British in origin. Now heaven forbid the Polish allow themselves to adopt the American pastime of ' dunkin doughnuts' in coffee. how feral.

Not only is it feral but look at the size of the fat yanks! Get more donuts in ya!

That's partly because of the bizarre way they butcher the animals in mainland Europe, Poland is not the only guilty party. They simply do not have a proper joint for roasting. It makes me weep to see the miserable little cuts of beef with hardly any fat, and the beautiful bones full of marrow for making delicious gravy, where are they? And what about a proper ham for Christmas, roasted and glazed with honey. I'm not impressed at all with the way Poles prepare and cook meat and quite frankly the sausages, despite the numerous varieties available, tend to test very much like each other and they're way too salty. To me the thing the Poles do best is soup.


Really? Morning tea in bed is quite common in my experience.


Do you ask them why? I'm a great one for quizzing people on these things! I imagine it's partly the novelty factor and partly the fact that the milk tastes different. That's why I stopped taking milk in my tea in Poland. Also when I first visited Poland on holidays, I had to drink whatever tea I was given and it was so weak that when you added a drop of milk, there was simply no flavour to it at all.


Now isn't that typical of a man. Actually Mr Atch warned me about this when we first came to live here years ago. 'Polish men are not like Irish men' quoth he. 'If you smile at them or you're too chatty, they'll think you fancy them. Don't say hello to the men sweeping the roads, no small talk or jokes with the men painting the outside of the building' etc etc. Basically no casual friendliness towards strange men. At this stage I don't worry about it any more. I'm just myself, if I feel like chatting or smiling I do and I don't care what they think!

Maybe I have got the context of this wrong. I meant not common under the circumstances I presumed he was staying under. I guessed Ziemowit was staying in a B and B or similar, and didn't know the lady he referred to. Under those circumstances, I would find it odd that a woman would come directly to the bedroom to offer tea. Tea would usually be available with breakfast.

If for example he was staying with friends, then no, it would not be unusual as you are right in that tea in bed in the morning is common.

Yes, now that's interesting - the etiquette of morning tea!

a) Staying in a B&B, nowadays, kettle in the bedroom and tea making supplies generally available. Back in Ziem's student days less common so as you say, tea with brekkie.

b) Staying in 'lodgings' ie renting a bedroom from a landlady and taking meals downstairs cooked by landlady, tea in bed also rare unless lodgings arranged by mutual acquaintance thus landlady treating you more like family, or perhaps if the landlady was about twenty years older she might have felt motherly towards him. It was probably safe for an older woman to take tea to a 'young man' back in the 80's or 90's without him automatically assuming that she was a MILF :)) Although not in Ziem's case obviously - who would have thought it..........

c) Staying with friends or someone you know quite well, a morning cuppa brought to the bedroom, fairly common.

Right, I've finished my cappucino now so onward and upward!

Hi girls, I was indeed staying at a house down there in Somerset which belonged to the friends of my English friend to where my friend took me from London for a weekend. As I said, being unaware of this 'strange' for me English custom, I felt for a while perplexed seeing the Lady of the House entering my bedroom with tea where I was lying half-naked and bearing in mind that the lady's husband was downstairs together with their two daughters and my friend. As an excuse, I may say that my thoughts on her alleged 'intentions' may have perhaps been inspired by a visit to the Tower of London a couple of days before that. There I happened to be waiting in a rather long queue to the ticket office (this was in the summer peak) just standing behind a couple of French gay men who were constantly and alternately throwing glimpses at me which made me feel uneasy after a while.

In the end, I felt released when it turned out that the lady was exercising the old British custom being a great sign of hospitality to the guest. Anyway, I should add she was indeed a VERY attractive Somerset lady.

Such were my first "successes" upon my first landing ever on the British soil at the age of 23 and I am telling you all that just for your amusement, my dear girls.

Funny mistake, indeed. What I meant was 'relieved', of course, and I hope you still believe what I have told you above on the PF, ladies!

Ah the old Freudian slip......now Ziemuś you've revealed a whole other side to your self (pardon the pun!) and we shall never think of you in quite the same way again :))

This is true. A tiny amount of Marmite on your toast is delicious. Too much of it is absolutely foul. That's why we Brits like the stuff: it rewards our belief in moderation in all things...

Promite is way better. I eat it with my finger out of the jar.

Typical Aussie table manners.

The wife says all the time...what feral has been in my promite? She thinks I don't like it but I dont like vegemite. The kids know better but haven't dobbed me in yet. Anyway ozzies a very refined these days so its just me.

You are quite right I was only kidding.

Do you prefer Limey or Pommy? There are nicknames for every country so why should Britian be any different?

Limeys (or Limey bastards are the traditional American nicknames. Pom(my) sounds Australian.

Anglo is usually associated with white English speaker in North America (in contrast to black or latino or other minorites) you're an Anglo by birth.

Yes Pom or Pommy is Australian. It is used often and I have never seen anyone take offense.

Same with Yankee and Yank. The best-known baseball team are the New York Yankees. Just an affectionate nick. Isn't Ozzie in that same boat?

Methinks some nations are just too thin-skinned and lack a sense of humour.


Non-Hispanic and non-Anglo ethnics usually prefer WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Those were the people who created slavery in the US and massacred the Amerindians.

You are correct p3. It's a nickname used usually in good humour and often in the sporting sphere. Nothing more.

As someone from well below the Mason-Dixon line I greatly resent being called a yankee (yank is irritating but not as much).

Beware Poles. English are sinister and treacherous.