Visited? I spent three years there and checked many places for food. But maybe it's a matter of taste... de gustibum non est disputandum and all that.
Poland's food is so heavy and bland.
Have you tried zander a la polonaise, pheasant roasted in bacon or żurek on real sourdough served in home-baked bread? If you call that bland, then I have no hope for you, Johnny.
EDIT: or wild boar baked in bread dough and then slowly warmed up over fire, served with hunter's bigos... mmmmm...
but the more countries I visit the more I appreciate Poland.
What about the Italians? They're pretty alright.
Poland's food is so heavy and bland.
Having spent an aggregate of 2-2.5 years over a 20-plus years span, I'd call the taste of your friend's into question. Polish cuisine is good stuff-although the ketchup on pizza is culinary anathema.
Ireland's a great country but the food's atrocious.
Irish butter, milk, dairy produce in general and beef are some of the best in the world whilst the Polish equivalent is shite, quite frankly. The range of fish we have in Ireland, like hake, ray, plaice and so on, well you never see it in Poland. I could go on. I won't. I'll just say bog off ya pox-bottle ;)
Raw ingredients is the term you're looking for, or fresh produce. The quality of the raw ingredients and the skill of the cook create the finished product. If you want to make naleśniki for example, beautiful creamy Irish milk and butter will give you a far superior result to watery Polish milk and insipid Polish butter and you'll have real 'double' cream (48% fat) to mix into the cheese filling.
Irish goulash
That would be Irish stew :) traditionally made with cheap cuts of lamb, not very popular these days but I would make it with beef. Traditional Irish dishes, like most Polish ones, are fairly simple, but done well, they're delicious. Otherwise, we make all kinds of everything these days, but if you want a simple meal, you can get fabulous lamb chops on the bone for example, which you'd never find in Poland and only a complete eejit could mess up the cooking of them. I'd love to know what Torq was eating when he was in Ireland.