Poles Living in the Chicago Area

two great sites thank you!

It's supposed to be Italian sausage. Sometimes, Ill sprinkle parmesan cheese crushed red pepper on it. I think, I figured out why they put ketchup on their pizzas. Its the lack of tomato sauce as the base. The handful of pizzas I tried in Poland hardly had any sauce or none at all. Thats why they drowned it in ketchup and it became a habit so they do it in the USA as well? Just an observation.


They have these white Bratwurst that I always get when I go to Oktoberfest. They are awesome, served with German potato salad and sauerkraut.

Do they celebrate Oktoberfest in England? Id love to go to Germany for it!


Oh, I love that gravy! I wish I had some Zraszy and mashed potatoes right now.. Those cold salad side dishes they serve at Polish restaurants hit the spot too.

This could be tasty on a pizza, it looks similar to Canadian Bacon.

The employees are starting to give me strange looks taking pics. Im going to tell them my name is Pawian next time...lol

• 
  pierogis.JPG
  
• 
  swoska.JPG
  
• 
  droz.JPG
  
• 
  cake.JPG
  

My love affair with pizza came to an abrupt end when I read that just one slice of that yummy thing at Costco has 800 calories.

Zrazy (singular zraz )

There's also rolada (similar but different dish).

I don't know about the rest of the country, but there is a big one in London every year, we went once and it was very good.

But I bet it's even better in Germany.

You bet it is, mate!

The Oktoberfest is happening right now in Chicago. Its called the German-American fest, but its the same thing. Im going there tomorrow for some white Bratwurst, these are the best!

germanday.com

I know a girl who works the ticket booth every year and Im sure to get some free beer! :)

Highly doubt it :)

Well its not as big, yet its a fun time:)

They have one up in Milwaukee thats ever larger, thats where all the breweries in the USA began. Thank you, Germans:)

thebavarianbierhaus.com/oktoberfest-info

Every time I think of Oktoberfest, I want some beer! Hahaha

Oh I can't wait for my next trip back home to have a beer from my local brewery:)

Which one would that be, Tyskie, Zywiec or Warta?
:-)

Neither. I mean small brewery not the mass cr*p. Those I could easily get in UK

I see. You mean micro-breweries such as the original Sam Adams here in the States before it starting becoming mass produced. Just curious.

I don't know Sam Adam's. The brewery is growing but I's not something you'll find in a supermarket outside of the region.

In my town, thankfully, you can get it in almost any shop

Good to know.

@Joker, thanks for more photos :) Wow, they even have Malinowa Chmurka (a lovely name, btw) :))


They don't look like drożdżówki to me, I've never seen plums on top of pączki (and I've never heard of "pączki kiwi"), but it does look like pączki dough.

The American Polish Delis are much better than anything we have in the UK.
Yeah, we can get good quality kielbasa, boczek, soups, tinned goods, kapusta, salads,beers, wodkas and good bread.
But cakes and sweet baked things are harder to find.
We do have quite a lot of good Polish restaurants too now, but I suspect that most of the American ones are better.

But they look baked (the kiwi definitely look baked into the dough).... can you bake pączki?

@maf, those are plums, not kiwi... I have no idea why they're called "kiwi pączki" :)


Yes, you can :):

kwestiasmaku.com/kuchnia_polska/tlusty_czwartek/paczki_pieczone/przepis.html

Also, I've never seen icing sugar on drożdżówka...


I suspect that it's at least partly because the Polish diaspora in the US has longer history, while the mass Polish immigration to the UK is pretty recent in comparison...

I was wondering about the color.... maybe they're some weird pol-am placek/pączki hybrid?

Glazed roll?I sometimes I used to see at Dunkin Donuts,different taste though.Glazed donuts are regular there but occasionally they have glazed roll as mostly with strawberry & Blackberry filling.I have seen Faworki also called Angel wings.

You are. right, but most of those Pole Ams are grandchldren of the immigrsnts.Like my kids.
They feel an affinity to their Polish history, but are not really Polish.
My parents were post WW2 immigrants to the UK.
The Polish government in exile was based in Kensington and Hammersmith and most Poles settled in a similar area, then moved out to Acton, Ealing, Harlesden,Willesden, Cricklewood and later the Harrow area.

There was a small Polish community in South London too, but I can't remember where.Balham maybe?
The Polish community in NW.London in the sixties was not huge, but big enough.
We had a small Polish deli in Harlesden that, even back then would deliver to our family house in Harrow Weald.
His name escapes me.
But there was also a huge importer,with a warehouse in Harlesden called Fregatta which could supply all your needs, cheaper and even in communist times.

No idea, could be, I guess... Maybe Joker will buy one and tell us :D


You mean something like this?:

domowe-potrawy.pl/drozdzowki-z-lukrem/

For me "drożdżówka" is usually the one with "kruszonka" (crumble) on top. I guess I'd be more likely to call a glazed roll "słodka bułka", but from what I can see on the internet it's called "drożdżówka" too.

Where I live glazed rolls are often with pudding on top:

piekarniawiejska.com/media/items/bulka-slodka-z-budyniem.jpg

(I remember them well, because I was quite often buying them for second breakfast at high school lol)


How big? According to info on Wiki there are almost 10 mln people with Polish roots in the US, so that's rather a lot...

Easy. My kids never id themselves as Polish in any way. The only thing they know is that their parents have an accent.
Grandkids don't even know if Poland is on this planet.

Yeah, but they emmigrated a long time ago, Polish immigrants to the UK are much more recent and have a much stronger connection to Poland than Polams, most of whom cannot even speak Polish!

And the UK is closer to Poland than the US, so Poles can take a cheap flight back home and eat Malinowa Chmurka made by their mom or grandma in Poland :)


Yes, nevertheless, I've noticed that many Americans like to celebrate their roots (I'm guessing it's because they're a nation of immigrants).

Late 20th century propaganda and the whole 'celebrate their roots' was restricted to the northeast until the 1980s or so... (north of the mason dixon and the great lakes and east). When/where I grew up no one thought of themselves as descendents of immigrants (except for a few who really were immigrants).

I intensely dislike "where are you from" questions. They mean not where I live but what hellhole I came from. They are telling me, indirectly and very politely, that all my efforts to get rid of my accent have failed. The follow-up question - when did you come here? - is even worse as the answer reveals that even 50 years is not enough to melt completely.

I'm not saying that this is how people are viewing themselves, but the fact that Americans are a young nation and maybe that's why there's this connection to "the old country" or at least being aware of their roots and, you know, celebrating some traditions, eating some "ethnic" food, those parades, etc.


As in - from which country? Are you still getting such questions in the US?

I happen to agree with you, Paulina. We are a relatively young nation compared to yours and still looking back yearningly to our European forbearers.

This happens often when I am on the road and stop at a bar as I did last Friday. The locals see a stranger so they ask where I am from - most likely meaning where I live but I am never sure.