Taste of food in Poland vs other countries

where you from, delph? you got good socks over there... :)

Bigos is different in every house, all depends on the cook. My neighbours made something that made me feel full up before I got it on my plate.

it is different in every house, but it doesn't depend on the cook but on what's in the fridge...

Poland has kitchens all over the place.

London has the most of the best restaurants in the world, yet the Brits enjoy cooking mostly on the TV, like sport.


that too, still the cook makes his/er own impression. Like, two main varieties are bigos made from soured cabbage only, or from mixed. And there comes selection of spices, even if apparently not impressive in number.

Not really, it is very fashionable to be a good cook in the UK now.

Says it all, really :) Being a good cook is not like acquiring new looks. You need to grow in it.

Cooking may be becoming fashionable, given the amount of propaganda, but you don't make a good cook by telling him to cook well from now on.

No. It is a skill like any other and can be learnt.


Propaganda? Jesus i didn't know Hitler had came back to teach people to cook...


Why not? Cooking well, for the majority is not a birth right.

So you say. It's a craft, with little deep secrets and a hefty dose of heart. You don't get it from books nor from TV.


Half the BBC is about cooking :) About competing in cooking, that is.


Majority? Not even in Poland.

You get it from practise, if TV inspires you to get in the kitchen then thats not a bad thing is it?


Again, not a bad thing.


Like i said its a skill you can teach yourself or learn about.

Well, it makes you think you can have an opinion on cooking :)

You ever seen the Tomato contra Pepper show, whatever the true name? People voting on cooks by the looks of the dishes and by what the cooks said during the 20 minutes they were given to make a three course dinner. It's ridiculous, they don't even get samples to taste, they just look at it. Ready-Steady-Cook? A competition for chefs, not for cooks. 'Chef' is about producing sellable food under pressure, 'presentation' and logistics being as important as taste. It's not about cooking, just like breeding farm is not about sensual love. The F Word? It's about how disastrous the British commercial kitchen is behind the doors, 'get the fking roaches out of here first, and clean that fkin fridge!' :)

It's all good and fine that somebody started to teach the Brits the basics, but it's along way to go. First, you have to develop taste. Which is a vicious circle, actually, an attempt to lift yourself by pulling up you hair...

We are way off-topic, I am afraid...

The look of the dish is half way to enjoying it. Though the final say will be on taste. It's a TV show what do you expect? Have you ever licked you TV? No, but it might just get you in the kitchen to find out for yourself.


You mean some of the "chefs" that have michelin stars on that show?


At least get the show right, You mean Kitchen nightmares. Which at least goes some of the way to showing the public how bad some kitchens are, unless you like to think that the public shouldnt have a right to question some places.


The basics were always there, I'd go as far to say the foreign influx of cheap Italian and Indian kitchens destroyed for a while what was already there. The French and Spanish who are known to have some of the best seafood in the world don't complain that most of their produce comes from Northern Britain.


Which is why the UK boasts some of the best kitchens in the world...

Nothing much, that was my point. TV doesn't make cooks.


It might. Once or twice, then you get disappointed, and you keep to watching them with awe, while munching free delivery pizza.

You know, there are programs in Poland, about cooking. A cook shows people how he (most often) cooks things not commonly known. Not how quickly he can cut onions. But he shows it to people who already know how to hold a knife, and what 'glassy onion' means.


What's a michelin star? Can you eat it? I want food from the cooks, not medals to look at.


Sorry, I am not a fan :)


Fish and chips were there, and 'pies'. Now there's curry and tikka masala, KFC and peri-peri. Well, yes, the all day breakfast holds tight, but not even you can call it tasty as served. The basics are forgotten long ago, whatever they were. I was working in a kitchen for a stretch, and the English-born apprentice didn't know what to do with a ready made Yorkshire pudding. Pathetic.


Restaurants, not kitchens. Kitchens are in countries where people do cooking. Not chefs, people. For people, not for customers with thick wallets who enjoy fancy tiny structure on a huge plate. Restaurants with stars grow where there are people with money to burn, so no wonder.

I have recently taken to drinking vodka, eating sledge and drinking sweet tea with lemon. It is amazing i can polish off (no pun) 70cl bottle, a plate of sledge and a pot of tea and wake up feeling great in the morning. Seriously it works, must be the fish oil and tea.

Bigos can smell weird and look like ****, but hey the only time I eat it is at the in laws.

The only things i miss are easy access to lamb and real decent mature beef steak. Both of which are a bugger to find. Lucky for me there is a decent indian restaurant and french place within half hour drive which help sate my appetite.

you mean śledź? :)

hahahaha, wow yeah, you got me, i'm tired and stoned. Plus my key board doesn't have the accents and i'm too tired to copy and paste... Though thanks for pointing out the error, I can't believe I wrote Sledge, jeez what a moron.

It doesn't make engineers so what is your point?


Are you a little fecked up in the head? If someone is interested or wants to learn a new skill, they don't depend on TV. But if seeing something on the TV inspires you to go out and do something with what you have seen, it's not wrong.


If it is so great to be a so called "cook" then it wouldn't be popular to watch how fast someone cuts an onion. It seems to me you are trying to cover up a lack of ability in cooking high end food in Poland.


It's the thing most cooks aspire to.


If cooked right it makes for a tasty meal. A slice of bread with plastic cheese hardly screams a breakfast eh?


Looks like you learnt about feck all from it. Does your ability pass making stews or is your lack of ability combined with your staunch regard for a "cook" make you argue your point this much?


Strange, as outside London most highly regarded kitchens are in the country. For people not for customers...geeez that sounds as much commie as anything I heard on the forums.

No wonder no one takes your whole "why was I suspended" whining seriously...

As a youth I worked in a Pub both as a bartender and a microwave technician. :)

London is absolutely awesome for foodies. My wife and I once went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Brixton. It was hilarious, there wasn't any cutlery, just this pancake thing that you tore up and mopped up the food with!

The most fun i've had in a Polish traditional restaurant in Poland was when I ordered roast duck and was served a whole roast duck!!!

..The most fun...boy do I sound exciting :(

My point is you don't know what cooking is.



And it seems the message is getting through :)

Let's have a look at Ksysia's post as she wrote the most.

Bread - UK stuff is quite spongy but I think she overstated the point somewhat. The brown bread like Hovis, Allison and Kingsmills is quite tasty. High quality IMHO. Polish bread is of superior quality but it gets stale too quickly. Maybe that's why it is often use for wodzionka :) :)

Meat - If you are talking about wędliny then Poland is definitely ahead. However, to pass everything else off as sub-standard crap is rather harsh. I enjoyed my cold cuts when I was a kid and still remember to this day that they are of reasonable quality. Meat from highlander restaurants is tasty too but I think the UK edges Poland here when it comes to beef and pork. Poland has nothing that even comes close to Aberdeen Angus beef. Still, Poland is strong when it comes to meat in general.

Fish - Try a fishmonger's, for example. ANYONE who says that their fish is bad is speaking from a dark place. They produce very fresh produce and delicious at that.

Veggies - It depends where you look, really. I'm quite happy with the standard in the UK but I prefer them here.

Coffee - Not the best in the UK or Poland

Tea - Knocking British tea takes a bit of doing but it is overrated.

Eggs - VG in both the UK and Poland

Milk - Fractionally better in Poland but some tasty brands in the UK

Juice - It depends. It's of variable quality. Some is pure juice, some isn't. Like here.

The problem here nott is that polish food does not take any talent to cook. Anyone can coat a piece of turkey or pork in breadcrumbs and fry it. As for Bigos, the stuff is revolting.

The UK can attract some of the greatest chefs in the world because the country is ready for them

How do you define a kitchen then?? In poland it is some old cow frying frozen Chicken Kievs (dewolaj) and placing a bit of surowka on the plate. Hardly talented is she??

Please tell me a Polish dish that takes skill to cook???

Pierogi and Golabki are pretty tricky.

Neither.

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.

; )

Likewise, there's not much in British cuisine that takes skill either. I'm thinking now about specifically Scotland - there's really not much that's difficult to make.

Where Britain is miles ahead is in the talent of the chefs to steal other cuisines and blend it into something palatable. There's just not the same "foodie" culture here - I know one restaurant owner who was shocked to discover that most kitchens just source their food from Makro/Selgros.

Polish dishes difficult to cook:

polędwica z kurkami w śmietanie - tenderloin with chanterelles in cream
kaczka luzowana - duck (not sure what)
dziczyzna w zalewie - boar in vinegar and wine
nadziewane jajka - eggs, chopped, mixed with herbs and mayo, shells refilled, breaded and fried
mazurek - the one cake that is really sweet
baba - of which panetone is a cheap rip-off
favorki - fried cakes
pączki - berliners, but in our version
rolada jabłkowa - nothing like strudel, paper thin apple roll
gruszki w czerwonym occie - pears in red vinegar
lin w śmietanie z grzybami - tench with champignons and cream
śliwki w occie - vinegar plums
jajecznica z kiełbasą i pietruszką - proper fried eggs, on smoked sausage, edam cheese, onion, with parsley and fresh tomato and pepper.

Seriously?

I don't know these specific dishes in their Polish form but most of them are familiar anyway.

None of them seem difficult at all.

Agreed, some maybe tricky but nothing I would call difficult.

Says the man from a country which can not manage even a single Michelin star!

My God, I see this thread turned into a food fight ;D


Teffle, I think that if someone isn't a good cook he/she can spoil even a simple dish :)
This one for example:


I wouldn't call it "cakes":
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Wings

I don't know how would you judge the level of difficulty of faworki (it's a simple dish, after all), but I would say that it isn't so easy to make really tasty faworki. I know because I can compare those that I've eaten in restaurants and bought at shops or at confectionery and those made by my mum and my grandmother. Even my mum's and my grandma's faworki differ. My grandma's are better. I don't know why, my mum is always trying to make them as crispy, delicate and tasty, but she never succeeds. Grandma's faworki can even fall apart - they're that crispy, they just melt in your mouth... aaahhh... They're perfect... They're the synonym of heaven... ;O

*drools*

;D


I don't get it, does a dish have to be difficult to make to be tasty? :)


Well, it definitely isn't "revolting" for me :) Germans also seem to like bigos, as I've heard (probably they're more familiar with such types of dishes).

I, for example, find sushi revolting, I just hate the taste of raw fish. Algae isn't too appealing for me either. But apparently sushi is quite popular (I don't understand why, but hey... everything is for the people :)) :) And it's a such a simple dish!

Some people are crazy about all those types of French cheese, some people hate it.
I guess that during childhood we get used to certain flavours and ways of cooking.
The Japanese like to bring out the natural flavour of ingredients. They can do this with all types of fish as they live on islands and they can always get fresh fish (and hence the raw fish in sushi, I suppose).

Europeans, the French for example, like to alter the taste of ingredients with all kinds of different spices and treat them in all kinds of ways.

I think simple dishes can be very tasty. Look at the Chinese cuisine - it's simple, tasty and affordable. And probably that's why it's so popular around the world :)

Now, what I think nott meant (but was a bit too critical, I think ;)) is that there's not much real cooking done in the British households? I can't say from my experience as I've never been to the UK, but my mum spent some time in the North of England because she was sent there from her work place for a training. She said that "normal" cooking has been, apparently, replaced by heating up ready meals bought at shop in a microwave. One exception was a wife of my mum's colleage from work and her tasty food, but she was a professional cook (chef ?).

My mum said the fish & chips were omnipresent ;)
Of course, she had a limited experience but I can imagine what she said was true as I can see the same thing is slowly starting to happen also in Poland...

No, I don't think so, but just replying to Ksysia who described the dishes as difficult to cook.


Well, an overstatement but yeah it happens - as it does everywhere. Bad, lazy diets exist everywhere but in general yes, it is probably getting worse.

In contrast though I know plenty of people who grow as much of their own food as possible, people who never buy e.g. pasta as they prefer to make their own. Couldn't be bothered with it myself though.

is it really a Polish dish?
Amercians have it all the time for Xmas, Thxgiving, Easter... I haven't eaten this dish often in Poland but in the US -yes...


yummm.... i wish i had it today for breakfast... but coffee instead... lots of coffee...

COOK A PIERNIK THEN!
it's all picking at details to hide the fact that the taste of food in England is bland - and you don't use salt, either.

But lovely things do exist - beef and lamb being most prominent things.