Job Discussion Forums

misteradventure · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 246

The food is excellent. Even the red meat is better than the crud you buy in the US stores. Some 'organic' stuff in the US is GM (Genetically Modified), which is not allowed in the EU.

Hardcore veggos will subsist on beets, cabbage and pickled veggies.

Russian Pierogi are to die for, in general.

However, you may have to learn to eat it and smile, if offered anything to eat. Brush up on your vodka skills, too!

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

My girlfriend doesn't eat meat. So I don't eat it at home either. We survive just fine.

The farm produce here is superb. Far better than the crap you get in UK/USA. That's because the stuff is grown to taste good, not to look good.

Gowump · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 70 Location: Poland

Sorry dtomchek. How about I send you some in the post. After all it does taste better after a few days.

Chris · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:08 pm Post subject:

God, all this talk about bigos is really making me nostalgic for Poland. Even though I am only next door in Germany, the food here is just not so good. Homemade Polish food is to die for!

yodetta · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 68 Location: California, USA

Tell me about the pierogies.....sauteed? gourmet, or just three basic fillings?
some places in Pennsylvania deep-fry them and I'm wondering where that practice came from..?

Y

XXX · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:30 pm Post subject:

Many types from saurkraut to potato to various fruits. I have seen them ( in Poland) boiled or fried. The only place they are deep fried is in PA. I suggested this to one of my Polish friends. He was shocked at the thought.

yodetta · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 68 Location: California, USA

hmmm....fruit pierogie beginning to sound like crepe..., although i suppose they're great.

anyone know how the PA-dee-fryer habit practice came about?
just curious, since many eastern-euro and germanic peoples settled there.

Y

XXX · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:34 pm Post subject:

Interesting question. I think they came about in the coal regions. Actually, I like them with salsa.

yodetta · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 68 Location: California, USA

I know that many Polish immigrants settled in the coal regions of PA, more so than in the south-western (Pgh) region...i came from northeastern PA, where pierogies were usually deep-fried (and sometimes dunked, gravy etc.) with little inner variety...but in Pittsburgh and parts southwest, pierogie contents were more varied and always sauteed, unless you bought them frozen and fried them yerself.

Y

dtomchek · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 135

Dzien Dobry:

Gowump: Now that sounds like the best suggestion I have heard in a long time Very Happy

Yodetta, you might have a difficult time at the Ogniskos without Kielbasa (or you will starve)...my fondest memories of Poland and one of the things I like to do best when I am back there is to roast Kielbasa and drink piwo/wodka over a fire in the summer...

The Pierogis also have to be homemade...something about Polish train stations/restaraunts that just don't do these dishes any justice at all Mad

Dosebaczenia

yodetta · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 68 Location: California, USA

dtomcheck,

it's been a long time, but i think i could handle the kielbasa, actually...particularly if it's kosher. i remember that cooking cabbage and potatoes without some sort of sausage or pork just didn't produce the same flavor as that which had the meat in it.

now...as for the vodka. here, my favorite is Belvedere...i can't wait to taste the varieties there, although i hear vodka tasting has given way to beer drinking among the younger generation there...tsk tsk...is this true?

Y

Gowump · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 70 Location: Poland

Yodetta, from what I have seen vodka drinking is still popular among all generations.

XXX · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:33 pm Post subject:

Piwo consumption is up, but wodka is still consumed in blinding amounts. I do miss good Polish Beer, along with name's day parties and all night cookouts!

dtomchek · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 135

Hey:

Yeah, piwo drinking is definitely up with the youth. I had 4 of my 15 year old students take me out at 1000am for a round of beer drinking in the local pub...I guess the legal age for drinking is not quite enforced as often as in the states. Cool

..vodka is still drunk in obscene amounts and yet, parodoxically enough, they all manage to walk home in a semi-straight line (with the possible exception of the various Warsaw train stations as I think they overdo it a bit even by their standards).

Dave

Gowump · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 70 Location: Poland

Walk in a straight line? dtomchek, apparently you have never been to Radom. You can see men, occassionally a woman, staggering blind drunk at all hours of the day. And, if you are lucky you will see them passed out on the side of the main street with shoppers stepping over them. This is not an exageration.