Something that I love to tell people that are planning on visiting or when they are here in Poland, is that Poland has a hidden wonder. Something not many people know about. It is the food. Polish traditional food is that thing which is the elephant in the room sometimes. Poles see it as simply normal, and many prefer to prepare pastas soups or even sushi at home, rather than their traditional fare. Poland has some really amazing produce, whether it be the simple things like fruit and vegetables or something a little more intense like the duck and goose. Or even the wild foods like berries, mushrooms, wild boar or deer.
So why is this such a secret? Why don't Polish people sing it from the roof tops?
Well, that is a multifaceted argument. There was an era after the fall of communism when the belief was that anything made outside of Poland must be better quality. That faded quickly and now only 2% of the population believe that everything from outside of the country is better. The problem is that Polish companies don't appear to think that their products would be marketable with a "Product of Poland" label on it.
To combat this in recent years the Food Channel (Kuchnia TV) has decided to host a Food Film Fest. It is hugely popular with the increase of "foodies" in Poland and is often hard to get to the events as they sell out rapidly. This year my amazing wife was able to get us some tickets to see two documentaries one on
Milk and another on
Chocolate. The milk one was fascinating the chocolate one was passable, but at least they gave us some free samples of chocolate on entry and just as the movie started. Also, on this night we thought we would just try and see if we could get some tickets to the "Slow Food Brunch" which was occurring on the Sunday at the "
Nowy Fort" in Zoliborz. A really great place to have functions such as these. We were in luck, there were four tickets left, we got two of them!
So, off to Zoliborz!
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| The setting |
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| Loose leaf wild and organic teas |
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| We were lucky to run into Ewa a colleague of my wife. |
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| Look at the leaves trapped under the snow. |
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| The first course is on the way. |
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| Table decorations |
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| Awaiting the dish. |
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| Here comes ours. |
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| An assortment of cheeses. Camembert, smoked and cottage cheese with Kale and poziomki (wild strawberries). |
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| The cottage cheese also has a dollop of stewed apple |
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| Smoked Goats Cheese with stewed jagoda (bilberry) |
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| Camembert with strawberry jam. |
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| Second course, cured goose (on the bread) and smoked sielawa (cisco) |
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| A good photographer once told me never take photos of people eating. Nuts to that I say. |
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| Now something different. A smoked prawn |
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| Tasted incredibly sweet and smokey, but the smell was a bugger to get off your hands! |
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| Concentrate, concentrate. |
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| The teas. |
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| And here comes dessert |
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| Served with a pitcher of hot elderflower drink. |
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| Looks popular |
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| And THE most amazing elderflower yoghurt |
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| Dessert was a sekacz (hundred egg cake), with another splash of apple puree |
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| All on an "edible" plate. At least it is biodegradable. |
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| We also went into the store to try some of the nalewki (liqueurs) |
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| When we came back it was all getting packed up. |
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| Don't forget to learn your beef cuts! |
Overall, this was a fabulous day! Some great food, great company and a really fun experience, you can see a professional photographers photos of the event
here. You'll even see Warsaw's best looking man in the first one, according to some female reports that is.
If you are coming to Poland or there is a Polish restaurant in your area, make sure you ask what they recommend and try it out. You will be surprised.
