Saturday, December 29, 2012

What has....

I riddle you this; What has:
- 300 posts
- over 1000 photographs
- 44 months of history
- nearly 33000 page views
- 26 lowly followers
- and a balding Australian author?

Yes, it is this blog! It has been 300 posts as of this one. That is quite amazing, as some people think I have no attention span at all, and get bored easily. Obviously not.

Thank you to all who have read, commented, and the 26 lovely people who follow me. You are a very select few! I don't quite know how to celebrate this occasion at all. There are many things to say, many things to show you, but what I will do is share with you a few little photos.



Just some of Warsaw in the festive period. I hope you are all safe, well and have a fabulous and safe NYE. I look forward to hearing from you all in the new year. In the next posts we will have a bread festival, book reviews, Rome, and who knows what else?! Stay safe, drink water not just champagne, and smile into the face of the new year.



Gee.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Pole Mokotowskie how it was....

Sun is great. Leaves are great. Colours are best when vivid. Nature is amazing especially in the city. Walking something everyone should do. So why not combine all of these?
Lets walk!
Late autumn and its low sun give some great shadows.



Leaves and legs

I believe fashion type peoples call this "A pop of colour"
Enough of these buildings and roads and things, let us stroll now through Pole Mokotowskie. The airfield cum park and lungs of Mokotow.
Sun comes in to show you the colours.



My camera does video too, so let's pretend I am a film maker, imagine some delicate orchestral music with these videos.



Mr Tree having a good old laugh


The colours of Autumn

Hi Mr Tree, what is that? You are cold?
You seem a little sad,

Have a scarf! It seems to work!

I should head that way? ok then.




Memories of our meeting with Mr Tree




Time to hit the trails.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Slow foodowe = Good foodowe

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!

The setting


Loose leaf wild and organic teas

We were lucky to run into Ewa a colleague of my wife.

Look at the leaves trapped under the snow.

The first course is on the way.

Table decorations

Awaiting the dish.



Here comes ours.

An assortment of cheeses. Camembert, smoked and cottage cheese with Kale and poziomki (wild strawberries).

The cottage cheese also has a dollop of stewed apple

Smoked Goats Cheese with stewed jagoda (bilberry)

Camembert with strawberry jam.


Second course, cured goose (on the bread) and smoked sielawa (cisco)


A good photographer once told me never take photos of people eating. Nuts to that I say.


Now something different. A smoked prawn
Tasted incredibly sweet and smokey, but the smell was a bugger to get off your hands!

Concentrate, concentrate.

Third course, parsnip soup with butter mushrooms (Suillus a type of boletus) and cornflowers with a splash of nigella

The teas.

And here comes dessert

Served with a pitcher of hot elderflower drink.

Looks popular


And THE most amazing elderflower yoghurt

Dessert was a sekacz (hundred egg cake), with another splash of apple puree

All on an "edible" plate. At least it is biodegradable.

We also went into the store to try some of the nalewki (liqueurs)

When we came back it was all getting packed up.




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.