Poland has some great food. I mean it. The baked goods are out of this world, the vegetables and fruits are incredibly fresh, the meat is delicious. My greatest love must be Polish dairy products. I am a huge fan of yogurt, kefir, cheese and all things milk. In this country, the dairy section of the supermarkets consist of at least 10% of the total store area. As a side note it would be my fate to marry a wonderful man that happens to be lactose intolerant. Poor baby.
As much as I like all of the flavours here, there was the initial stress of finding things that I was used to. The packaging is different, the aisles don't make sense, the sizes are weird. Cereal comes in 350 g plastic baggies. That's right- I can't decide if this is blasphemy or genius!
In my first days in Warsaw, it was such a relief to start the day with my regular fruit/veg smoothie. It tasted the same as at home. The ingredients- banana, orange, parsley, spinach, frozen fruit and water- looked, and most importantly tasted the same in both countries. Something I wish I could say about the Corn Flakes. Back to the smoothie, I started off using my imported Magic Bullet blender. Sadly, he was being burned alive (voltage difference), so I had to replace him with a normal blender. Regardless, it was so comforting to be able to maintain some part of my routine.
Moving into autumn here, I had been dreaming of some butternut squash soup. B already told me that this vegetable does not exist in Poland. Even the word "squash" does not show up in any translator that I tried. As I already resigned myself to my squash-less existence here, I spotted something familiar at a vegetable stand near the school where I teach. Lo and behold- my beloved butternut squash lying next to my next favorite spaghetti squash! Sure, they were called "pumpkins" here but I tenderly picked them up, paid way too little for them, and brought them home.
It literally made my week.
Now we have been integrating squash into out seasonal menu and I am in seventh heaven. We even decided to make butternut squash soup our contribution to our friends' Canadian Thanksgiving in Poland tomorrow.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it's a lot of fun to explore and sample and fall in love with new things in Poland but sometimes it's nice to just taste home.
Bisouxxx,
B[ZU]
P.S. Check out some pictures of some of our culinary shenanigans in the last couple of days.
As much as I like all of the flavours here, there was the initial stress of finding things that I was used to. The packaging is different, the aisles don't make sense, the sizes are weird. Cereal comes in 350 g plastic baggies. That's right- I can't decide if this is blasphemy or genius!
In my first days in Warsaw, it was such a relief to start the day with my regular fruit/veg smoothie. It tasted the same as at home. The ingredients- banana, orange, parsley, spinach, frozen fruit and water- looked, and most importantly tasted the same in both countries. Something I wish I could say about the Corn Flakes. Back to the smoothie, I started off using my imported Magic Bullet blender. Sadly, he was being burned alive (voltage difference), so I had to replace him with a normal blender. Regardless, it was so comforting to be able to maintain some part of my routine.
Moving into autumn here, I had been dreaming of some butternut squash soup. B already told me that this vegetable does not exist in Poland. Even the word "squash" does not show up in any translator that I tried. As I already resigned myself to my squash-less existence here, I spotted something familiar at a vegetable stand near the school where I teach. Lo and behold- my beloved butternut squash lying next to my next favorite spaghetti squash! Sure, they were called "pumpkins" here but I tenderly picked them up, paid way too little for them, and brought them home.
It literally made my week.
Now we have been integrating squash into out seasonal menu and I am in seventh heaven. We even decided to make butternut squash soup our contribution to our friends' Canadian Thanksgiving in Poland tomorrow.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it's a lot of fun to explore and sample and fall in love with new things in Poland but sometimes it's nice to just taste home.
Bisouxxx,
B[ZU]
P.S. Check out some pictures of some of our culinary shenanigans in the last couple of days.