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Polish food has it own long history that’s why before we talk about Polish food, it is important to understand the history of Poland first. According to Abraham ben Jacob, who was an Algerian Jewish, traveler, physician, and scholar, he says that in 10th century Poland did not have all sort of grain or food that we can find now days. When I think about this Jewish traveler, it confuses me because Poland has forest around and no one can be hungry near forest, but anyhow he wrote this and I respect his writing. I understand that In 12th century the basic food stuff was available because Poland is a green country, there is sea, rivers and rich soil to grow grains, have meat, fish, honey, mushrooms, and some vegetables. Although this was the time when people were using honey as a sweetener and preserving food, even so, it was enough for them and this is what history proves. During the Middle Ages, there were difficulties for people but they used to face the cold weather, and they knew how to survive and preserve their food for the whole year. What make food delicious are just spices and herbs, if we use them in a specific quantity, we can change the taste of food. There were many things not available in Europe because nothing was coming from East for trade to Europe. Even most of people did not know about salt. What kind of taste of food we can expect from that time? The time came and in the Middle Ages British planned to start business with East and they opened East India Company in India. India was a huge sub continent where lands were fertile, huge Himalayan, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountain ranges where spices and herbs were growing wildly. Europeans found every thing there that they wanted even in that time people never knew about soap, having a shower was a luxury for them. Persia and Arab countries were already trading with Turkey and Greece but somehow it was difficult for the other part of Europe to enjoy this kind of food what Italian were having.
That was the time when the daily Polish food was comprises of milk, buttermilk, water, honey, beer, some other kind of fermented beverages, cereal, beans, meat, fish, eggs, birds and so on but the food style was not lavish and delicious until British started importing spices, herbs, grains and other important goods those were important for Europe, then later on French and other countries followed British.
Polish have been using Proso Millet but not for long time because the import from East gave better choice to people. Many types of grains started coming in the European market. Kasza reminds the story of that time.
Poland was the largest country in the world until the Partition. After the partition Poland went into pieces, and that was the time when the Italian queen, the second wife of Zygmunt I Stary (Polish King) brought immeasurable cooks from Italy to introduce Italian food with herbs and spices. This is how Polish Cuisine became No.1 in the region. The food was so delicious, rich in diet, and digestible quickly. Ottoman Empire had a long war with Poland and during this war Turkish introduced Kawa, Coffee and Boza. These changes brought Polish Traditional Cuisine to in the list. The first cookery book was written by Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa and it is the proof how Poland was so advanced in food industry. Polish and Hungarian wines created a name in history but Polish beer remained at the top. Vodka and other kind of alcoholic beverages were introduced but high class of the society were not using these drinks. Polish people were keeping animals and had sufficient milk and butter, honey and flour therefore they introduced top level desserts even nowadays we can see the traditional colour in them. Polish people enjoyed their lives in such a good way but time doesn’t stay same, World War II gave them very bad time and eventually, Communists ruined Restaurant business nationalizing all the restaurants and hotels. After a few years of Communist regime, Lunch Houses took place of restarants and they started selling cheap quality food, noodles, Pirogi, potatoes and other seasonal vegetables and then further bad time when the government stated rationing system, economy started falling down, people did not have enough food, only pregnant women and the people who had health problems could take more food. At the end of Communism, restaurants reopened and it was a good luck for Poland that an international organization SlowFood started a movement to save traditional and regional food. This was the time when many TV programs were just telecasting Polish food recipes and European people enjoyed that time learning their traditional food again. Recent years McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, are using normal available sauces instead of traditional but there are some restaurants those are still using semi traditional sauces. Traditionally their Dinner time is about at 14:00, starting with soups, first courses, appetizers, and desserts. I have tried to collect this information for you but if there is any mistake please correct me by your emails. Polish Soups are many but some are famous i.e. Zurek, Barszcz bialy, Barszcz czerwony, Chlodnik, Flaki, Rosol, Zupa Grzybowa, Zupa szczawiowa, Kapusniak and kwasnica, Zupa koperkowa, Krupnik, Zupa owocowa, Zupa pomidorowa, aka Pomidorowka, and Zupa gulaszowa, |
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Polish Food |
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