Polish Curiosities

There are many characteristic things in Poland that may not be known to an average tourist. Below I described some of them.

Bigos

Bigos [pronounced “bee-ghos”] is one of Poland’s most popular national dishes. It’s absolutely fantastic, even though the ingredients alone don’t sound too tasty. The basis for every good bigos is cabbage. Lots of cabbage. It is best when it’s rotten – that’s right, rotten. Sour cabbage (or as our German friends call it – sauerkraut) is mixed with mushrooms and sausage and stewed for a couple of hours (the longer the better) with a variety of local spices. Some say that a true bigos tastes best after a week or two spent in a fridge, because the flavours of each ingredient mix thoroughly. Going to Poland and not trying bigos should be considered a cardinal sin!

Flaki

Flaki [pronounced “flah-khee”] is, after bigos, the other very popular dish Poland specific. Basically it’s slightly similar to Haggis in respect that it’s a soup made from cow’s intestines. Very spicy and tasty. Of course the opinions are divided – I loathe it, and would never put it in my mouth, even if someone “persuaded” me using a hot iron rod. However, my English friend who visited Wroclaw last year, couldn’t stop praising that dish.

Maluch

Brits have got their Mini, which proudly holds the title of the cult car. Poles are not worse and got their own - Maluch. Actually its proper name is Fiat 126p, but I have not met anyone who uses that name. Maluch is simply Maluch – meaning “small one”, period. And it’s even more peculiar than Mini. They started making it back in 1973 and finished the production in 2000. During 27 years, this small, loud and shaky “car” earned the reputation of the cult car among many generations. With its 0.6l engine and 24bhp it was capable of carrying whole families! No-one ever really paid attention to the fact that it is the size of a matchbox. Even David Lynch (for those who do not know who he is – go to www.imdb.com) was so impressed by it that he bought himself one of the last models. One more thing – in the era of climate change awareness you might be glad to know that it was ecological – more precisely “biodegradable” (sometimes the biodegradation came as a surprise to its owner as it occurred while driving).

 

Pierogi

Pierogi [pronounced “pee-eh-roh-ghee”] are floury dumplings stuffed with potatoes, cottage cheese and onions. It’s one of the most popular dishes among students, as it’s cheap and tasty. Actually I still love eating them, even though I finished my studies more than two years ago – I guess that’s what they call a sentimental attachment.

Polish Motorways

Many western citizens wondered what communism really looked like back in the 50s and 60s. If you want to see some relicts of those times, come to Poland and try to drive one of our old motorways. I am sure that some of them still remember Stalin or his communist followers. Simply speaking – the condition of Polish roads is horrible! If you don’t own an SUV, drive slowly and carefully, otherwise your car might get damaged. One may think that after 1989 there has been enough time to recover from times of trouble and rebuild those bloody roads. One would be wrong. Currently we have only TWO proper motorways which are about 50% complete. That is it. Rest of them exist on paper or within engineers’ minds. A real Polish curiosity is government’s attitude to this state of affairs – in 2006 they built 6 kilometres (!) of motorways. This number looks even more ridiculous when you realise that by 2012 Euro Cup, Poland needs to have 900 kilometres of motorways ready!

Wroclaw – Venice of Poland

So Italians have their Venice, and I thought that Poles cannot be worse. Even though it is slightly colder than in Italy, we also have got our own city of bridges. Not many people realise that Wroclaw has got more than one hundred (some sources claim that there are even about two hundred) bridges and footbridges that cross 5 rivers flowing through the city. Most of them remember times when Germans were the native citizens of Breslau. Personally I think that Wroclaw’s best side can be seen from the river side. From the old and impressively massive Grunwaldzki Bridge to the modern Millenium Bridge the Odra river is a witness of ever-changing face of this multicultural city.

Żubrówka

Żubrówka [don’t even ask me to write the pronounciation…] is Polish best vodka ever. It’s called Bison Vodka in England, even though it’s not made from Bison, but from special kind of grass that gives it its special flavour. The best drink you can try is Żubrówka mixed with apple juice. Try it and remember – drink responsibly.

 

 

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