Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And by "good" I mean fresh and thoughtfully prepared. I was amazed by how bad every meal I had in Poland was. I felt ill eating there. Yet, in contrast, in Estonia it seems I can't get a bad meal if I try. Why is it some countries can cook and others can't? Cooking isn't rocket science.
IDK, OP--it's pretty hard to botch stuffed cabbage rolls or a good pirogi and hearty soup, unless you skimp on the meat. Are you talking about restaurant food? Was it oily/greasy?
It's an awesome little country. I think people who visit would be pleasantly surprised.
I enjoyed it, even back in the Soviet period. It was a refreshing change from the drudgery of Western Russia. It felt more Western. The Baltic states inhabited their own cultural zone that was transitional between the Russian monolith and Western modernism.
IDK, OP--it's pretty hard to botch stuffed cabbage rolls or a good pirogi and hearty soup, unless you skimp on the meat. Are you talking about restaurant food? Was it oily/greasy?
This is all restaurant food I'm talking about. Yes, it was all very heavy and greasy and not fresh. It reminded of me of food you'd get at a Shoney's (if you're familiar with that chain.)
I enjoyed it, even back in the Soviet period. It was a refreshing change from the drudgery of Western Russia. It felt more Western. The Baltic states inhabited their own cultural zone that was transitional between the Russian monolith and Western modernism.
Estonia feels, looks and tastes :-) much more modern than Poland (the only other former eastern bloc country I've been to).
This is all restaurant food I'm talking about. Yes, it was all very heavy and greasy and not fresh. It reminded of me of food you'd get at a Shoney's (if you're familiar with that chain.)
No, I don't know Shoney's, but I get your point. It's still the old, Soviet-era cookery, when nobody really cared whether the customer was happy or not. In Russia in the 90's, new, independent (not state-run) restaurants opened that did a really good job, they took pride doing a good job, and they've been wildly popular. It sounds like either Poland hasn't caught up, or maybe you hit the wrong restaurants. That's too bad. Well, the other factor could be that Poland has fewer oligarchs and nouveau-riche to cater to, haha, so there simply isn't much demand for fine dining, or even decent dining (lol), especially if the economy is still in the doldrums. People can't afford to eat out much under those conditions, except at cheap canteens.
I'm not sure where you went in Poland, but I was in Warsaw and Gdansk last summer and the food was amazing. I had exactly the opposite experience in terms of freshness too, where I remember my wife and I discussing how much fresher and more natural things served here were vs. the US.
I actually had some really good pizza in Warsaw as well, as weird as that sounds, especially from someone coming from NYC.
I went there. I can't remember the food being either good or bad. I think it was good, as I'd remember bad. I went to Poland on the same trip though, and I must have found it good too, as I'd remember that being as well.
I can't think of anywhere I had bad food, consistently. Usually you just keep trying different places and different stuff until you find your thing.
Last edited by Brave New World; 05-03-2016 at 06:27 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It was a refreshing change from the drudgery of Western Russia. It felt more Western. The Baltic states inhabited their own cultural zone that was transitional between the Russian monolith and Western modernism.
