ImPolement thread

[Domen]

ImPolement - this thread is for all discussions about Poland which are not related to history:

Spoiler :

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Maybe let's start with a question - do you know any Polish brands?

20 years ago if you asked about well-known Polish companies or brands the answer would be really short (if any), but during the last 18 years export of Poland increased almost 10 times - from 15,5 billion Euro to 146 billion Euro. Also the number of so called "global companies" increased - that is, companies which have over 50% of their income from activities abroad, rather than in their home country. Nowadays there are over 30 such "global companies" in Poland (out of 2 million companies in total), they have over 500 agencies in 66 countries around the globe.

Some of Polish companies which expand in foreign markets around the world are:

Energy business & industry: PKN Orlen, PGNiG

Mining and metallurgy industry, including copper: KGHM

IT business: Asseco Poland, Comarch

Clothing & fashion business: LPP, CCC, Coccodrillo, Big Star, Wójcik Fashion Group, Monnari

Cosmetics industry: Inglot, Organique, Dr Irena Eris, Eveline Cosmetics, Farmona, Floslek, Ziaja

Production of parts and accessories to motor vehicles and food business: Suempol (which owns also foreign companies Marcel Baey and Norfisk)

Various industrial production: Boryszew, Can-Pack

Furniture business: Grupa Nowy Styl (owner of 6 brands including 2 German - Rohde & Grahl and Grammer Office), and originally Polish furniture brands are for example Black Red White, Kler, Paged, Vox or Ludwik Styl

Restaurant business: Sphinx, Da Grasso, Nasz Naleśnik, Crazy Piramid Pizza, Pierogarnia Stary Młyn

Food production business: Grupa Maspex Wadowice (owner of such brands like Tymbark, Kubuś, Lubella, Puchatek, Ekland, Deco-Morreno, Cremona, La Festa or Plusssz), Wytwórcza Spółdzielnia Pracy "Społem" (producent of Majonez Kielecki)

Window and door carpentry: Oknoplast, Drutex, Fakro

Pharmaceutical & bio-technological industry: Bioton, Cormay, TZMO

Construction chemicals industry: Selena

Ship-building industry: Poland is the world's 2nd top (after the USA) producer of exclusive yachts - 95% of which are being produced for export. Annual production scale of such yachts in Polish shipyards is ca. 17,000.

And when it comes to brands - here is the ranking of 100 most popular brands as of year 2010:

http://mppconsulting.com.ua/ukrbrand/polbrand2010.pdf

 

[warpus]

Excuse me, but isn't Osram a Polish brand? If not, it should be.

 

[Domen]

Quick wiki search gave me an answer that Osram is German, of course it doesn't have to be true.

But considering what the word "osram" means in Polish, I doubt any Pole would call their brand like this.

And "osram" basically means "to poop" (for example "osram cię" = "I will poop at you").

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Regarding Polish industry. The most important branches of industry in Poland are:

1) According to T. Rachwał, Struktura przestrzenna i działowa przemysłu Polski:

Marketed production by each branch of industry (all industry = 100%) in 2007 - branches above 5%:

Groceries (food processing, beverages, etc.) - 16%
Motor vehicles, caravans and trailers - 9%
Electric energy, gas, steam and hot water - 8,7%
Metalworks - 6,8%
Chemical products - 5,6%
Machines and devices - 5,6%
Rubber and plastic products - 5,1%

Mining - in 1997 it was 8%, in 2007 just 4,5%

All other branches of industry - 43,2% (including 4,5% for mining)

2) According to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Poland

machine building, iron and steel, mining coal, chemicals, ship building, food processing, glass.

3) According to CIA factbook:

https://www.cia.gov/redirects/ciaredirect.html

machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

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Glass and textiles definitely are important parts of Polish industry. And also mining and metallurgy, including copper:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGHM_Polska_Miedź

 

[Quackers]

Poland discussion thread. , eh?
Lets start with food:

Ordinary. I spent a few days in Poland in the summer. They enjoy their sausages and I tried a few of them. They were OK - i've had far better foreign cuisine. Poland must try harder. They enjoy their mustard over there too. I had four different varieties. Not a patch on French or English cousins.

Sorry Poland, I'm going to give you a 2/10; must try harder in the future. Maybe stick to cleaning toilets.

 

[Borachio]

Is this going to turn into an Impalement thread?

 

[Domen]

Sausages are not exactly the "sophisticated" part of Polish cuisine.

i've had far better foreign cuisine

Also in cheap bars ??? Or in more "sophisticated" places ???

If you compare expensive restaurants in France (or elsewhere) to cheap bars in Poland then no surprise.

You should compare either cheap bars to cheap bars or expensive restaurants to expensive restaurants.

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Recently I've got "Okrasa vs Pascal" cookbook - it has 102 recipes including many for traditional Polish dishes (but also foreign recipes as well):

 

[warpus]

For good Polish food you have to get lucky.. You also have to put yourself in a slightly different mindset.. If you go in expecting French sophistication or east Asian flavours, you will be very disappointed.

As for why you need to get lucky, each dish has a ton of ways of making it. Bigos, a favourite dish of mine, can taste horrible.. and it's not that it's not prepared right, it's that every family's recipe is different. Heck, my grandma's bigos tastes like crap, while my mom's tastes amazing.

Eating in Poland (back in 2004) was hit/miss.. I'm not sure what to recommend in terms of getting that great Polish meal on your plate. Restaurants will probably usually disappoint you, although I did eat an amazing Zalewajka soup in a traditional restaurant near Zakopane. Most of the other restaurants I visited were so-so..

It's hearty food, so usually you want an old lady in an apron around her head to be cooking it for you.. but old ladies have weird tastes, so some of them are not to be trusted. See? You just need a bit of good luck.

And it's mostly hearty stuff, so I'd go for a zalewajka soup, Polishized hungarian goulash potato pancakes (I am pretty sure this is a thing), and then a babka for dessert. You know.. to be honest I have no idea what a "the best" Polish meal would be. All the stuff I like is very generic - i.e. pork cutlet with mashed potatoes, gravy, and sides. You can def. not go wrong with a zalewajka though, or mushroom soup, to start. And a couple vodka shots along the way.

 

[Domen]

I like Polish Christmas dishes, for example, but it's not like we don't have any "sophisticated" dishes apart from Christmas ones.

It seems to me that - when it comes to traditional cuisine - there is a great regional variety in Poland.

There is no such thing like "traditional country-wide cuisine", but each region of Poland has its own traditional dishes.

There are only some dishes which are perhaps typical for entire country - such as bigos, as you mentioned.

But kluski śląskie or oscypki are only regional dishes. So is kutia. As for zalewajka - it is not popular in my region (Greater Poland) at all.

There are cookbooks which let us gather all of these recipes from distant regions of Poland in one place.

Most of the other restaurants I visited were so-so..

You should report them to Magda Gessler (she is known for Kitchen Revolutions - Polish version of TV programme Kitchen Nightmares):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Gessler

 

[Borachio]

Cooking isn't that difficult, imo. Just get good ingredients and don't ruin them with over or under cooking. It really is that simple.

And I think the French and Italians generally get it right.

I don't think the Scots have the right idea, at all.

 

[warpus]

Name one sophisticated dish that we have, something you could serve as the main course, that isn't hearty.. nothing wrong with hearty, but most of our cuisine is "stuff prepared in the kitchen by an old lady that you eat when it's cold out". It's good food, but just lacks the finesse of French cuisine, lacks focus like Italian cuisine for example, and lacks the focus on texture and flavours like eat asian cuisine. It is what it is, and some of it is delicious, but if you go in expecting sophistication, you will probably be disappointed. Mind you, Polish cuisine could have changed a lot since I've been there, there's probably been a "Frenchization" of Polish cuisine in the last 20 years. What's kutia? And did we really need yet another thread about Poland?

 

[Kyriakos]

Any suggestions for Chopin pieces which are not that funeral/parts of the same piece, or the impromptu fantasy?

 

[Borachio]

Link to video.

*cough* *cough* "George!" *cough* *cough* "George!* *cough* "Oh, she's gone."

 

[Kyriakos]

^That is pretty famous too (i mean i am not a Chopin enthusiast, but have listened to it many times)

Same is true for:


Link to video.

 

[Borachio]

They're like old friends.

And then Conrad was Polish. What is it with Poland? Why don't people like to stay there? Never mind that Poland can't seem to make up its mind where it is.

 

[Kyriakos]

Wasn't Conrad actually Lithuanian? (or was he born from polish parents who just descend from Lithuania?) (the author of that Kongo story).

edit: Wiki says he was "Polish", but his own diary mentions his uncles in Lithuania and a somewhat gruesome story (of cannibalism)

 

[Borachio]

Joseph Conrad was born on 3 December 1857 in Berdichev, in Podolia, a part of modern Ukraine that had belonged to the Kingdom of Poland before the 1793 Second Partition of Poland.

I think he qualifies as Polish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, both of those artists are great in my view, but my favorite Polish artist is:

 

[Domen]

Wiki says he was "Polish", but his own diary mentions his uncles in Lithuania

Being Polish and from Lithuania does not exclude each other. Archimedes was "Greek" but he was from Italy - precisely from Sicily.

Let's quote a translated excerpt from "Forefathers' Eve" Part III by Adam Mickiewicz (who was from Lithuania too):

"From Lithuania and you speak Polish? I don't understand at all. -
I have thought, that in Lithuania all people are Muscovites.
About Lithuania, upon my word! I know less than about China."

Żeligowski and Piłsudski were also from Lithuania. Żeligowski actually had real Lithuanian ancestry, while Piłsudski's ancestors were Polish settlers:

Lucjan Żeligowski

Żeligowski's Mutiny

but my favorite Polish artist is:

Zdzisław Beksiński ???

And did we really need yet another thread about Poland?

Yes - this thread should be the place where discussions about Poland concentrate rather than being scattered across many threads.

What is it with Poland? Why don't people like to stay there?

Joseph Conrad (actually his real name was Józef Konrad Korzeniowski) was born in 1857 in Podolia.

In 1857 Podolia was part of the Russian Empire since the 1793 second partition of Poland.

So he did not like to stay in Russia, rather than in Poland.

Podolia was part of Poland for around 450 years between years 1340 and 1793.

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BTW - what is it with Britain? Why didn't people like to stay there but travelled to places like South Africa, North America and India?

Maybe we should ask - what is it with people? Why don't they like to stay in one village or town for entire life?

 

[Kyriakos]

Zdzisław Beksiński ???

Yes. Why so serious the surprise?

 

[Domen]

Name one sophisticated dish that we have, something you could serve as the main course, that isn't hearty.. nothing wrong with hearty, but most of our cuisine is "stuff prepared in the kitchen by an old lady that you eat when it's cold out".

Polish cuisine is not just hearty, casual cuisine, but also other kinds of Polish cuisine and they have long history.

According to these websites:

http://dumanowski.natemat.pl/79345,zapomniana-kuchnia-staropolska

http://kuchniastaropolska.blox.pl/2012/01/Limoniata-i-figatelle.html

First known Polish culinary book was published in 1682 by Stanisław Czerniecki. A much more recent edition of this book - with 70 illustrations - was published in Warsaw in 2010 (S. Czerniecki, "Compendium ferculorum albo zebranie potraw", wyd. i opr. J. Dumanowski i M. Spychaj z przedmową S. Lubomirskiego, „Monumenta Poloniae Culinaria”, t. I, wydanie II, Warszawa 2010).

According to Czerniecki's 1682 book, the speciality of Polish cuisine was "limoniata":

Według Stanisława Czernieckiego, autora pierwszej polskiej książki kucharskiej z 1682 r., kwintesencją kuchni polskiej była np. tzw. „limoniata”, czyli cielęcina, drób, a zwłaszcza ryby w słodko-kwaśnym i ostrym sosie limonkowym. W przypadku cielęciny lub kapłona (kastrowanego i tuczonego koguta) do rosołu dodawano octu winnego, uwielbianego przez sarmatów szafranu, a także pieprzu, słodkości (tzn. słodkich konfitur lub słodkiego soku), cynamonu, gałki muszkatołowej no i oczywiście tytułowej limonki.

So here is your example of "one sophisticated dish that we have" (or rather had).

There are some restauracje staropolskie (restaurants specializing in Old Polish cuisine) which still serve such (or similar) dishes.

You can also simply google "kuchnia staropolska" ("Old Polish cuisine") and you will get plenty of results.

Mind you, Polish cuisine could have changed a lot since I've been there, there's probably been a "Frenchization" of Polish cuisine in the last 20 years.

Indeed, when you was in Poland (i.e. before 1989 I guess) "hearty" Communist peasants' and workers' cuisine prevailed here:


Link to video.

Of course this is a scene from a comedy movie "Miś" ("Teddy Bear"), which was mocking but also overplaying absurdities of Communist reality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Bear_(1980_film)


Link to video.

here's probably been a "Frenchization" of Polish cuisine in the last 20 years.

They have just opened a McDonald's in my city few weeks ago - so we have Frenchization a la New York City.

What's kutia?

I never ate it. Kutia was popular in former Poland's Eastern Kresy and is today sometimes seen in easternmost regions of Poland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutia

Yes. Why the surprise?

Well, I think he is not all that popular in Poland, but maybe I'm wrong. Actually his son Tomasz is more widely-recognized I think:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomasz_Beksiński

Maybe Zdzisław's art was influenced by his son's suicide - or inversely, Tomasz commited suicide because of his father's depressing art?