My first meal in Poland was a simple pasta dish that we prepared ourselves in the dorm kitchen. We bought basic food supplies and essentials from a local corner shop. We made pasta with tomato sauce and gouda cheese. Neither of us had tried gouda cheese before and we both thought it tasted like plastic! But it was wrapped in individual slices so I wasn't too surprised by the taste. By this time, we were pretty tired so a simple hot meal was comforting. We also made tea, Christina was wise enough to bring her own travel mug but I didn't think of this so I used one of the tin mugs in the dorm kitchen. I think my meal looks almost 'wartime' themed in this photo, the chipped bowl and tin mug look outdated and slightly destructed.
Gouda cheese originates in the Netherlands and is described as a 'mild, yellow cheese made from cow's milk'.
The following day we tried traditional Polish food for the first time, cheese wheat rolls and sweet decorated doughnuts at a bakery in the city. They were both delicious and I'm sure we will visit the bakery again! I plan to do an illustration of the doughnuts in my travel sketchbook.
There are many bakeries in Poland and every supermarket we have been to so far has had a fresh bakery section selling bread and elaborate cakes. The cheese wheat roll was more like a croissant/pastry than a sandwich, it was still warm and sort of melted in my mouth as I ate it. The doughnuts were beautifully decorated, one with chocolate icing and chocolate swirls and the other with pink icing and sugared mini marshmallows. I will research Polish food in more detail, so far I have noticed that they do like to add sugar to many of their foods because everyday items such as milk tastes sweeter.
One fact I did notice when looking through the Erasmus diary we were given at the briefing, is that there is a 'Fat Thursday' which was on 8th February. This is a day of eating traditional Polish doughnuts called paczki and Angel Wings, faworki which are special sugared crispy pastry. This is a celebration that takes place on the last Thursday before Lent.
The next meal we had was at McDonald's, how generically British of us. This was after the first day of uni so were feeling a little worn out and both wanted to see how McDonald's in Poland differs to McDonald's back home in the UK. They had self-service screens like they do in Britain, thankfully we could change the language to English so we would know what we were actually ordering.
I chose a chicken and bacon wrap with fries and a tea, perhaps unusual to have a hot drink with fast food but I was feeling cold. The only thing is that they don't provide milk in Poland but this is fine for me because I quite like black tea anyway. It cost around £3.80 in total so is definitely cheaper than the UK which I expected anyway. The menu is also slightly different, there are more burger options and less chicken options. There is also an option for curly fries as well as the normal straight fries. There is also a McCafe for drinks and cakes. The restaurant was very clean which is typical of Polish stores.
After our first morning of classes, we decided to use our free afternoon to explore the city of Katowice in more detail. We both took our cameras, capturing sites that inspired us. To get warm, we went into a large shopping mall called Galeria Katowicka. The mall has 6 floors and a selection of shops and restaurants. We noticed some recogniseable stores including Starbuck's, Zara, H&M, Tiger (where we bought a few things) and Footlocker.
We also had food in the mall, on the top floor was a food hall with a variety of food places including a salad bar, pizza restaurant, Chinese buffet and fast food places. We chose the Chinese buffet place called Sevi Oriental. It had a self-service design with a range of dishes such as noodles, chicken, sauce, spring rolls and vegetables. The food was quite nice and great value for money because we got a 50% student discount when we showed our university student ID.
During our second day of classes, we decided to try the food in the university restaurant. The menu was in Polish but the lady behind the counter explained to us the different options and we both decided to go for what she called 'the chicken thing' (she was unsure of the English translation). It turned out to be chicken, bacon and veg skewers with vegetable and potato rice. This dish felt traditional Polish because of the addition of potatoes within the rice and the rice was more like couscous in taste but not in shape. It was very tasty and of a very decent price.
Tonight, we decided to have a late pancake day. We may be away from home but we still want to follow English traditions. We got the ingredients from a larger supermarket amongst over items (I will share the Polish shopping experience in another post). Eggs and butter were easy enough to find and we already had milk. Christina used the Google translator app on her phone to take a photo of the different flour labels to try to translate them into English so we picked up what we thought was plain flour. However, when we were making the pancakes we were unsure of what we had bought, slightly convinced we may have bought self-raising flour instead. The pancakes took a long time to cook and some were cooked around the edge but still a little soft in the middle. We made a couple of pretty good pancakes in a smaller pan, we will definitely make them smaller next time because this cooked them more evenly. We also struggled with the hob because it is more like the sort you use when camping... thinking back to the tin mug you could say the kitchen equipment is a little basic! But we are getting by and it is all part of the experience after all.
Over the following weeks, I hope to try more traditional Polish food and will draw it as much as I can rather than just take photographs so that I can give more of a personal impression of the food I try.
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