Food, Fun & Family: Fase 1

Julia's two cents:

10 days. Two lots of family. One hellova lotta food!

After making our way to Lodz (said 'Wooj') from Warsaw by train, we were met at the station by my Ciocia Ula and Vuyek Bogdan. Full with excitement after not seeing them for over 5 years, we squeezed ourselves, along with our bulging 20kg backpacks, into their 2-door Fiat. During the short car ride home I quickly realised that a 5 year hiatus from speaking Polish was going to be challenging. Nevertheless, before we knew it we arrived at Ciocia Ula's, which would become our home for the next 5 nights.

After being shown our room we were almost forceably seated around the dinner table and served a quintessential Polish meal; a steaming tray of freshly seared pierogi (dumplings), hand-made by Ciocia especially for our arrival. Filled with deliciously moist meat and accompanied by some salad and compote (warm fruit drink) our eyes and appetites were well and truly satisfied. We were already eagerly anticipating what was to come in the following meals! 

 Jay with Ciocia Ula and the home-made pierogi - 'Smacnego'!

And the next few days did not disappoint. A normal breakfast consisted of a cascading sea of open, Polish-style sandwiches (kanapki) which would include all sorts of tasty toppings: from pickles, ham and cottage cheese to cucumbers, tomatoes and eggs. 

 A delicious serving of kanapki for breakfast!

Abruptly in the middle of our first breakfast, my Vuyek announced that he was going to the supermarket. His return was arguably as quick as his departure, with him announcing that he had just purchased some ice cream if we would care for it. The fact that it was only 9:30am and just above zero degrees outside didn’t deter us as we merrily washed our kanapki down with it. Accustomed to muesli or toast for breakfast in Australia we surprised to be served a robust breakfast of cooked sausages (kielbasa) with onions another morning. Needless to say a fairly heavy but yummy way to kick of the day. 

 

Lunches are the main meal of the day in Poland, and are best described as genuine feasts! Often we visited relatives for the occasion too, which meant a sizeable increase in festivities and portion sizes. Add to this some alcohol and it really was a case great food and great company.

 A typically Polish soup, barscht (beetroot soup), served with home-made meat ravioli

We had a pretty wild time at the local Lodz supermarket, which is easily one of the coolest supermarkets we have been too! Think of your average, decently-sized Coles, multiply it by 4, and add in all sorts of European-Winter goodies that you can purchase; from ice-skates and toboggans, to freezers full of pierogi and barrels of live fish that the fish-seller catches freshly for you (yes that's actually true!). 

Rows upon rows of Vodka adorned the liquor isles, and alcohol was unbelievably cheap. 

Unfortunately our excitement got the better of us when we arrived at the sweets section. Picture this; pallets stacked high with various kinds of chocolates, biscuits and lollies. The top box wide-open for your intimate perusal or taste testing, tempting anybody to grab a handful. A taste-testing lovers paradise! Or so we thought. After sampling a number of these sweets and still coming to terms with how unbelievable awesome Polish supermarkets were, we heard a scolding voice from behind us and turned around to a very stern looking supermarket attendant wagging her finger at us for sampling the goods. After some confusion on our part, followed by a bout of profuse apologies, it became clear that the opened boxes of sweets were in fact for purchase and not for taste-testers like us. Whoopsie!

Having been a once booming textile industrial centre, this now less revered city of Poland was a wonderful place to properly start off our Euro travels and be reacquainted with family. The city was buzzing with plenty of personality and down-to-Earth charm. A big thankyou to all of my beautiful relatives and friends who fed, sheltered, educated and/or spent time with us – your generosity and hospitality made us feel right at home and we have left Lodz with plenty of wonderful memories! 

 Me and my cousins, Kasia & Kuba

More beer with cousin Norbert