Capitalist culinary fifth-columnists and the Warsaw blog meet.

Early on in my time here I met a woman in the street who I could tell was English, just by looking at her. We chatted a bit and went our separate ways. Particularly in the centre you can often hear Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian and English spoken. But Poland is no Mecca of multiculturalism.

Until yesterday, I hadn’t spoken to a single native English speaker in Warsaw, so it was great to pop to the Blogmeet at the Legends Bar on ul. Emilii Plater and meet some other bloggers. Unfortunately I turned up a  little later after cooking a huge lunch (pierogi z mesem i ruskie z sałatki) so didn’t get to meet or talk at length to everyone. I hope to do so on another occasion. Legends do Guinness at 15 zl. a pint as well which is the best price in Warsaw I have found so far. A good evening.

If you’re like me and you get your intellectual energy from people rather than generating it internally, then a life of sitting at the computer alone for hours before heading out for perhaps a 1 hour class a day can sometimes be a lonely one. So chatting to people with other perspectives on life and culture was invaluable. I had a good conversation with Kolin Murray about overcoming procrastination at the blog meet. The internet is just a huge glittery mirrored shop of competing minor pleasures, all of which seem to distract from work: Blogs, newspapers, videos, music etc. Etc. Etc

But then, I went to an English Public School so my idea of motivation is a generous caning or a brisk outdoor run in inappropriate temperatures followed by a steaming hot communal shower. Nowadays you have to pay people to provide that sort of service!

Obiad today was Parsnip and Leek soup. Polish soups often are one pot affairs where the stock is made then the veg removed before all the other ingredients go in. I used this principle by boiling borczek wedzony and several parsnips with bay leaves, czosnek, peppercorns and majorek. Then I removed all of that and added gently softened por, cebula and ziemnaki before chopping and adding the parsnips. Delicious: the smokiness of the borczek complemented the sweetness of the parsnip and the potato gave it all  a natural thickness. I agree with my younger brother that milk or cream is unnecessary in soups if you use potato. It’s a needless indulgence that only debauched Capitalist culinary fifth-columnists like Delia Smith would consider.

We speak a hybrid Polish and English at home here and I will now start using this on Pozdrowienia z Ursynowa. Got to up the rate of Polish practice somehow!