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Polish eating habits

Most Poles consider themselves to be healthy eaters, but few take up special diets and fried meat is still the main dish on many Polish tables, show the results of CEBOS report. Despite warnings of physicians and media campaign, Polish eating habits have not undergone considerable changes during last fifteen years. 

The consumption of vegetables and poultry increased considerably, consumption of fruits and dairy, such as yoghurts or cheese and rice has also slightly increased, but still the majority of Poles (61% of the people researched) think that the dishes they eat very much resemble the dishes of their parents’ cuisine. The opinion that Poles eat healthy food is very popular (65%) and some even think that the food they eat is very healthy (8%). “Subjective evaluation of own eating habits does not have to be justified by facts”, the report says. And so only 32% of the responders declared they eat fruit between the meals, similar number (38%) avoids unhealthy snacks e.g. chips and sweets. 78% of the persons researched eat regular meals but only 15% takes up any special diets for health improvement, and 11% for their good looking. 

Poland Tradicional Dishes

Cucumber soup

Cucumber soup is a traditional Polish soup (sometimes simply ogórkowa). It is made from sour, salted cucumbers and potato. Occasionally rice is substituted for the potatoes. A similar soup is also common in Russia and Ukraine, where it is known asrassolnik.

The cucumber soup is a soup based on cucumbers, also known in various cuisines. The two major varieties are the fresh cucumber soup and pickled cucumber soup.

Kopytka

Kopytka, kapytki(literally "little hooves") are a kind of potato dumpling originating from Poland. They are very similar to gnocchi, although they are typically served baked with cheese, fried bacon or onion. The dish is a part of Polish, Belarusian and Lithuanian cuisines.

The typical ingredients are grated potatoes and flour, but may also include eggs, salt, and other seasoning.

The Polish dish is usually cooked in salted water, whereas in Belarusian and Lithuanian cuisines kapytki is baked first, then stewed or boiled in water.

Gingerbread 

Gingerbread is a sweet food-product flavored with ginger and typically using honey or molasses^[1] (treacle) rather than just sugar. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger biscuit. The different types likely share a common origin.

Bibliografia

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

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

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

Traditional dishes

Bigos

 Typical ingredients include white cabbage, sauerkraut (kapusta kiszona in Polish), various cuts of meat and sausages, often whole or puréed tomatoes, honey and mushrooms. The meats may include pork (often smoked), ham, bacon, sausage, veal, beef, and, as bigos is considered a hunter's stew, venison, rabbit, or other game; leftover cuts find their way into the pot as well. It may be seasoned with pepper, caraway, juniper berries, bay leaf, marjoram, pimenta, dried or smoked plums, often red wine and other ingrediente.

Borscht

1 Put 4 cups of the beef broth, shank, and quartered onion in a large pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender, about 1 hour 30 minutes.

2 Remove the meat from the pot. Remove any bone, connective tissue, and excess fat. Chop up the meat, place in a bowl, and chill in the refrigerator. Let the broth cool at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator and let chill until cold—4 hours to up to a day.

3 When the broth is chilled, any fat will have risen to the top and solidified. Remove and discard this fat. Return the pot to the stove and add the remaining broth, the carrots, beets, and the diced potato. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

4 Add the chopped meat to the pot, the sliced cabbage, and a half cup of the fresh dill. Cook for another 15 minutes or so, until the cabbage is cooked through. Add the vinegar and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve ladled into bowls with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh dill.

Pierogi

The dough, which is made by mixing flour and warm water, sometimes with an egg, is rolled flat and then cut into squares with a knife or circles using a cup or drinking glass. The filling is placed in the middle and the dough folded over to form a half circle. The pierogi or vareniki are boiled until they float, drained, and sometimes fried or baked in butter before serving. They can be served with melted butter, sour cream, or garnished with small pieces of fried bacon, onions, and also mushrooms.^[5] Dessert varieties may be topped with apple sauce. Some families in North America serve them with maple syrup. Another variation of pierogi, popular among Czechs and Slovaks and called pirohy, uses dough made of flour and curd with eggs, salt and water.

Polish typical dishes

The polish culture offers a big variety of dishes , here are the most important dishes for this interesting culture.

For entrees they have this soups :

• Zupa pomidorowa - Tomato soup usually served with noodle or rice.
• Kartoflanka - Potato soup
• Chłodnik - Cold beet soup made of soured milk, young beet leaves, beets, cucumbers and chopped fresh dill.

For the main course it offers these dishes :

• Gulasz - stew of meat, noodles and vegetables (especially potato), seasoned with paprika and other spices usually eaten with buckwheat kasza. 

• Pierogi - dumplings, usually filled with sauerkraut, mushrooms, meat, potato, savory cheese, sweet curd cheese with a touch of vanilla, or blueberries or other fruits, such as cherries or strawberries, and sometimes even apples—optionally topped with sour cream, and sugar for the sweet versions.^[19] 
• Kiełbasa - sausage is a staple of Polish cuisine and comes in dozens of varieties, smoked or fresh, made with pork, beef, turkey, lamb, veal with every region having its own specialty.

Tourism in Poland

Poland is a part of the global tourism market with constantly increasing number of visitors. Tourism in Poland contributes to the country's overall economy. The most popular cities are Kraków, Wrocław,Gdańsk, Warsaw, Poznań, Lublin, Toruńand the historic site of Auschwitz -German nazi concentration camp inOświęcim. The best recreational destinations include Poland's Masurian Lake District, Baltic Sea coast, Tatra Mountains (the highest mountain range of Carpathians), Sudetes and Białowieża Forest. Poland's main tourist offers consist of sightseeing within cities and out-of-town historical monuments, business trips, qualified tourism, agrotourism, mountain-hiking and climbing among others. Poland is the 17th most visited country in the world by foreign tourists, as ranked by World Tourism Organization .