Category Archives: Poland

Cabbage, Potato and ehm….. more cabbage..?

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Perhaps Im spoiled. Having lived in Dubai for 8 years Im used to seeing a huge variety of foods in the supermarkets. I remember shopping in Dubai after I had just arrived, seeing so many different fruits and vegetables, some I had never seen before. Spiky pink things, funny shaped oval yellow things etc etc. It was an adventure learning to cook with some and trying all the ones I was brave enough to try! Dubai supermarkets will have an abundance of things from America, Australia, Europe, Uk, Asia. Yes sure, we complain when things go out of stock, but bottom line, we are spoiled for choice in Dubai. Meat is flown in, great quality lamb, beef, fish, chicken, turkey and even pork in selected shops! The cereal aisle has so many brands you couldnt count them! Even in the smaller shops!

And now, here I am, in Poland. The first few supermarkets I went to I couldnt quiet put my finger on what it was, everything seems the same as anywhere else. Then after a few shops I realised what it was! Even though the shops might be big and the sections are big, its all a repeat of the same stuff over and over. In my local supermarket in Dubai there would be no less then 8 different brands of apples, all from different parts of the world, in my local supermarket here, the apple section may be almost the same size, but its all just one or two kinds of apple. Same thing in the veggie section. Where I used to have a great choice of onions, red, white, brown, organic brown, indian red, American red, shallots etc. Here. There is just one kind. Go to any section, and its similar. Rice section, a handful of brands, cereal section, again, a handful. The fruits and veg are very seasonal. Cabbage, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, leek, potato. Apples, Bananas, clementines. The more high end places have more. You might even find avocado in some. 

Actually….. I started this post with ‘perhaps Im spoiled’, I realise now that I am. You get used to going to the supermarket and picking whatever you like based on what you like, not based on what they have. Meat here is chicken, chicken, more chicken, turkey, pork, pork, more pork, and then sausages and pates in every shape imaginable, most not ok for us as few are gluten free. Beef and lamb is around of course (although so far I have not seen any lamb), but I dont understand the labels and I dont recognise the cuts, obviously this is my problem, not the supermarkets fault.

I find myself not really knowing what to eat. Its strange, because of course there is plenty of food in the shops, but its just not at all what Im used to. I guess I need to try to cook more with whats there instead of walking around looking for what Im used to. Even gluten free is hard to come by, even though this is Europe.  Actually, I shouldn’t say hard, it was hard, for the first few weeks, now that I know the shops and I know where to go, its not so bad, but it wasn’t as readily available as I had expected. 

My week used to be so easy, meal plan wise lamb 1-2 times, seafood 1 time, beef once, pasta once, 1 leftover day and a veggie day. It was rare we had chicken. Now its all chicken. I need to be more prepared I guess. Buy the good stuff in advance and freeze, find myself a local butcher perhaps.

I hope this post doesn’t come across as whiny and depressing, I don’t mean for it to sound that way at all. Im more surprised then anything. Im embracing it, slowly, today we boiled cabbage in chicken stock as a side for dinner, kids loved it! And food here, is cheap! I mean, really really cheap. Tomatoes that we pay over 20dhs per kilo for in Dubai are sold here (same brand, from same country) for 1.80dhs per kilo. Im guessing my carbon footprint is also happy (ecstatic probably). I mean hello, it rained enough in the last week to turn the desert green 4 times over! 

Now, if you’ll all forgive me, I must go and google ‘leftover cabbage recipes’, perhaps you have one to share? Who knew 1dhs worth of cabbage would go that far??

-Linda

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2 Weeks and 4 days in Poland!

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2 Weeks and 4 days in Poland, and I owe you all a post!

So we left Dubai, flew on some airplanes and arrived in Poland. With a gazillion suitcases and 2 rental cars we made our way to our new house.

Now let me tell you, the thought of moving to a new place and arriving at an empty house – a clean slate – and getting to buy everything new might seem like every woman’s dream, or at least mine. The reality is somewhat different. Not so much a dream at all actually, more like a nightmare. We arrived, the drive had taken longer then anticipated, kids were tired and cranky, me and hubby were tired and cranky after night flights with no sleep. The house which was meant to be clean was not clean (to my standard) in the slightest. All we wanted was a coffee, a shower, and to sit. All we had, was empty and dirt.

The plan we had was pretty much out the window immediately. Hubby went to IKEA and got us 2 mattresses while me and little miss laid down on top of all the coats and slept. Big brother played with his lego (don’t ask where he gets all his energy from!). When hubby came back he took care of everything bless him, I had to take a migraine pill because the tiredness and stress together with the paint fumes in the house had made me vomit.

In the morning we had petrol station coffee and milk and snacks from our hand luggage. We unpacked a few things (on to the floor) and hit the shops. It wasn’t this wonderful shopping experience at all. It was more like something out of a TV gameshow, you know the ones, ‘find everything on a list in 3 minutes or loose’ type thing. Finding everything fast may have been easier if descriptions were in English, but obviously this is not the case. Enough time has passed now that I can smile about it. Not laugh, not yet!

We got a vacuum cleaner and minney mouse single use plates and planes cups. We got coffee and sugar (!!), some cereal, and plastic cutlery. Cleaning products to satisfy my obsessive need to always keep everything super clean (a need that is already sort of not so important now that I don’t have a maid! Either that or Im just choosing not to see the dust).

Then there was the IKEA speed shopping, pretty much the same thing. Half way through hubby says ‘in half an hour we have to be at XXX, so you best hurry’. Hardly the blissful shopping experience I had imagined. Pretty much every shopping experience during the first week was like that. We had to register me in a million places (ok, fine, 2, but it seemed a lot at the time).

Even buying a car was the same thing. With 2 days left of hubbies time with us we drove 2 hours to see the car we wanted…. the car, obviously, had some kind of engine failure during the test drive. Back we came to the house, car less, with an awful lot of cash in my handbag knowing we had to find a car NOW. We found one, took it without a test drive ,with warranty from the dealer in our defence. The Dealer must think we are crazy, we pretty much walked in, looked at two cars, pointed at one, ‘That one’, ‘Where do we sign’ and walked out, lol.

When hubby left all the maddest craziest stuff was done and I got to go to Ikea and buy some candles and other bits. That was the ‘a woman’s touch’ thing people are always talking about, that was the buying I enjoyed. Who knew 4 candles and a vase could mean so much?

Spare grandparents came and helped us put together furniture, helped make our house a home, then kids started school, the dogs arrived safe and sound from Dubai, the week flew by, I was able to get lots done while the kids were in school. So here we are, its Sunday. We have been in Poland for 2 weeks and 4 days. Yesterday was the first time we did stuff just for us. We took a walk and did some driving in our area to explore. We saw cabbage fields being harvested and some amazing nature. Came back to a rich chicken casserole.

In all our speed shopping  something that has stood out to us every where we have been, is the colours! Something as simple as the street outside the bank looks pretty when its all orange and red and yellow!

I have obviously been to almost every food shop in our end of town by now, but I think this will need to be a separate post!

-Linda

A month in Europe and a month worth of biscuits!

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I was hoping to blog whilst in Europe… well obviously I didn’t. I was to busy EATING my way through Europe. Im not sure Europeans even know how lucky they are? There are so many products. Normally I don’t buy processed gluten free, mainly maybe because there isn’t much available here (in Dubai), but when faced with hundreds of packets of biscuits that all look super yummy, whats a girl to do?? Then of course there are all the traditional foods that the kids had to try, like prince sausage and danger sausage (falukorv)!

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So what did we do in Europe? We ate. And we visited every grocery store we could find (bad habit). You could say that going to grocery stores for us like was sightseeing might be for other tourists. I just call it research. Eating biscuits of course also falls under research…. right? 😀 IMG_1728

In Poland Gluten Free was a little bit harder, partly because I don’t speak any Polish, my poor husband had to translate all the labels unless I knew the brand. Many of the shops didn’t have a dedicated gluten free section, but we were in a small town most of the time, so Im guessing its different in the larger cities.

Sweden however… was amazing! Even the smallest country store imaginable would have something gluten free. We not only avoid gluten, we also avoid products with wheat starch (the gluten free kind) as Celiac kid is so sensitive, but even if we take away the products with wheat starch, every supermarket we visited still had more then any supermarket here. It was so refreshing to be able to feel somewhat like a ‘normal’ family, although somewhat fattening for the researcher! IMG_1848

The hospitality of the people we visited with was also amazing, here Im so used to bringing everything for Celiac kid (then I just pretend eat myself as Im not a diagnosed Celiac so really have no great excuse), but in Sweden, I didn’t even mention anything to anyone, brought my stuff along, and everyone had gluten free stuff for us! No questions, just 100% normal! Celiac kid was surprised, happy of course, but couldn’t really understand…. ‘is everything gluten free in this land mumma?’ she asked me.

If only.

Even better, the reactions we had in Europe were not as bad as the ones here, she seemed to thrive in the climate, the air, the freshness everywhere, and the reactions were small and eased off way faster then usual (more about that in my next post). IMG_1750

As far as first experiences go for the expat kids we saw, crabs, frogs, cows (they ARE real!!), forests, snails, we climbed trees, we climbed rocks, we wore wellies and we jumped in puddles, we walked everywhere and we drove a baby car and went on a tram.  Oh, and Celiac kid broke her arm on the first full day in Poland.

These things happen I guess.

Europe is pretty. Prettier then I remembered, and even prettier through the eyes of someone that doesnt live there. I had the added bonus of seeing it for the first time through the eyes of my children. What a privilege.

-Linda