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Post by bazfaz on Jul 29, 2009 11:43:10 GMT
When Maria imposed herself and two strangers on us for a week last year they brough lots of bottles of Polish fruits in syrup, gherkins and pickled mushrooms. We ate the gherkins, tried the mushrooms (tasting of nothing but vinegar) and alienated friends by giving them jars of the bottled plums.
Today I took the last dozen bottles down to the rubbish bins by the main road. I didn't chuck the bottles but put them on the ground by the bins. When I drove by on my way back from market the bottles had been removed.
Someone, even now, is searching for a Polish-French dictionary and a cookbook to know what to do with Podgrzybki marynowane.
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Post by bjd on Jul 29, 2009 11:55:06 GMT
Maybe not -- those weren't plums but marinated mushrooms of the Xerocomus variety. A bit like cèpes.
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 29, 2009 14:41:05 GMT
No, it was a mixed lot of jars I took down - 5 were mushrooms, the rest assorted bottled fruits.
Incidentally, the mushrooms are very small and do not taste like the cepes we get around us. Their predominate flavour is vinegar and they are topped up with some bland vegetable oil not olive oil. Not surprising as I have seen no olive trees in Poland.
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Post by bjd on Jul 29, 2009 16:07:13 GMT
Okay -- maybe some weird things then. I remember my husband telling me he was dying for some fruit during a stay in Soviet Moscow, so he bought pears in a jar and they were pickled in vinegar.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 17:15:59 GMT
I think they just wanted to recycle the bottles and maybe scare off the boars and kill weeds at the same time.
Have you heard from your dear Polish friend recently, Baz?
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 29, 2009 20:25:04 GMT
Yes Kerouac, she telephoned last week because she was upset that I had not replied to her email (back in the spring). I thought I had but a search of Sent Emails showed I only did this in my head. Anyhow I think the visiting season here is no longer possible because of our house move. Of course there is always next year when she will have to visit our new house.
I don't like talking so negatively about her as she is a feisty woman, an architect by training who refused to do the kind of things the Polish communist government wanted, went to Nigeria to create a housing estate, has worked as a tour guide, lived in Paris to learn French, then learnt English and has an interpreter's official accreditation - and is married to a high court judge. The last fact is the important one as they don't get on together. Hence why she loves to visit here.
If she would only visit for three nights and come on her own we would not moan about her, just accept her eccentricities.
Bjd, that sounds like Hungary. If you order Salad you get pickles. If you want what we would consider salad you have to order Vitamin Salad.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 21:43:21 GMT
Oh, I very well understood that you had a certain amount of affection for her, Baz -- otherwise you would not have accepted her visit in the first place. I have friends who pain me in various ways as well. I just hope that on her next visit, the 'rules' are more clearly defined since there is no reason for the host to take abuse -- either she can decide to cook a treat for everyone or she can invite you to a nice restaurant rather than disparaging all your dishes.
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 29, 2009 21:49:02 GMT
Dream on. K.
On her visit before last she said she would cook a meal. She cooked beef with dried cepes. I had to do everything else (and of course supply the wine).
Last year Mrs Faz suggested to her it would be nice if the three of them took me out for a meal since I had to do all the cooking. She agreed. Then by the end of the day she said she thought they couldn't do it because they would all be busy packing to leave (10 a.m. next day). Of course they were not too busy packing to eat the meal I cooked.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 22:01:26 GMT
But she left you all of those jars and bottles of stuff!
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