A Bagel Discovery in Poland

I am back from spending 36 hours in Poland and the trip was both productive and a blast. I tried borscht, perogies and surprisingly found the equivalent of a bagel in a grocery store.  The bagel find was quite significant in my books.

 Photo Source: Simply Recipes

My Bagel Story: On our way back to Prague, we stopped into Carrefour to pick up up some groceries and grab a quick snack.  If you are a consistent reader of Lamb411, you have hopefully caught on to the fact that I have a thing for grocery stores in foreign cities and tend to frequent at least one grocery store per trip.

Now, the last time I set foot in a Carrefour must have been when I was living in China in 2007, so my memory of my in-store experience may be a bit fuzzy.  I would describe my Carrefour experience in Poland as the following:  Imagine that Nestle, Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, Unilever and a couple random Polish brands got together to create a grocery store.  At least 75% of the packaged goods in the store were from multinational CPG brands.  It was like I was in a bizzaro world or something.   I was dumbfounded that the experience of shopping in Carrefour was no different than walking into an American grocery store- well except it was a little more disorganized and disheveled looking when it comes to merchandise- and it had smaller aisles.

In the baked goods section, I select what looks like a series of dinner rolls stuck together in the shape of a flower (six rolls with one in the centre), for my snack.  It was the kind of roll where each ball is a different flavour.  I had zero expectations that this would be remotely satisfying and wait until I am back in the car to dig in.  I tear off a ball and take a bite…

What do I discover?  I swear I had a bagel in my mouth from Toronto’s What a Bagel.  It was soft, doughy, chewy and had poppy seeds.  The taste profile was an identical match to a North American bagel.  It was then after eating another roll that I was convinced the recipe must have come from Poland.

Photo Source: 1 

All this time, I thought bagels were a New York invention, although some Montrealers may argue otherwise.

My curiosity led me to do a quick fact check, (there is even a book on the history of the bagel) and low and behold my suspicions were confirmed.  Bagels came to North America by way of Poland!!  They are a Polish invention.

If I had cream cheese and lox on me I would have turned my flower shaped dinner roll-bagel-in-hiding-snack into a mini brunch in the car.

Happy Thanksgiving (or long weekend) to Canada.  You would be proud, we made a turkey breast for two.  Actually, my husband made the turkey breast and found a neat beer-spiced rubbed recipe, which we will feast on tomorrow night.  Who said you could not combine Canadian and Czech culinary traditions!

Eating in Les Halles to Recalibrate

The most fun thing about travelling has to be relying on markets for a meal.  Don’t get me wrong, I like to dine out in restaurants, but the novelty wares off really quickly especially on a long trip.  At one point during our honeymoon, we were at a restaurant for dinner in Beziers, France and I flat out  protested the meal.  I ordered, I tasted, but I wanted nothing to do with it.  I was done eating.  So stuffed and tired from eating out every meal, all I could think about was being at home and making scrambled eggs or having a bowl of cereal.  I needed to re-calibrate and take a break from long dinners and rich, intense food.  The answer:  Eating at a market.

My most memorable market feast was in Avignon at Les Halles (that is the green looking building the the first collage- gotta love environmentally friendly green walls and real estate!).

When visiting a market you have to strategize, or else you might miss out on something good.  We typically walk the entire thing, allow all the eye candy and food porn to draw us in, and then we figure out what to buy.  Otherwise, if you buy as you go, you end up with a lot of random bags dangling from your arm and you don’t eat half of it.  Often the case is that our eyes are larger than our stomachs, especially in the presence of so much delicious, fresh food.

At Les Halles, we bought a fresh baguette de campagne, two types of cheese (a goat and a blue), muscat grapes, a couple pieces of fruit, an interesting pasta spice mix for later (back at home in Prague) and an apple tart that I could not simply leave without trying.

We took our purchase to the river, sat on a bench and ate with our hands like savages as we were without any form of cutlery, plates or napkins.  It was great!  Well that is not entirely true. After we left the market, I dove into the apple tart.  All that food shopping and strategizing is hard work.

I am off to the Blue Beetroot hotel in Bolesławiec, Poland this afternoon to do a photo shoot on Polish pottery that will be in the second issue of Countlan Magazine.  Wish me luck!! I’ve never been to Poland before.  I hope I find some good perogies this weekend.

If you are Canadian and celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend… Happy Thanksgiving!!  I may attempt a turkey on Monday if I can find one at the butcher.

What are you doing this weekend?

Comments on the blog and on Facebook are always welcomed and answered!!

Sunday Closures + Le Grenache

We spent a few days in Provence while travelling on our honeymoon which overlapped the weekend.  Why am I event spending an ounce of my time talking about the weekend and potentially alluding to how that can be less than enjoyable??

If you have traveled in Europe before, you will know that Sunday’s in Europe are not the best days to travel as most businesses are closed.   On this particular leg of the trip, we were looking for activities to fill our Sunday and found out about an antique market that would be taking place in the town of Carpentras, about 25 km from Avignon, Orange and Cavaillon-if those reference points make sense to you.

The market was centrally located in the city on a stretch of land that looked like a parking lot framed with beautiful trees; not too far from the old synagogue.  We parked the car, and walked up and down the lanes while we explored what junk, treasures, and antiques people brought to sell.  A few items caught my eye.  For example, there was a large wooden wine bottle holder in the shape of an inverted V that I have seen in restaurants before, but it comes up to about shoulder height and was way too big to figure out how to ship back to Prague, let alone accompany us on the rest of our trip.  I also found some old, heavy, metal keys which I didn’t want to lug keys around for another week in my already overweight suitcase, and some porcelain jugs.

However, what we did find in Carpentras was a new wine bar that opened in the city called Le Grenache.  How do we know it was new, if we have never been to Carpentras before?  We had a lovely chat with the owner who gave us his entire history including sharing some interesting stories from his diverse career in education, film and now wine.

We parked ourselves at the bar counter, had some wine from Provence and sat in his air-conditioned space, while we watched his wife prepare big plates of cheese and charcuterie for guests who braved the heat on the patio.

What I liked about Le Grenache was the owner’s wine wall, which was was aesthetically quite impressive, all neatly organized by colour and hue as well as his photography on the walls by photographer, Nicolas Bertrand (another item I would have purchased if I could have figured out how to get it home or shipped from Provence to Prague).

I guess drinking wine is a fun activity as any to pass a Sunday in Provence.

Vins i Licors Grau Could Just Be the Greatest Wine Store in the World

I spent about four days in Girona province, about an hour and a half north of Barcelona during my honeymoon in September.  We had a car, so we covered lots of little towns from La Bisbal d’Emporda (the home of porcelain manufacturers), Palamos (where we finally found some decent gelato), Begur, Pals, Regencos, Fornells and Aiguafreda.  However, it was Palafrugell, where we stumbled across Vins i Licors Grau that blew us away.

Coming from Ontario where we are stuck with the LCBO (love hate relationship with this monopoly), I thought I died and went to heaven when I set foot in this family run wine and liquor business, which dates back to 1951 and apparently carries 9000 products.  How could something so modern, with so much choice and so well organized (on the inside) exist in this tiny little area in Spain?  Was I missing something?  Why are we being punished in Ontario when something so magical can exist? I live in Prague for goodness sake where the entire city seems to revolve around alcohol and beer and I can’t think of one store that is as impressive as this.

Vins i Licors is so large that it posts its own maps on signs around the store so you can navigate your way around and find what you are looking for and has special zones dedicated to each geographic origin of wine, with boards providing information and explanations of what you are looking at.

Not only did they have the largest selection of Spanish wine and cava that I have ever seen (of course) in full and half bottles, they also had a great international wine section, plus interesting liquors, plus olive oil, plus wine glasses, plus coffee table and cook books, plus a tasting bar, plus sommeliers, plus, plus, plus!

Photo Source: 2

I hope you don’t read this thinking I am an alcoholic.  I guess I am just easily impressed by modern, well organized, retail environments that bring together selection, education and pleasure together.

To tell you the truth, I was so overwhelmed and sick of drinking wine by the time I arrived to Spain after just over a week in France that I purchased a small, half bottle of cava at Vins i Licors Grau and didn’t even drink it!  However, I could only imaging, living within close proximity to a place like that, you could learn and taste some interesting wines from that store.

Just in case you happen to find yourself in that part of the world….

Vins i Licors Grau can be found at Torroella, 163 · 17200 Palafrugell · Girona Spain

Cafe Mokxa

We started our honeymoon in Lyon where we walked this well known gastronomic city from top to bottom.  While wandering around one of the more artsier parts of the city, we found an adorable cafe in Lyon, France called Cafe Mokxa.

It was profiled on Beanhunter as the best cup of coffee in the city and you know what?  It is the best cup of coffee in the city because it is run by an Australian couple who gets coffee, roasting and brewing.  None of this espresso based, bitter, overly roasted stuff.  Cafe Mokxa is putting a bit of love and flavour back into Lyon’s undrinkable brews.

You know the cafe is going to be good when it carries a wide array of v60s, siphons, french presses and grinders.  Not to mention some delicious looking cookies, carrot cake and lots of coffee!

If you should find yourself in Lyon and did not bring your own grinder and beans on your travels, don’t worry, there is a spot in the city where you can breathe in sweet coffee aromas and give a sigh of relief.