Monday, 25 July 2011

• Intestinal Discomfort Regarding Intestines Kielbasa

  
  I like to read a lot and am currently reading "Poland" by James A. Michener. Although I've read Michener before, I'm honestly so surprised that this epic is as interesting as it is. It's a recount (in semi-fictional terms) of Poland's last 800 years and it's truthfully unbelievably intriguing. Because Michener is writing the story of a people as a whole, he includes much conversation regarding food. Of course, food is and has always been an enormous factor when it comes to the perishing or the flourishing of a nation. In fact, wars are pretty much about 3 things: religion, food, and power. In centuries past, Poles have eaten some pretty wacky stuff. 

  Peasants of Poland in the 17th century were lucky to have meat once a year (and it was usually just some chicken on Easter), so during one part of the book, Michener portrays a peasant couple receiving pig meat from a knight because the husband had protected his village in an honorable way. Upon receiving the haslet, the wife begins to cry. For a year, she had eaten only cabbage, beats, and kasha. Michener writes, "...the best part of the hog: the liver, the kidneys, the feet, the heart, the tongue, the brains, the meat still on the head and neck, ... the whole inside and history of the hog." Then, she comes upon the realization that the knight didn't give them the intestines. But, then, her husband found "the long strings of guts." 

  Of course, I can understand that treasuring any type of meat is important when these people got so little of it, but as the image of the feet and the kidneys threatened to disgust me, it was almost like a "but wait, there's more" feeling when I learned that they even eat the intestines. Something about the way they were described caused me to put the book down just for a few minutes. Then, I read on. 

  Forgetting the actual parts of the meat this woman was using to cook with, I started to find myself interested in her preparation of kielbasa. She seasoned the meat when garlic, herbs, spices, and pepper. Later, she had the whole sum of meat smoked. Now that sounds good. Though, to be quite honest, I couldn't even get a hold of myself to try escargot in France. 

  Are you part of a culture that savors interesting and off-the-beaten path delicacies? Have you ever read about or tried any?

  
  

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