On adding Polish Plum Vodka to tea...

I can just imagine! Have you ever had tea made with gin instead of water. The perfect 'hair of the dog!' Fredrik

PS: I must added, - reportedly and allegedly. I have yet to try it, but apparently it does work. At a slight tangent in Poland the best day at a weddinng is the second, where the guests are really those the groom wanted and is significantly finer than the first! How dull English weddinds seem to me!

It is precisely at a moment like this that I wish i knew where one could have bought a fine Polish vodka (or even a Finish one in fairness) in Uk!?

I guess that though it is cheap in its origen though more than fine in its outcome, it will be wickedly expensive inUK?

Fred

Found another splendid Polish beer though!

Okocim!

At the moment I think that I prefer Lech to Tyskie, and now I have found a source in glass rather than can, which is still incredibly cheap! I think Okocim is probably the tastiest of the three, so I shall keep experimenting!

Fredrik

frederik,

just found your thread.

the best polish vodka you can order in berlin (and we drink a lot of vodka here - believe me) is wyberova - just great!

try to avoid everything with grass in it - it just tastes awfully perfumed... (grasovka).

if the going get's tough (and the weird turns pro) a shot of stolichnya is always welcome (/though from russia). all the russians i know love stolichnya.

(the polish beer is pretty good too

all the best from :

+blackforest.

Dear Christian (blackforest), and other dear friends,

After some extensive home dem'ing I'll nail my colours to the mast (having not tried every bottled Polish beer, of course) and say that I preffer Lech to Okacim and Tyskie, all of which are nicer from glass than a can.

I have another bottle of Pan Tadieuzs [Vodka] coming next week, and have finally found a source of fine Polish Vodkas here in UK, so I shall be trying theses out over the coming weeks.

Poor Poland needs our help as much as anything else from buying their exports, and it seems to me that no harm can possibly come from trying out beverages that have sustained a Great Nation in times of considerable sadness - they will again become a vital part of Europe and the world I am sure, even if their government has taken a less pleasant turn lately. Not my view, but that of every Pole I have talked to about it.

Growing pains of democrasy (which Poland will ceratinly grasp effectively), but how can it ever be painless?

Fredrik

Greetings from Warsaw!

You must drink Wyberowa Vodka - it is truly excellent straight from the freezer compartment in the absence of any fruit juice. The one with the Bison grass in it (or is it Bison s**t) is no where near as good and it is this that is often drunk with apple juice to make it palatable.

For beer the absolute best is Zywiecz - you can buy it in UK and again it is best very cold. I have a training course next week and will think of you all when I am drinking it.

Also you must try a Mad Dog!! This is cranbery juice at the bottom with very cold vodka poured gently to give a second layer on the top. Add a few drops of hot chilli sauce and then down in one!!

Finally if you are still standing?? A Diver is needed. This is a large cold beer and into this you carefully drop a hot glass full of warm Krupnik (a fortified mead), this stays intact and un mixed for a while. If you drink the beer quickly the warm sweet Krupnik follows and you hit the floor!!

Nasdrowia

Frank

Sounds like suitable fun for a Saturday, with Sunday spent suffering before Monday work! Hehe!

Fredrik

Hi Fredrik,

It will probably be Tuesday night. This what the Poles call Green Night ie the last night of a Training course.

We have a barbecue planned and maybe a Junior Minister of the Environment will come and light the fireworks - I will let you know - on Thursday!!

Frank

On Thursday! Right!! I think I understand! Hehe! All the best from Fredrik

Back from the Training Course and a double hangover from Zywiec beer, Wyberowa Vodka and Hungarian wine - it all stayed down!!

A bit hung over yesterday but I can report that democracy is alive and well in Poland and the Politics are not too bad. They have a Coalition Government which is a bit right wing but their John Prestcott equivalent from the junior partner (Deputy Prime Minister)is called Lepper which as we all know has come to mean Social Outcast - draw your own comparison!!

Both Poland and Hungary are no different from most EU states - less corruption than Greece or Italy, as proud as the French and their football hooligans are the equal of those from UK, Germany or Netherlands,

Best regards from a sunny and peaceful Warsaw.

Frank

Dear Frank,

There may be a case for me emigrating to Poland I think!

Glad you managed to keep going!

I have another Pan Tadeusz coming my way on Monday (a sa gift which is mildly embarassing), but I think I can also find some Wyberowa, and Zywiec beer this weekend.

To be honest as a pleasnt cool drink without a wicked kick in its legs, Lech takes a lot of beating. Much nicer than the blamd, Anglocized things like 'Carlsberg, brewed in UK!'

Real English Ale is of course another story!

It is my aim to get my Polish collegues as enthusiastic over this as I am over their fine beers too.

Of course nothing is going to persuade them to like Scotch!

I must be early tonight. Much to do in the morning before work.

All the best from Fredrik

So Poland got beaten in their first Football Match in the World Cup. I wonder what will happen today to England?

Fredrik

I don't think that it had anything to do with the defeat but there was a Gay Pride demonstration in Warsaw today. That livened everything up - last year it was banned but the President of Warsaw has changed!!

I have just blown 120 Zloties (about 22 Pounds) on 25 LPs (Vinyl to the majority). That included a brand new copy of Dark Side of the Moon and a triple set of the Beethoven Works for Piano and Cello. What was the score by the way - I heared that Paraguay put the ball in the net. Just about to put on the Schuman Cello Concerto (Rostropovich - it cost 50 pence)
Best regards from Sunny Warsaw

Frank

Dear Frank,

Not with the garanteed acuracy of reuters, but I bellieve Poland lost 2:0, and England won 1:0.

The report of the England game, which I had, hardly indicated it was great footie...

I singularly failed to find any Polish Vodka in Hereford today. The place is a good fifty years behind, I can tell you, except that the thug element seems to have crept in very fast over the last years. I guess that is everywhere...

Not just sunny Hereford, but oppresively hot...

I am wilting. Fredrik

PS: Hereford will never have a Gay Pride Parade! In fact I think being a bit queer in Hereford never really caused any comment, which suggests that the place is not only old fashioned, but quite tolerant as a well. Essentially it is so out of date that the politics veer between Liberals and Conservative, just as if the 20th Century had never happpened. The Socialists always loose their deposit at elections...

Hi Fredrik,

I am listening to the Tchaikowski 2nd Violin Concerto - Jascha Heifetz and Boston SO from 1976. Phenomenal and only 50 pence!!

When I pass by UK next I will bring some Wyberowa and maybe listen to your SBLs??

Best regards from a sunny and warm Warsaw,

Frank

Sounds like a plan! The contact gen is to be found in my profile.

It si too bloody hot, here. And we are not even half way through the summer.

My chip shop has announced a rise in prices, because of a potato shortage, which must be down to the lack of rain.

Mind you, chips are cheap anyway, but I think we may be on the way to a record breakingly hot summer, like 1976.

Fredrik

Oh, Fish and Chips - that is the only thing I miss about England.

My wife could not understand what all the fuss is about - we had some in Gibraltar and they were c**p. Fortunately when we were in UK for the May holiday we had some excellent fish and chips in Cheddar (not with cheese though) and she now understands!!

So you anticipate a hot summer - I remember 1976 - I went to Scotland in September, the summer ended abruptly and it it rained!!

Coincidently, I have just listened to a Chopin Piano Concerto - Rubinstein playing (from 1976 as well!!) it brought a Polish tear to my wifes' eye - so the system must be good!!

Stay cool

Frank

Dear Frank,

Rubenstein also recorded the Empereor Concerto that year! In the old days Radio Four's Kaleidescope used to run up to ten o'clock, and I was in the bath transfixed when they played several minutes into the first movement!

That was the summer I was first trusted to drive the combine harvester at home as a 14 year old. Thinking back that may not have been entirely legal, but never mind!

What was amazing was the rainy end to that summer. I simply started to rain and did not stop some time about mid September. My father was onto his third wife by then, and strangely she was only five years older than me. The household was not an especially happy one, though this coupling has nothing on my Norwegian mother who in 1993 or '94 married an Irano-Jordanian six year younger than me!

Fancy a Lutheran Norwegian marrying a confirmed Muslim! Neither party would be considered the architypal tolerant liberal. Knowing what she was like [I have only spoken to her once since 1997], I guess she does not walk a minor third behind or cover her face in public! That must be fun...

However a fine Pan Tadeusz will be mine tomorrow! So I return to topic!

All the best from Fred

Hi Fredrik,

What a history.

As you might know I have a Polish wife - she speaks little English and I little Polish - we use German!!

A joke from the Vatican - seriously I had a conversation in Spanish with 2 South American priests who were complaining about having to learn German for the new Pope - the joke goes:-

You speak Italian to talk to God;
You use French to talk to a Woman;
You use Spanish to talk to the World;
You use German --



-- to talk to horses!!! True

Best regards from a beautiful Warsaw

Frank

Hehe! And Hehe, I got my new bottle of Pan Tadeusz today, and Jarek categorically refuse to call it anything other than a gift. Supper is just cooking and I have poured a tiny measure out.

Hereford shops may not sell Polish Vodka, but apparently it can be found in Worcester!

I suspect that Polish humour may indeed be rather less PC than we like to think British humour is.

I know that Norwegian humour would get me banned here in a very short time. It really is very funny though!

Fredrik