A “little candy” for your sweetie

 As Michael Corleone said in Godfather III, “Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in.” Every time I find the perfect food network or web site, “they pull me back in” and I find something else new and exciting.

While you are looking at Ren Behan’s FABULICIOUS FOOD! (Pondering Pole January 2013) let me direct your attention to another Polish food-themed home page called Mala Cukierenka, "Little Candy" (http://www.malacukierenka.pl/), a web site devoted to deserts. It is in the Polish language but there is a translator available.  Like FABULICIOUS, the styling and layout of the displays are modern and so, so tantalizing. If you are a pastry addict as I am, then this site is your worst nightmare. Pay close attention to the blueberry cheesecake.

Question for February, is “Little Candy” a person or if not, who is the creator and force behind this excellent online resource? Since Valentine’s Day is near, perhaps this is the perfect place to find the recipe for a Polish treat that you can make for your Valentine’s sweetheart!

We have FABULICIOUS FOOD! and Mala Cukierenka, Kowalski’s Markets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and now Eroski Supermarkets. Eroski is part of Groupo Eroski, a private cooperative with over 2000 supermarkets and other specialty stores mostly found in Spain. From the Answers web site (http://www.answers.com/topic/grupo-eroski) here is a brief description of the company:

Grupo Eroski can fill your pantry and book your next flight. One of Spain's leading retailers, Eroski operates about 2,440 supermarkets, hypermarkets, perfume shops, sporting goods stores, and other formats throughout its home country and in France and tiny Andorra. The firm's supermarkets operate under the monikers EROSKI/center and EROSKI/city while hypermarkets carry the EROSKI banner. It also runs grocery stores bearing the Caprabo brand. In addition to supplying foodstuffs, the company manages the Viajes Eroski travel agency through more than 200 outlets. Grupo Eroski, which is the retailing arm of Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa, is owned by its employees.

I like the name Eroski because of the obvious Polish/Eastern European stamp, but I could not find any explanation for why this is the name as opposed to something more Spanish sounding.  Can you help? I would also be curious to hear from our readers on whether they have visited and used the Eroski stores and what is your impression.

Lists

How about a few lists to start off the New Year? Let’s begin with the “what is there to see in Poland” list. A number of recent experiences made me concerned about the initial responses of non-Poles but also about what comes to mind for our Polish people as well. For instance, when I asked a young American student what stuck out on his trip to Poland, his reply was “that Auschwitz really had an impact on me.”

Majdanek had an impact on me as well but that is not the most notable thing I remembered and saw in my visit to Poland. I have heard Wieliczka Salt Mines as a number one as well. Americans are so bombarded with Auschwitz and Poland, Auschwitz and Poland, and Auschwitz and Poland in movies and television that I fear people are automatically associating death camps and salt mines when they are asked about Poland. If you ask me what is there to see in St. Louis, the first items on my list are not the old courthouse, site of the famous Dread Scott race case, or the River des Peres, “the backbone of the sanitary and storm water systems” running through a significant portion of the city.  

Before Auschwitz as my “places to see” in Poland are the rebuilding of “stare” Warszawa, the countryside, Zakopane and the Tatra mountains, Krakow and Wawel Castle, the various palaces and castles and manor houses, Jagiellonian University, Gdansk and the Baltic coast, and the special places of worldwide notoriety such as the Lenin Ship Yards, Malbork Castle, the Boleslawiec Pottery headquarters, and of course, Auschwitz or Majdanek. I would also mention a trip to Poland gives the experience of a people as culturally and historically different than the Western or Southern Europeans including trying the food and drink. Can you think of other interesting or unique things to see or experience in Poland? What have I missed?

From 2012, Polish or not?, did not get an answer on these:

Ward Bond, Bert the cop from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life 

Katie Cleary, Chicago born, model and actress
Kate Upton, Michigan born, model and actress (mom Polish?)
Elle “The Body” McPherson, model and entrepreneur, father's
      name is Gow. Is this short for “Gowronski?”
Frank Yablans, movie director, Mommie Dearest and North Dallas
      Forty
John Candy, comedian and actor
Jennifer Coolidge, actress

If you have a thought about this month’s topic, an answer to any of the questions, a question of your own, or have interesting facts to share, contact me at: Edward Poniewaz, 6432 Marmaduke Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63139 ; eMail alinabrig@yahoo.com.

N.B. If you send eMail, reference the Polish American Journal or the Pondering Pole in the subject line. I will not open an eMail if I do not recognize the subject or the sender.