Polish Christmas Dinner

[oldmegan]

This year we are spending Christmas with a Polish family. What should we expect in terms of traditional food? We are quite adventurous and are looking forward to a change from turkey and roast potatoes!!

[ChuckFickens]

Hope you like fish.

[rowanwitch]

The main christmas meal is Wigelia the christmas eve feast...usully 12 courses...some of which are soups so don't panic... no meat courses...presents are exchanged then rather than Christmas day.... The Polish Cultural centre is good for info its a U.S site but I have bought my Polish friends christmas cards from there for the last few years they really appreciated the effort

[oldmegan]

LOVE fish - so that's OK, CF! Will investigate the Polish Cultural centre, thanks for the tip.

[funnygirl]

Very early to be thinking about xmas dinner!!!!

[rowanwitch]

We are already planning ours housemate is half Polish so we do it for her mum now where can I get a nice big Carp

[ummmm]

Ask Doc :-)

[rowanwitch]

Doc doesn't like me very much....

[mrs_overall]

Carp is the traditional fish eaten on Christmas Eve...and it tastes bloody awful

[oldmegan]

Oh, hell, Mrs Overall, why does it taste so awful? I thought all fish was tasty????

[lucca]

It's WIGILIA (pronounced Veegeelya) (hard g). It is traditionally vegetarian with 12 courses but normally only one is fish - carp if you can get it (good stuff) otherwise you could do haddock etc. First course is barszcz - beetroot soup with uszka (ears) 9not real ears, they're little pastries cooked with the soup. one should have a lucky coin. You'll have golabki (cabbage/rice parcels) and there are lots of mushrooms knocking about too. There's a dessert of spiced sweet rice with nuts. It's a superb feast, followed by pressies and traditionally, lurching out to midnight mass. The beauty is that Christmas day is very relaxed!

[mrs_overall]

if carp is not prepared right, it tastes gritty/muddy and is full of tiny bones. Yuk!