04 Apr
Europe 2010: Pt VIII
This post contains pictures of nothing but food. It will bore some but foodies like me will love it!
One minor little detail that made a big difference for my dining experience was the sheepskin pads resting on the benches we sat at for dinner.
Around the room they had displays of food that sat out for the entire night, so guests could keep dancing all night long.
This guy kept watch over the dishes you see below.
I asked TH to help me identify everything. This is a plate of cheeses (which for some reason I never sampled, so unlike me!)
Some kind of herring dish. I couldn’t get any m ore than that out of TH because he wasn’t immediately familiar with it, but he said it looks delicious and he wants some right now.
To me this looks like pulled pork, but TH said it is probably a vegetable dish of some sort.
Vegetables and meat in meat gelatin.
Another type of gelatin dish with some sort of chunks floating in it.
I am a little ashamed to say that I didn’t try any of the dishes you saw above! I’m not very brave when it comes to food sometimes, and now I kind of regret it.
This isn’t for eating, it’s part of a Polish tradition which I’ll talk about in my next post. Isn’t it pretty?
What could all of these fruits be for?
The chocolate fountain!
I don’t know if you know this, but in America catering companies usually cut the chocolate with vegetables oils to keep it liquid. This fountain was obviously made with chocolate and heavy cream, and the difference was obvious. I went back for seconds and thirds and kept right on going from there!
Dessert trays that we grabbed and brought back to our tables after dinner was served. I liked the little cookies the best.
THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!
Someday we will go back to this lodge just so we can have this soup. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would probably be this.
The first course of dinner.
TH doesn’t remember broccoli until after Communisim fell. Isn’t that interesting? If it wasn’t common until the fall of Communism, that might explain why it would be such a great luxury at weddings.
These dishes kicked off the second course.
Boiled potatoes with dill.
Baked potatoes.
The first round of desserts was an ice cream sundae in a waffle cone for each person.
A little later in the night they brought out even more food, cuts of meat, vegetables, and other things.
And then they fed us again! They brought out a pig with fireworks coming out of it and served us this delectable ham. This ham was also probably the best I’ve ever had. I’m not sure what the white thing is, but the dish in the bottom left of the plate is sauerkraut.
We left at about midnight, right after the cake was served, but the part went until 2 am and it’s entirely possible that they brought out even more stuff after we were gone.
Definitely the best wedding food I’ve ever had!
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
The food at the top of the post was a little much for me (more specifically the gelatin) and like you, probably wouldn’t have tried any of it. Sometimes I feel bad doing that in other cultures because I feel like it makes me look stuck up..Which is why I sample everything when I go to my husband’s family functions (they’re Haitian and actually..the food is amazing)..But if my husband’s family offered some kind of gelatin dish…I would just have to say no..lol
The later part of the menu looks great though! Especially the dessert.
1I’d be a little leary of the food at the top, too! But that soup looks amazing! It must have been such a fun wedding to go until 2am!
2Wow! The food looks delicious. I’m a very adventurous eater, but the vegetable in meat in meat gelatin might have given me pause too. I love how they gave you sheepskin pads to sit on. That bench looks like it could have gotten very uncomfortable!
3Holy moly that’s a lot of food! My brother married a girl from Poland and they had lots of food and even more desserts. They brought in 2 pigs around midnight, the Americans thought it was a little weird.
And Idk about TH’s family but her family drank all night, I mean, a LOT of liquor.
4I can totally, 100% understand being leery about buying strange, new foods (I hate wasting money on something I’ll take one bite out of and loathe). But if it’s free at a social function again definitely try at least a bite- steal one from TH’s plate
You might end up loving it, and if you hate it, no harm no foul and you tried it and you *know* you didn’t like it.
I absolutely loved all of these pictures. The arrangement of the food was beautiful, and it looks like it was a great reception. I’m so glad that you three were able to go to Poland for the wedding!
5This makes me hungry.
I love, love, love cheese. I miss a lot of the European and French varieties.
I think I would have tried everything. I love to try new foods. I’m not huge on gelatin but probably would have tried a bite.
Now the cheese, I would have smuggled that plate out with me
Out of curiosity, how many hours was the lunch/dinner? Back home that kind of affair can be 3-4 hours easily.
Jenna Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 10:53 am
I think it was pretty short, as they were definitely ready to get to the dancing!
As lovely as all the dishes appear, I was most excited by the boiled potatoes and dill. Oh my goodness, brings me right back to my Ukrainian roots, haha!
What a beautiful wedding.
7Husband and I were born in Russia, but are now American citizens. When we were getting married it was CRITICAL that we find a reception location that would let us bring in some of our “own” food. It took forever, but we finally found a place that let us bring in our ethnic dishes to balance out the American foods. Looking at your pictures reminds me a little of our wedding
8Wow! This all looks amazing!!!!! What a unique experience….most of the food looked very yummy to me except the items with gelatin. I don’t understand that, but I am not European either! ha
As an American, born and bred….I can say I love to taste food from all over the world! FOODIES dream : ) Great post, thanks for sharing.
I am new to your blog, thanks for your posts!
Nikki
9I love foodie posts like this! I’m going to Europe this summer with my husband and I’m hoping to try more things this time around. I’m pretty squeamish when it comes to gelatin and pates but a lot of this looks delicious!
10I love food post! The amount of food tops some Persian weddings I have been too, and that’s saying something! I think it would be hard to be a vegetarian in Poland!
11I love seeing all the food. I don’t hold not tasting the gelatin meat against you. After 4 years of living in Germany, where it is also quite popular, that’s still one thing I havea really hard time understanding. I have only recently tried the meat in meat deli slices which are not as scary as they look.
I heard from Polish colleagues that weddings often involve 10-15 courses and lots of vodka. Was the whole wedding a buffet or were some courses served? I also wonder, did TH’s family think your American wedding ended rather early? My husband’s family could not believe our American wedding would end at 11:30 and felt obligated to plan an after party to entertain guests because German weddings often go until 4am. Luckily we talked them out of it but I wonder if you had a similar cultural issue since Polish weddings are such long events.
Jenna Reply:
April 5th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
The food in the first part of the post was buffet style, but anything you see on a plate (the photos farther down) was plated and served right to each guest.
His family never said anything about our wedding ending early, but I knew it was very different than the way they did things because they told me once that Polish weddings sometimes last for 3-4 days!
I’ve had that meat/vegetables in gelatin at Wigilia with my boyfriend’s family, and I’ll be honest - I don’t think you’re missing much. There’s plenty of Polish food that I love, but that meat gelatin thing is not one of them!
13Wow! The pictures definitely didn’t bore me! Great photos!
http://www.theblogforbrides.com
14http://www.journeyofawoman.wordpress.com
Amazing photos! I can’t believe that cheese plate. THe gelatin stuff is funny and weird- I wouldn’t eat that either! But most of it looks fabulous.
15