Showing posts with label polish. Show all posts

Friday, August 23, 2019

INTERNATIONAL: POLES IN PITTSBURGH

LINK to Polish Blog on InternationalFoodblog.com

LINK to Polish Hill in Pittsburgh

POLISH PHOTOS

Thursday, December 1, 2016

THE PA MELTING POT: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY COLUMN - PART 1 - GERMANY

LINKS AT VERY BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

THE MELTING POT: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY COLUMN

THE PA MELTING POT: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY COLUMN

LINKS AT VERY BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

THE MELTING POT: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY COLUMN

Immigrants to western PA brought their Christmas customs with them and as they assimilated they have added additional customs.

GERMANY

Germany is well known for its Christmas (Weihnachten) markets where foods and decorations are sold. Famous and popular German decorations are glass ornaments, Advent calendars, wreaths and Christmas trees. The Christmas tree was brought into the house on Christmas Eve, and during that evening the family would read the Bible and sing Christmas songs. Traditional meals include Ganz (goose), Karpfen (carp) and cheese fondue. On Christmas Eve the meal could include Wurstchen (sausages) with potato salad, casseroles, and soups. Beverages could be Weihnachtspunsch (Christmas Punch), Eiergrog (egg grog), Gluhwein (mulled wine), Gluhmost (hot apple cider), Rumgrog (hot rum) and Weibnachstsbier (beer)

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GERMANY

German Christmas customs and traditions

http://www.christmasday25.com/christmas-traditions/german-christmas-traditions.html

GOOGLE SEARCH ON GERMAN CHRISTMAS

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=christmas%20customs%20in%20germany

Christmas Punch
http://www.germanfoodguide.com/recipes.cfm?recipe_number=186

Eiergrog Egg grog

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/recipes.cfm?recipe_number=188

Gluhwein Mulled wine

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/wine_specialty_gluhwein.cfm

Gluhmost Hot apple cider

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/recipes.cfm?recipe_number=189

Rumgrog Rum grog

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/recipes.cfm?recipe_number=189

About Weihnachtsbier
http://www.germanfoodguide.com/beerdetail.cfm?bier_nr=32

GERMAN MARKET VIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP7JlK6FQZA

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

THE PA MELTING POT: KIOSKS NOW AND THEN PART 2 – WORLD WIDE KIOSKS/STREET VENDORS

KIOSKS NOW AND THEN PART 2 – WORLD WIDE KIOSKS/STREET VENDORS

Western Pa’s ethnicity just cries out for available ethnic street foods: German, Polish, Hispanic, Greek, Italian, etc. Although traditionally western Pennsylvania’s usual signature street food is the hot do , offerings by the Downtown and North Side street VENDORS (aka kiosks) range from a creative German food cart which offers Bulletten (meatballs served with an egg on top on a bun with grainy mustard and a pickle) and Das Lamb (kebabs served on flat bread with cabbage, roasted vegetables and a spicy mayo sauce) to a taco truck aka kiosk which serves Mexican and other tacos: one could be local ground beef w/ cheddar jack and fresh salsa or another could be grilled chicken w/ cheddar jack, fresh salsa or spicy jerk chicken w/avocado-lime cream or Thai peanut chicken w/sweet chili slaw. More food vendors serve from Greek brisket gyros to Polish pierogies to Asian spicy dumplings to Japanese seaweed salad and to Italian Neapolitan style pizzas.

In larger cities in the world you might find from spicy Middle Eastern falafel to Jamaican jerk chicken to Belgian waffles. In Hawaii the local street food tradition of "Plate Lunch" (rice, macaroni salad and a portion of meat) was inspired by the Japanese plantation workers’ Bento Box. In Denmark there are sausage and hot dog wagons.

Differences in culture, social status and history have resulted in different patterns on how family street vendor enterprises are traditionally created and run in different areas. For example, few women are street vendors in Bangladesh, but women predominate in the trade in Nigeria and Thailand. The Filipino cultural attitudes towards meals is one "cultural factor operating in the street food phenomenon" in the Philippines because eating "food out in the open, in the market or street or field" is "not at odds with the meal indoors or at home" where "there is no special room for dining".

Walking on the street while eating is considered rude in some cultures such as in Japan or Swahili cultures, although it is acceptable for children. In India, there is a "marked distinction between food that could be eaten outside, especially by women," and the food prepared and eaten at home.

In Tanzania's Dar es Salaam region, street food vendors produce economic benefits beyond their families by purchasing local fresh foods which has led to a proliferation of urban gardens and small scale farms.

In the United States street food vendors are credited with supporting the rapid growth of cities by supplying meals for the city's merchants and workers. Proprietors of street food in the United States have had a goal of upward mobility, moving from selling on the street to their own shops.

However, in Mexico, an increase in street vendors has been seen as a sign of deteriorating economic conditions in which food vending is the only employment opportunity that unskilled labor who have migrated from rural areas to urban areas are able to find.

As of 2011, street stalls/kiosks remain the primary outlet for consumer foodservice demand for a large portion of the world’s population. Serving fast, affordable and often local fare, street vendors are a key part of the foodservice landscape in many of the world’s fastest growing markets. It is reported that there is a special focus on opportunities for global food chains to leverage the flexibility offered by kiosk formats which will continue to add to the street vendor phenomenon.

Monday, April 20, 2015

THE MELTING POT: PART 1 - How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility

The Melting Pot: PART 1 - How Ethnic Foods Survived

Through Early Mobility

Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2015 2:00 am - Uniontown (PA) Herald-Standard

PHOTOS BELOW NEWSPAPER COLUMN:

Europeans, Asians and other peoples traveled across Europe, and as they settled and moved, their foods were affected by where they lived, by who ruled them and by various other circumstances.

They came to the United States and brought their ethnic recipes with them. As German, Irish, Italian, Polish, English, French, Russian, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Ukrainian and other ethnic groups settled in southwestern Pennsylvania they assimilated into society as did their foods.

Previously and today, their foods live on not only in the home, church and other venues but most importantly on the streets through mobile dining.

Food carts come in two basic styles.

One allows the vendor to sit or stand inside and serve food through a window. Another uses all of the room inside the cart for storage and usually some type of grilling surface.

Food carts first appeared at the time of the early Greek and Roman civilizations, with traders converting old hand-carts, push-carts and smaller animal-drawn carts into mobile trading units.

Carts have the distinct advantage of being able to be moved should a location not be productive in sales, as well as transporting goods to/from storage to the place chosen from which to trade. There were chuck wagons (in the west) and dope wagons (southern factory work carts).

The use of these carts gained major ground with the coming of the railways. Mobile customers required food and drink to keep them warm within the early open carriages. Locomotives needed to stop regularly to take on coal and water, and allow their passengers to use the toilets, eat and drink. Few early trains had any form of buffet or dining car so the food carts were perfect.

When passengers did arrive at their destination or when they needed to switch trains or modes of transportation, some refreshment was required, particularly for poorer passengers who could not afford to stay in the railway-owned hotels.

The food carts expanded to concession stands also. Many countries still use these such as in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The first food cart items were ready-made foods.

A summary of ready-made foods, for example, from Germany might be Fleischkase (meatloaf) served with mustard in a roll, from Turkey Shawarma (Levantine Arab meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day), from Hungary a Retes (strudel), from Italy a Margherita pizza (the street version originated in Naples and is rectangular in shape with toppings of margherita, mushrooms, Italian sausage, ham and vegetables), from Poland a Rurki Z Kremem (similar to ice cream cones but filled with whipped cream), from Romania Covrigi (hot pretzels covered in sesame or poppy seeds) and from Slovakia Langos (fried flat bread loaves with garlic and salt or other condiments).

For recipes from 1700s to 1960s and modern day links, visit www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.

Christine Willard, a native of western Pennsylvania, researches and blogs about the food unique to western Pennsylvania. She currently resides in North Carolina.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

THE PA MELTING POT - Special HALLOWEEN Post: Column, photos, links and videos!!

Below is the column I authored for the Herald-Standard newspaper which will appear on 10 30 2014. Below the column are photos and links referring to this column/blog.

The Melting Pot: A look at the evolution of food in Southwestern PA – SPECIAL HALLOWEEN COLUMN

Halloween originated as a pagan festival in parts of Northern Europe and is a time when magic is most potent and spirits can make contact with the physical world. Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland brought the holiday to the United States.

Halloween commercialization began the US in the 1900’s when postcards and die-cut paper decorations were produced. Halloween costumes appeared around the 1930,s and the custom of 'trick-or-treat' appeared in the 1950's.

Modern day Halloween is more popular today with the youth in the countries below because of the influence and commercialization by the US. In this column Halloween customs of the top seven ethnic groups in western PA will be addressed.

GERMANY

Süßes Oder Saures (trick or treating) is very popular. Germans seems to indulge much more in scary dress-ups than their American counterparts, even for kids when it comes to Halloween. By mid-October, you’ll see some carved out pumpkins on peoples’ doorsteps in the streets of Germany and Austria, though not as much as in North America. Kürbis (pumpkin) and jack-o'lantern decorations are very popular.

IRISH/SCOTCH-IRISH

In the old days children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. Guising (Scottish trick or treat) occurred when children disguised in costumes went from door to door for food and coins and then the custom became known as Trick no a choireail (Irish trick or treat). In Scotland in 1895 masqueraders would carry lanterns made out of scooped out turnips & visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish and the custom of saying "trick or treat" has recently become common.

ITALY

These days among the younger generations Halloween has become more popular than Italy's very own Carnevale. Like the Germans and Americans Italians get crazy about dressing up and playing tricks on their friends. Dolcetto o scherzetto” (trick or treat) is also popular. During the night of All Dead, the souls of the departed come back from beyond the graves in a long line, walking around the streets of the towns. That is why we carve a pumpkin and place it on the window with a candle inside it to use as a lantern.

POLAND/CROATIA/UKRAINE

Pennsylvania is fourth in the US with Polish-American population with estimated figures of a million and 9% in Pittsburgh. Today, Pennsylvania's Croatian population of nearly a quarter million is the largest in the country and they even have their own consulate in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has the nation’s fifth largest Ukrainian community. These three countries are a large population contingent in western Pa. However, they don’t celebrate Halloween per se but All Saints’ Day (Hallowmas - a Christian feast in honor of all the saints) and All Souls’ Day (a day of prayer for the dead, particularly but not exclusively one's relatives). The annual celebration is now held on 2 November and is associated with All Saints' Day (1 November) and its vigil, Hallowe'en (31 October) which is a combined Catholic custom.

For recipes from 1700s to 1960s and modern day links visit www.ThePAMeltingPot.com. Christine Willard, a native of western Pennsylvania, researches and blogs about the food unique to Western Pennsylvania. She currently resides in North Carolina. Her blog can be found at www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.

German photos