Come on in, there is something for everyone!

We have such an international group here, I thought it would be interesting to create a topic where we can discuss various aspects of foreign culture and have an open forum for legitimate questions. Feel free to ask for translations as well.

A couple of guidelines:

-Respect each other *and* your cultural differences.
-Be careful with religion and politics
-Keep it classy

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342261-international-inquiries/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342755-the-travelers-tavern-international-inquiries-ii/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1343569-the-travelers-tavern-iii/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1346072-the-travelers-tavern-iv/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1351628-the-travelers-tavern-v/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1353604-the-travelers-tavern-vi/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1357983-the-travelers-tavern-vii/

From the last thread...



That is interesting.

Christmas and Easter at my house are incredibly Polish. I certainly know about Halushki (though say and spell it different, apparently). Americans call it "Cabbage and Noodles" the same thay call Golabkis: "Pigs in the Blanket". I'm not familiar with Bobaki, but it sounds similar to Kapusta, which is a dish that consists of mainly: cabbage, kraut and kielbasi.

I'd previously assumed that "pigs in (the) blanket" was a bit like toad-in-the-hole (i.e. sausages lurking in a large lump of Yorkshire pudding mix, usually served with onion gravy) but it seems they're not quite the same thing after all. I always found that sausages and batter was a combination that was always a bit too much, anyway.

That's how I see them. Quite a few Americans do as well, I think. They just so happen to use the same term for Golabkis. Really doesn't make sense.

"Toad-in-the-hole"?! That's...interesting. Certainly never heard of them before. Unless, of course...I'm talking about my yard.

Pigs in a Blanket like a piece of hotdog wrapped in a piece of a crescent roll? That is what most Americans think of when they hear pigs in a blanket.

That's true, but if show them a picture of Golabkis, the vast majority of Americans, at least in my experience, will call it Pigs in a Blanket as well.

Bitter Coast, now it's my turn to ask ; ) Have you ever heard of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigos and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielbasa?

Hahaha, my family (in Canada) refers to "pigs in a blanket" as a normal hotdog wrapped in some kind of dough (so, cooked), and a "toad-in-the-hole" as an egg cooked inside the hole of a slice of bread that was carved out (usually with a cup)

Okay Min, you've definitely earned it.

I have never heard of Bigos, nor even recognized that upon seeing it. I am familiar with meat stew though, I think every culture has some variation on that.

As for Kielbasa, we call it Kielbasi and I know it very well. It is very popular in my family. Personally, I don't like it, it's too grisly and greasy.

One thing that I always wanted to know is why there are so much polish internet-users. It seems disproportional with the number of european internet-users. Specially in MMOs and online games.
I'm not complaining about them or anything like that, just curious about that phenome.

I was under the impression that pigs in blankets were sausages wrapped in bacon.

why do Americans call Football Soccer

It is a British term that moved over to America.

In the UK they made the Association of Football. Association was abbreviated to assoc, so they called it soccer. Since there was already football in America (as we know it) soccer stuck.

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada also use it.

I spelt it wrong - it's bobalki - with an L. Here's a pic of what ours looks like on Christmas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmgearing/5398662492/ I couldn't really find a picture of the halushka and when I googled it, it mostly came up with the spelling haluski. Same basic stuff I guess. But I think this is one of the recipes we mixed a bit with the German background because we don't use a regular pasta like most of those pics showed.. we make spaetzle and fry those noodles with the cabbage and butter. There's no meat in either dish though.

Now on New Years we do kraut and kielbasa. Supposedly it's good luck I guess.. as is black eyed peas so that's what we all of those. I also want to say we have oyster stew, but I can't remember if that's Christmas or New Years. lol

I always thought toad-in-the-hole was an egg in the middle of toast too! I had to google and see what you were talking about Vometia. This is what we call http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American_pigs_in_blankets.jpg, but on the wiki page I see bacon wrapped stuff and the other things you guys are talking about.

hmm never knew that

You learn something new everyday

Yum. Most Americans have heard of kielbasa. It's available in our regular markets, though might not be as fresh or good as you're used to. I hadn't ever heard of bigos, though. It looks something like Szeged gulas but no sour cream.

We're lucky as where we live there is a real Polish sausage maker (like, the guy doesn't speak much English) and two Russian delis that carry a lot of Eastern European prepared food and ingredients. My husband is half Slovak so we go clean those places out occasionally.

Yeah, I don't recognize the Bolbaki at all.

I mentioned Kapusta earlier:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/404211708_35dff583f4.jpg

That is a dish made with cabbage, sauerkraut and a little bit of Kielbasi. It is traditonal to have it on New Years as well. Funny how you eat Black Eyed Peas though. That is a Southern thing. I remember specifically talking to people in Texas about how I eat Kraut and Kielbasi on New Years and they explained how they eat Black Eyes Peas. Way to have all your bases cover. Should bring you good luck North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line.

And the Oyster Stew is interesting...as my family usually throws a curve ball in there with Oyster Stuffing.

I meant I assumed the American usage was more or less synonymous; hmm, I'm feeling hungry now.


Oh, yeah, that's probably what my comment was based on: although the picture's not really the same thing, it looks vaguely related. I'd completely forgotten about the egg-in-toast thing and haven't had it since I was a kid; I can't even remember what it was called at the time, if anything!

...Yeah...Lets not do that, I forgot to remove them once someone verified them seems you already did that though
Hmm I thought I had clicked for the Spainish translation, oh well.

Something I seem to have noticed about the British is you all seem to harbor a lot of locational hatred. I'm not talking about the traditional animosity between the individual British peoples but sentiments like "Northerners be damned!" and "He's from Surrey? People from Surrey aren't to be trusted!". Maybe this is just internet joshing and TV exaggeration but it's certainly how it's been made to appear to me.

My English friend always has a funny put-down for just about everybody. The Irish, the Welsh, the French, the Germans, Americans. And the Brits have all the best cuss words.

Often it's just friendly rivalry involving a lot of banter either way, but unfortunately it does have its nasty side too where some people take it much too far. My impression is that the same is true of e.g. the US, too, particularly judging by some of the back-and-forth between the southern states vs. the "Yankee heartland".

If it does exist I think it's an English thing rather than a British thing. I've never heard anyone from Scotland moan about northeners or southerners etc. Nor people from Wales actually...

You do see quite a lot of it aimed at England and vice versa, though... I also got the impression that there was some highlands/lowlands rivalry, but probably friendlier than some of the other stuff.