well I dunno about polish beers, had one in Czieszyn, not bad.. but there are many quite ok beers around europe. Not the same level as czech beers, but they are drinkable. I'm talking about pilsen (or white) type of beers. Your ales and stouts are interesting but that is different cathegory. I recall spanish Cruzcampo to be drinkable or belgium stella, english newcastle, SudTirolian Forster. They are just a bit too much tasty for my taste. Austrian and Bavarians beers are better. Things like Zwetler are really good. Tho Pilsner Urquell, Budejovicky Budvar, Radegast, Gambrinus, Bernard, Kozel, Samson, Cerna hora etc etc are the ones of my choice. Don't get surprised.. even here you can get not so good biers. Don't go for Zubr, Staropramen, Starobrno, Branik, Ostravar, Zlatovar etc. The best ones are unknown local breweries tho. Bernard started like this and it is my favourite so far. Paegas from Brno is similar case. Most of production is however made by big breweries which were bought by Japanese... quality goes down, manufacturing cots go down, prize go up. Fucking investors! More interesting could be discussion where they make awful bear.. i mean.. not drinkable one. I know it.. and I tell you.. cos I had to suffer it for way too long time! Sverige aka Sweden.. don't even think about drinking local beers! Things like Norrlands Guld or Еbro or how the fuck was it called makes you vomit sooner than you will be able to say oh fuck man this is disgusting!
You are talking about "kriek". Its a beer which is based on a beer but then they just add cherries to it. It is indeed a very sweet beer, you can drink it as easily as fanta BUT, over here it is considered a chick-beer. Mostly girls just drink it because they don't like normal beer. @Zembla, you said something about Maes being considered piss beer in Belgium. I stronly disagree! Everyone has his/her own opinion and I damn well like it
Okay, my opinion (and I know what I'm talking about): It's more fun to drink in Belgium than in Czechia or Poland, dudes. You know why? Because there's so many different kinds of beer to choose from! Not just lager (Or "Pils" as it's called in Holland and Belgium) but also "Dubbel", "Triple", "Quadruple" (which are so called "Trappistenbieren" or "Monastry-beers"), "Wit", "Geuze", "Bock" (which might be Dutch, now that I think of it) and loads of other beers. I agree, Polish and Czech LAGERS are some of the best in the world. But there's a hell of a lot more to drink then just lager, guys! And when it comes to those beers, nothing can match the Belgian stuff. My parents used to go to Belgium every other week, just to buy 6 crates of different beers. JUMMY!
Well to say we do not have "only" pils It is just thing whole world unsuccessfully copied. Ie Cerna hora brewery is making some 6 types of beer. What are those "dubbels, triples" etc. ?
Here it goes: I consider mid-european kitchen to be the best in the whole wide world. Czech Knedlicki, Hungarian Gulash and Polish Pierogi are my favourite dishes. Nothing's better with beer than Czech Vyprazany Syr (a big portion with Bramborky, Tatarska Omaćka and salad... mhhhmmm), nothing tastes better with vodka than Polish Bigos... Yes, it's a fact that Polish kitchen is fat, heavy to digest and unhealthy, Czech kitchen uses too much flour and Hungarian one is only for those, who aren't affraid of very spicy dishes (some dishes are so hot, that you can't eat them without having a bottle of wine to extinguish the fire inside you ) but I've had samples of kitchens of many countries... and I consider that there's no better kitchen than the citatd 3.
@ vilglm -- cc there are "Export versions" -- because of alc limit and because they make it different on purpose.. to taste different.. you can't get the same beer as in czech rep. .. anywhere Moreover quality of bottled beer is very different to the quality of beer sold in barrels or tanks to pubs. Pilsner Urquell being commented as one of very good ones is pretty disgusting in bottle imho.
I must admit that Bigos is delicious (it's one of the few real Polish foods I've had, besides Pierogies). We used to have an awesome Polish restaurant here, and the mother of the owner would cook every meal herself. And it was gooooooood But I'd prefer some Italian food during the summer months. Just think: fresh mozzarella, fresh, red-ripe tomatoes, lightly salted with a dash of pepper...fresh bread, some salami and a bottle of local red wine. Little salad with a light vinegar dressing... Then a cigarette with an espresso, barefoot on marble-floored balcony overlooking the busy street, watching the pretty Italian ladies -- then a nap for one hour... So I'd compromise, perhaps, and would sign a document saying that Middle European cuisine rules for half the year, but I've got to go with the Mediterranean foods for warmer times Strange, but I really didn't like French food. I like the simpler German dishes, like simple Wurst sandwiches, and Kцnigsberger Klopsen, which my granmother made for me as a child. What are "knedlicki", some sort of dumpling? F**k I'm hungry as hell now!!!!!!! @ Manoce -- I think you would be horrified to see how my family drinks beer, hehe Many times from a can, and when I was a boy, the men in my family often bought the cheapest beer and wine possible! Big cultural difference But to be honest, where my family is from, there was no good beer during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Only during the 90s did real quality breweries appear again.
Ahhhh, so NOW we're discussing food as well? Well, let me assure you folks: Dutch food SUCKS! You should give it a try someday. "Stamppot", "Boerenkool met worst"... BLEGGGGGH! The only decent food in Holland is the cheese (Gouda is crap, not worth the milk it is made of. Try to get your paws on some mature "Stolwijker") as far as I can tell. The best kitchens in the world: Italian, Hungarian (I LIKE IT HOT!), Turkish (Baklava, Pide, Doner, Adana Kebab... Yummy!), Indonesian ("Rijsttafels", Nasi Goreng, Bami, Ajam Ketjap, Babi Pangang... All great with pilsener beer) and Spanish (especially the tapas, Right Xavi?! )
@ frog -- are you crazy? "vyprazany syr" means fried cheese in Slovak.. it has nothing to do with czech or slovak original cuisine,, actually pretty tasteless - imho the meal which fits to beer the most is "utopenci"(means drowned men) - pieces of sausages in vinegar, water, black pepper, allspice, mustard seeds, bay leaves and spicy paprika- you boil the spices with vinegar, put in large glass sausages with spicy mustard in it, lots of onion and cabbage, pour the boiled mixture on it, then put the glass into boiling water for a while, then leave it for 10 days and then it is ready. .. ah pretty similar to some kind of tapas actually I have had .. but tapas could be virtually anything, eh? those "knedlicki" - you prolly mean curds dumplings -- great stuff.. filled with plums or apricots, floating in several centimeters of hot butter , with breadcrums and poppy on them (you just have to be careful not to put too much of it, otherwise.. good nite ) cc, frog, too much flour .. You take 1 traditional czech meal, it's great, but you can'T move next 2 days. I like soups from czech cuisine - we eat them every day. My favourite ones are those from cabbage or mushrooms or beef tripe (pieces of their stomach). polskie pierogy -- ah,, I have to agree with you, sebbo -- I like such meals too - nothing better than to set a fire in your mouth and then try to extinguish it with beer ______________________________ I guess there is something good in every cuisine all around the world ... believe it or not, I had good typical food even in Scotland -- cos I was given fresh salmon from fisher who gave me lift
Scotland ------- Haggis. 'Nuff said? Haggis is rather tasty though! You just shouldn't think about WHAT that stuff you're eating actually is.
@manonce utopki are quite good too... as for knedle i would go for plum stucked ones right now... they're awesome.
Have read only first several posts in this thread... I prefer strong beer, 6%+. Joke, real experience: me and my friend drink strong beer at the Leninskiy Prospekt underground station, we finish our bottles and go to a nearest booth for the continuation. We get two more bottles of Yaroslavl' Strong, and while we pay we hear voices from behind in English: "Look at this aborigens, they don't even hide bottles in paper bags!". I turn back and see a young American couple looking at me and my friend as if we are dinosaurs. I say: "It's our city and we don't need any stinking paper bags!"... I wish you have seen their faces... They couldn't imagine that this two drunks both could speak English...
well i just found out that Czech Budweiser is available in the U.S. But is marketed as Czechvar because of the dispute with Anheiser-Busch. I am drinking one as we speak and I like it very much. I also drink pilsner urquell on occasion as well.
Hi, I can describe the beer panorama here in Italy. It's quite disappointing as Vilglm said. Here people consider beer as the light yellow liquid that "goes down" so nicely when you're out eating pizza in summer, or as fuel to get drunk. So beers made and sold in Italy are for the biggest part lagers and (bad) pilseners most of them not above 5% in alcool. But please understand us for not drinking it... when you are full of wine it's easy to confuse beer with piss. Too risky... Yes, here beer is considered a poor relative of wine. Of course this is not true, being beer a different product. Since it's less considered is often bad served in our pubs and is sold at a disgusting amount of money. They're stealers, that's sad... There is a small but very active movement of beer enthusiasts and homebrewers. In some cases this has ended in a microbrewery plant that produce good beer, not filtered and not pasteurized as every beer should be. Beer enthusiasts often call themselves beer hunters, just imagine how easy is finding a good beer here. There are few exceptions, I just found in my town a small brewery/pub that produces 7 different beers, and amongs them an ale with an insane amount of hop which is my favorite. 3.5 Euros per 0.5l... From January 2004 I've decided to brew my own and I really must say that I never drunk so much bad beer since that day... OK, I will get better beer with some practice and a spare liver... I vote Belgium as beer heaven, followed by England and Germany. Special mention for czechs pilseners. I vote Brasil for almost any other thing but beer...
Brazilian food is very good, have u ever eat a "feijoada"? it's so good... Brazilian beer is very good in my opinion too... Another good food is the japanese... sushi, sashimi... As Homer Simpson would say: "Hhhhmmmmmm... Beer..."
I stick by what I said, no one does it like the Belgians when it comes to beer For food...as Bas suggested, you really should try some haggis, neeps and tatties with some black pepper. Very tasty! I dont much like foreign food at all. Usually when imon holiday I find an English restaurant or a McDonald's and service my stomach there. Vilglm is right tho, overall the best place for food is definitely Italy. Pizza, pasta carbonara or bolognese...and a hundred more goodies that I dare not mention for fear of drowning my keyboard from salivation -glas-
