myguideTravel Blog

This this this and this DELICIOUS

February 9th, 2008

So began my introduction to lard. I do try to eat a balanced diet, high in fibre, plenty of fruit and veg, any fats in my diet tend to be monounsaturates and polyunsaturates. If anyone from my health insurer is reading, please stop now!

The waiter had instructed me as follows

1. This he pointed at the rye bread
2. This he pointed at the pickles
3. This he made a digging motion towards the HUGE dish of lard
4. And this he did a shaking action with the salt cellar
5. He then declared it to be delicious, for final effect he kissed his fingertips

It was the end of a long week in Krakow. I had been working hard with Marta and her team on getting the myguidePolska website into soft launch. Our amazing marketing team were working on fixing last minute glitches all week. Finally, the best site for travel to Poland was live. Well maybe not the best, yet - it’s still not perfect but as I explained to Marta - a website is never finished.

Marta had dropped me back to my hotel late. After catching up with my family back home, I was ready for something to eat. Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant had already closed for the evening. The receptionist recommended a micro brewery just around the corner.

I ordered an excellent beer brewed on site. I asked the waiter for a recommendation, he indicated Smalec. Smalec essential lard with bread, pickles and salt. Well when in Rome……..

Smalec

The Poles are a people that know their lard. They call the dish Smalec and there are many variations. Most lards here have onion but you can also get

• lard with raisins
• lard with plums
• lard with apple

It turns out that Americans and Western Europeans had a long tradition of using lard. It was extensively used for cooking in the West before vegetable oils became widely available.

However, heath concerns around saturated fats over the last 30 years meant, that most people of my generation have never knowingly eaten lard. The other issue that affected lard was that it was perceived as a “poor persons” food. However, despite its reputation, lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than the same amount of butter.

Lard is much cheaper than butter. After WWII in Europe, butter was one of the foods that was severely rationed. Lard was used as a substitute. When rationing ended and food prices dropped enormously in relative terms, consumers switched to butter.

What’s it like?

Washed down with a good beer, I would recommend Smalec to anyone. There is a certain point that you must get your brain beyond. Call it the uck factor. After that it’s actually very good.

Note: the image above is a spoof from Viz, a comic in the UK. I doubt there ever was a Lard Information Council.

Entry Filed under: Travel