I broke a couple of personal records today. First, I had my first glass of beer before 9 AM. Second, for the first time, I digested something that could digest me. Both of these require the explanation that follows.
Today, we had a couple of business visits lined up. We started early in the morning. After a relatively uncomfortable night in a hot, non-a/c room (have I mentioned that we had no air conditioning?), we were up by 5:30 AM and at breakfast by 6:30. I was surprised to find that the room cost us about $200 for the night! Anyway, we left by 7 AM for the first business visit that our hosts had lined up. It happened to be at the Amber Brewery (I swear, I didn’t ask for this!). We arrived at the brewery at 8 AM and had a fascinating tour of the place. This is a very modern brewery (built about 1995 with the latest equipment and computer-controlled systems) that currently brews four primary brands: Zlote Lwy, Amber Red, Kozlak Bock, and their current flagship Piwo Zywe. The last is an all-natural unpasteurized beer that they have actually have achieved some level of success selling this beer in the Polish equivalent of Whole Foods stores. This is considered to be an “organic” and healthy brand of beer. Interestingly, it was also, to my tongue, the tastiest of the three. After the brewery tour, we had not choice but to taste the beers, which led to my pre-9 AM beer consumption. They also export a beer to the US under the “Kopernik” label. Our host at the brewery, Roman, was very friendly, intelligent, and clearly in charge. In addition to being the brew master, he also serves as the general manager of the brewery, responsible for all aspects of its running. A great brewery in a beautiful, rural setting. Make sure you check out their web site.
Next, we headed to the town of Łubiana (remember that Ł is pronounced as a W in Polish) to visit the famous Łubiana porcelain factory there. This was another fascinating tour as we saw the entire process of porcelain making from both the plastecine base as well as the “granulat” base. One is a clay like substance that is pressed into shape using a mold. The “granulat” which is a powdered form of the mixture (basically a mixture of a couple of types of unknown rock and quartz) is pressed into shape using high compression. The factory is amazingly modern and it was interesting to see the rows of robots mechanically performing a series of tasks in the manufacturing process. The actual inspection, buffing, and painting is done manually by hundreds of women who sit in rows and rows on a massive factory floor. Very interesting tour. We also visited the gift shop where I was unable to resist buying some porcelain mugs. If Jerrie had been with me to choose some patterns, I have no doubt that I would have bought some full serving sets and had it shipped home.
We then headed to the spectacular Malbork castle which was home to the Teutonic knights starting the 13th century. Interestingly, the castle went through a major renovation between 1895 and 1906. Given that photography had recently been invented, they photographed most elements of the castle in great detail at that time. We could see the spectacular photos of the castle taken at that time. These photos turned out to be invaluable when the Nazis bombed the place and left it in ruins in 1945. This is truly a spectacular, huge castle that is impressive today. It is almost painful to see the few photos of the castle in 1945 after the war – the place was shattered. A few of the rooms such as the church are still not restored and I constantly was left shaking my head in despair when I compared the broken, ruined room (essentially a pile of bricks) around me with the incredible, lavish pictures of the place from 1906. This place was standing and in use all the way from the 13th or 14th centuries to the early 20th century and in a few years, this war destroyed centuries of history. It is just tragic and if more people got to see how much of this incredible history was destroyed during the war, I am certain they’d ask whether it really is worth it. It was simultaneously sad to see how much of this historic site was ruined by the war and inspiring to see how far they have come in restoring the grandeur of the place in the sixty years since then.
For lunch, we stopped at an open-air restaurant on the castle grounds. As I often like to do, I asked my hosts to order something for me and said that I would be happy to eat anything they were eating. They ordered flaki and szaszlyk for me. Flaki is a stew which they said was beef and the szaszlyk was essentially “Polish barbecue” with cubed pork on a stick that was grilled. The flaki was delicious, but was certainly not beef. The bowl was piled with whitish strips that looked like pure fat on one side and like the surface of my tongue n the other. After eating several mouthfuls, I asked them what it was. “Beef” they replied. “But this is certainly not beef as I know it,” I said. “Yes, it is,” said Woicecz, “Beef stomach.” Believe it or not, I found that exhilarating. Another exotic food that I was actually enjoying! I completely finished off every shred of “beef stomach” in the large bowl. On checking the Internet, I found that Flaki is a common Polish “tripe” soup that is made of strips of the first three chambers of a cow’s stomach. It is cleaned and boiled for several hours. What made it tasty was the fact that it was quite flavorful (with pepper, salt, and other spices) unlike most Polish food I’d tasted. In fact, after the delicious flaki, the szaszlyk was a disappointment. Although they called it “barbecue,” it was quite tasteless pork. It was more “smoked pork” rather than “barbecued pork.” My colleague couldn’t believe I actually finished the large bowl of stomach lining, especially after I found out what it was. I think that part of my enjoyment when I’m traveling is to try things I otherwise wouldn’t try. When I find something I’m eating is particularly exotic to my experience, I actually enjoy it more because now I’m getting something more out of it than just the taste and nourishment – I’m gaining another interesting experience that I can talk about. On the other hand, when I told my wife what I’d eaten, she thought it was quite disgusting. I think I’d mentioned in an earlier post the importance of being open-minded. That’s why I often like to tell people in countries I’m visiting “order anything that you would eat or you would think I’d like.” That way, I’m likely to end up with something I would not have ordered on my own. I certainly don’t think I’d have ordered “cow stomach stew” if I’d seen it on a menu. And I would have missed out on a tasty dish!
On the way back to Olsztyn, we stopped at a beautiful hotel (Hotel Anders) on a lake for a cup of coffee. Very tranquil setting in the city of Jabonski and another one of the hundreds of places that I’d like to return to at some point.
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