What first attracted me to Poland was the history and this country’s involvement in World War II. One of the largest Nazi concentration camps was Auschwitz located in Poland. Over three million people were recorded to have died in this camp, almost all of Jewish religion. Poland has many beautiful lakes and rivers which also attract tourists. The food in Poland is always very hardy. Many Polish cooks prepare a single meal over the course of a day, or possibly a week to make sure it is perfect. Visiting Poland is overall an educating, visually pleasing, and stomach filling experience.
The taste of Poland I am going to share with you is a delicious dish, Pierogi. Although the specific origin of the first Pierogi is uncertain, it is most connected to the Polish and one of their top dishes to try while visiting. This is one of my favorite meals here in the United States and I was lucky enough to try them where they are most loved.
How is it made?
Pierogi are a dumpling-like treat. A layer of dough is wrapped around a filling, usually potato and cheese but can also be cabbage or meat. Polish Pierogi dough is pasta-pastry dough and much thicker than any Pierogi you may taste from somewhere else. When prepared Pierogi can be baked, fried, or boiled. My favorite is boiled then fried. If you chose to fry this dish it is pan-fried in butter accompanied with onions.
How do I taste one?
Finding Pierogi as big and tasty as the ones served in Poland is hard to come across. If you can’t fly over to Europe any time soon Piergoi can be found all over the United States. I first tried Piergoi in the cafeteria of my high school. I continued to see this dish served in my college cafeteria and refused to miss out every time it was offered.
If you are out of school Piergoi can be found in almost any food store in the freezer section. One brand I have grown to love is “Mrs. T’s Pierogi”. These are absolutely delicious.
This dish of Poland is a must try and so easily accessible, so don’t miss out because these are one of my favorite dishes of all time!
There is nothing that people love more than food. You need it to survive so why not indulge in the most delicious foods this planet has to offer?
The world we live in today is united as one on the internet. Distance, religion, or language doesn’t matter when it comes to searching on the World Wide Web. A website should be established highlighting all of the amazing foods offered around the globe, and I am the perfect person to create this for you.
The website will offer a wide range of foods from all over the world. There will be extensive search options by country, by meal, and even by ingredient, to help the user navigate through the page easily. There will be a page for users to submit their own authentic recipes to keep the lists extensive and up to date as much as possible.
Why should someone living in America be limited to the American dishes they see every day? Allow them to learn about and indulge in Hungary’s Hungarian Goulash and a fine Crepe from France. Check out some of Europe’s finest dishes on my blog, A Tate of Europe.
Sentence Pitch 1:
If you’re feeling stuck with the same food every day, check out A Taste of Europe to bring new ideas and exiting treats into your home!
Elevator Pitch 2:
Every show you see on TV seems to feature foods here in America. Not that they aren’t exciting and delicious, but people want more! They want to know what exciting treats lurk beyond the boundaries of the United States!
Creating a television show featuring countries and their cuisine around the world would be a perfect new show for viewers who love food. It will be titled, Foreign Fare. Each episode will feature a different country and all of the wonderful dishes they have to offer.
This show would not only be centered around food. There is a great deal of history behind many dishes around the world including European and Asian countries. Their history dates back thousands of years through their food in their traditions and rituals. This information needs to be shared!
This will be the final incentive to get people out there are travel the world! There is so much to see and so many delicious foods to try. Together let me help you produce an amazing show to captivate the audience and educate them on the scrumptious foods of the world!
Sentence Pitch 2:
If your taste buds are hungry and you’re looking for some excitement, come travel with us around the globe as we learn and try all the delicious foods this planet has to offer!
What to make for dinner is always on your mind while sitting at your desk at work hearing your stomach grumble. Chicken? You had it last night. Pasta? That was two nights ago. Steak? You’re saving that for when your parents visit this weekend. You are in a rut!
Check out television’s newest show Foreign Fare. This show is all about different dishes and cuisine around the world to escalate the level of excitement in your home for you and your taste buds!
Foreign Fare will feature countries all around the world and the wonderful cuisine they have to offer. Take an inside look at how long a dish has been around for and where and when it was first established. Was it used in a ritual? Is it associated with the country’s tradition or a holiday? There is so much to learn about food! Find out how spices, meats, and vegetables can come together to create a final product that is absolutely delicious.
This is a new television show unlike any other. Jump outside of what you usually do and come along for an adventure to a foreign land! Learn about foreign culture, food, and history. Bring it back to your own home and share your findings with friends, it will surely satisfy their taste buds.
Check out the series premiere of Foreign Fare Thursday July 29, 2010. Check your local television listing for the channel in your area!
Hungary is thought to be one of the most beautiful countries in all of Europe and definitely worth a visit for the scenery alone.
Many people think of Hungarian food as fatty dishes with an over load of the extra hot red paprika spice. This is not completely true. People of Hungary love their meat and stew and real Hungarian cooking uses the red paprika to enhance the flavor of a dish not to be an overkill of flavor.
The Taste of Hungary I am going to share with you is a dish called Hungarian Goulash. This is a dish that was frequently cooked for my mother as she was growing up, and was passed down for my mother to cook for her family. I am not of Hungarian decent, the dish is really so good it is worth passing down the recipe!
The name Goulash originates from the Hungarian word Guylas, meaning cattle herdsman. This was given the name as it was most commonly prepared by herdsman. Goulash is a soup which was originally prepared in a large cast-iron kettle over a fire. It can be prepared using a variety of meats; beef, veal, pork, or lamb.
How is it made?
The most common way to prepare Goulash is as a beef soup. Large chops of beef are combined with already cooked onions, red paprika powder for spice, tomatoes, and green pepper. Other recipes show to add potatoes. The recipe my mother makes uses potatoes, so I definitely recommend it but it is not necessary because this dish is absolutely delicious either way!
All of those ingredients are combined in a large pot or crock pot for 2-3 hours to cook through and create the perfect taste of the flavors combined. It can be eaten as a stew, or my preference is to be served over noodles.
How do I get it?
Hungarian restaurants are not so easy to find in the United States. I don’t have any around me but if you live near one, definitely check out their menu because Hungarian Goulash is a must have! For those of you who are like me and do not live near a Hungarian restaurant check out some of these recipes to make in your own home! All Recipes.com, Cooks.com
In the words of a great Roman emperor Julius Caesar, “Experience is the teacher of all things.” I have chosen my niche based off my personal experience and wish to share my findings with you.
At the start of the 2008 year I hopped on a plane and flew almost 3 thousand miles to Europe where I first landed in London, England and shortly after moved to Rome, Italy to live for 5 months. During my stay in Rome I was able to experience a completely different lifestyle than the one I was living in the United States. I was able to travel each weekend to a different country to taste the food, hear the music, and experience their way of life.
Looking back over a year later, one thing sticks out in my mind more than anything, the food. Each country I visited had an array of foods which helped define the country and its culture. I chose my niche to be A Taste of Europe.
I have already begun to share some of the delicious dishes I ate while traveling abroad. If you’d love a nice meaty sandwich, definitely check out A Taste of Germany or A Taste of Greece. If you love sweet treats check out A Taste of France. Considering I lived in Italy I definitely have my favorite dishes I will need to share with you in the future, but as a teaser I offer a simple recipe to one of Italy’s finest desserts, an Italian Cannoli.
Now that I have created an online identity, I wish to increase my presence within my niche. I want my blog to offer people new ideas of dishes they may have never tried before. At the end of every piece I inform the reader of where these foods can be found in America. Not everyone has the opportunity to travel to another country, and I would like to bring a bit of Europe into their lives.
There are many steps I will take in order to increase my online presence. Here is how I will begin:
Increase my activity on Twitter. I plan to tweet more often. Not only about my recent blog posts, but interesting findings I come across in my research relating to European food.
Add tags to my blog. I am still figuring out how to do this but there are many key words and phrases I would like to tag in order to enhance my presence during a Google search. This will connect my name and blog directly to the food genre I wish to be a part of.
Insert links within my blog. There are many websites I come across while conducting research that I can incorporate more into my articles. Adding links to these outside sources within my niche will help to increase my presence as well as raise my credibility. This will allow readers to see some of the sources I get my information from as well as give access to more information if they wish to find out more.
Implementing these steps will help me to increase my presence on the internet. I currently do not have much to offer when my name is Googled. I have a common first name, Heather, and there are a few other people around the country have the last name Bacci. I wish to separate myself from the others and create a distinctive identity when “Heather Bacci” is searched on Google.
If you love food as much as I do, this is the perfect blog to indulge in. You will be introduced to a number of dishes from many different countries around Europe. Come hungry and dig into A Taste of Europe!
To what extent does an individual have a right to know the 411 on the food they are consuming? This has been a huge international issue for many years now and there is no end in sight for countries to decide on one global rule for the proper labeling of food products. The main concern lies in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) or more commonly known as GM foods. GM foods are food plants that have been genetically altered to enhance or suppress a specific trait. This could range from suppressing a plants vulnerability to a drought to breeding hundred of plants from a cell as opposed to a seed.
There are two extreme ends of the battle against a consumer’s right to be informed; Europe and the United States. Europe believes that a consumer has the right to know if the food they are consuming has been genetically modified. Recent laws established by the European Commission require all producers to label their products GM if they have been modified. The United States believes that the risks caused by GM foods are not high enough to spend the time and money to regulate proper labeling of GM foods. I side with Europe in this argument and believe that a consumer should have a right to know how their food is being produced and be given the choice to opt out.
GM Food Risks
There are many risks associated with GM foods that a consumer has the right to be aware of. The first category of risk is in the environment. Unintended harm to other organisms has been shown to be one of the biggest concerns. The most popular plant modification is pest resistance. The downside of this is there is there is no way of controlling the toxins released from these plants to only kill the pests that eat crops. All insects and animals are exposed to these toxins. Pollen from GM plants can spread by the slightest gust of wind resulting in the death of animals and insects outside the spectrum of crop eaters.
Another category of risk is human health. Considering the concept of GM foods is fairly new, long-term health risks have not yet surfaced. It needs to be considered that any time genes are modified, changes exist that can potentially lead to serious health risks. At this point, the consumer is basically eating at their own risk. The highest known short-term health concern for GM foods is allergies. It is possible that genetically modifying a plant may cause allergic reaction to a new and unidentifiable allergen. Due to the numerous amounts of people who have life threatening allergies, everyone needs to be careful when consuming GM foods.
The last category of risk is in the Economy. If the number of producers using GM technologies continues to grow, the need for plant seeds will decrease which will cause a major jump in seed price. If the price of seeds sky rockets, small business farmers and third world country farmers will not be able to afford the seeds to make a living. Famers who have the upper hand in technology will dominate the market and potentially push these competitors out of business, leaving them in worse condition than what they started in. There needs to be a balance in the industry to allow the major producers to grow as they wish and still keep the small farms in business.
International Labeling
International trade has been one of the biggest obstacles in GM food labeling as some countries require their food to be labeled on the market and others do not. The United States is one of the largest exporters in the world and has a count of more than 50 GM foods in the market. Global GM guidelines for export trade suggest proper labeling for safety and the ability to trace the origin for precautious measures such as product recall and allergic reactions. The United States follows these export guidelines of labeling GM foods but has yet to provide this courtesy to its own consumers. If businesses already have the ability to label GM products then proper labeling should not be limited to the products being exported but included on all of their goods.
Advantages to GM Foods
I do not believe that GM foods should be removed from the market as they do provide certain advantages. Pest resistance is an ultimate advantage as many farmers lose a great deal of their crops due to crop eating insects. Adding this gene will increase the number of crops able to be sold which will lead to higher profits for the farmers.
Cold weather and drought tolerance is another gene which can prove to be beneficial for farmers. Weather conditions are uncontrollable and can be very detrimental to the production of crops. Adding the ability to withstand drastic weather conditions can save an entire season of crops and allow the farmer to make a profit as opposed to a huge loss from the crops dying.
Lastly, nutrition is a huge advantage of GM foods. Many third world country citizens are malnourished and consume only the food they are able to grow. These crops do not contain all the nutrients a proper diet should entail. Nutrients, such as Iron, can be genetically modified into these crops allowing people to receive the proper amount of nutrients. Living a well nourished lifestyle proves to lead to longer healthier lives.
Conclusion
Genetically modified foods contain a great deal of risks as well as advantages. European law requires products to be properly labeled when they have been genetically modified. The United States should adapt these policies to label GM foods because a consumer has a right to know what they are eating. A consumer has a right to know that the product they are eating may have unintentionally harmed animals in the process. A consumer has a right to know what health risks they are taking when consuming a product, and in this case that GM foods are so new that it is basically eat at your own risk. A consumer has a right to know that this product they are about to eat is ultimately a science experiment with many unanswered questions. It is a consumer’s right to have the option to opt out if they do not want any part of this. Labeling of GM foods should be established in the United States not only for export purposes but to provide the same courtesy and knowledge to its own consumers.
Works Cited
Buck, Tobias. "EU Wants Rest of the World to Adopt Its Rules." Financial Times [London (UK)] 19 Feb. 2007, World News sec.: 7. ProQuest. Web. 6 July 2010. .
"EUROPA - Food Safety - Biotechnology - Introduction." EUROPA - European Commission - Homepage. Web. 06 July 2010. .
"FDA Proposes New Rules for GM Foods." Chemical Market Reporter [New York] 29 Jan. 2001, 259th ed., sec. 5: 7. ProQuest. Web. 6 July 2010. .
Sissell, Kara. "NAS Says More Scrutiny of GM Crops Needed." Chemical Week [New York] 4 Aug. 2004, 166th ed., sec. 25: 12. ProQuest. Web. 6 July 2010. .
Whitman, Deborah. "Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?" CSA. ProQuest. Web. 05 July 2010. .
"World Regulations: UN Body Adopts Global Gm Guidelines." ProQuest. EIU ViewsWire, 10 July 2003. Web. 7 July 2010. .
