Woo the palate to win the market
A former Chilean ambassador in India and noted political scientist, Jorge Heine, had once said to me that it was easier to conduct public diplomacy over a meal. He was so convinced of this fact that he even turned the visit of his country’s president into a showcase for Chilean food (notably sea bass and salmon) and wine.
It got the state visit, which would have been otherwise relegated to one of the less important pages of the national newspapers, the media attention that exceeded the ambassador’s expectations. The media was literally eating out of the Chilean president’s hands because it’s not often that a visiting head of state hosts a sit-down lunch food and wine opinion makers.
Heine’s words came back to me at the majestic art deco home of the ambassador of Poland, a relatively new and young incumbent named Tomasz Lukaszuk, as a fairly large turnout of diplomats and food connoisseurs got introduced to the joys of a cuisine we know so little about. Impacted adversely by Russia’s retaliatory ban on agricultural imports from the West after the imposition of economic sanctions against it in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, European nations have been seeking out alternative markets. Russia was a voracious consumer of European agricultural produce, so all eyes are now on the Indian market.
A senior European Union official made this clear in as many words at the FICCI-sponsored Annapoorna food trade show in Mumbai a couple of months back. But when you are a little-known entity among the many countries wooing the Indian market, how do you get the spotlight you seek? The Polish ambassador and his wife, Maria, who’s also the economic attache of the embassy her husband heads, hit upon the idea of throwing a party where the spread would consist entirely of Polish food and vodka, and the man presiding over the kitchen was Delhi-NCR’s only Polish chef, Adam Szczechura of the Hyatt Regency Gurgaon. It worked as memorably as a Kieslowski movie.
Polish food, as Ryan Bromley, a Canadian chef-turned-scholar of gastronomy married to a Polish embassy official, explained to us, is all about the power of ingredients and the interplay of seasons. The magic of Polish cuisine, Bromley explained, starts in the fields and the forests; in India, it begins in the kitchen. Polish cuisine is ingredient driven, which is not as easy as it seems, for, as chef Adam reminded us, Poland gets fresh produce for just four months. Indian cuisine, on the other hand, is technique driven.
The limited availability of fresh produce clearly has left a mark on the cuisine of the country. It has turned simplicity into a gastronomic tradition. The pierogi, or lightly fried dumplings, Poland’s national dish, are expressions of this tradition. Chef Adam said that during Lent, or on Christmas eve, when devout Catholics turn vegetarian, every family has pierogi, which come with fillings such as potato mash, onions and cottage cheese, or cabbage and wild mushrooms, or with minced meats and even sweet berries. With shots of Poniatowsky vodka, smooth as silk and tasting like green apples, pierogi and sour cream taste like heaven. Unsurprisingly, the vegetarians weren’t complaining.
The star of the evening, though, was the Zureck, the sour rye dough and potato soup, an Easter speciality served with juicy kielbasa sausages, which ooze umami once softened by the warmth of the soup, and halved boiled eggs. There was something addictive about this meal in a bowl, and its vegetarian counterpart, the mushroom soup, made after slow-roasting porcini and other flavourful wild fungi for four hours.
The chicken meat balls, or pulpety, served with buraczki (braised beetroot), stewed green peas and carrot, and staropolskie (roasted potatoes), brought back memories of gushtaba. And the roasted duck with apple jam was truly a welcome change. Without a doubt, Polish cuisine is now here to stay.