I was born and raised in Greenpoint. While my parents (native born Americans but of Polish ancestry) made their own fresh kielbasa for Christmas and Easter, we still purchased so many Polish food items there. I cannot buy any genuine Polish foods in NJ except for those fake things called kielbasa made by mass-producing American companies. I can buy Chruczicike (spe?) from Greenpoint's White Eagle markets but nothing else. I can get some foods on-line from Polish neighborhoods in Chicago but strangely absolutely nothing from Greenpoint. I miss the old neighborhood and the $70 monthly rent for a railroad apartment.
Sardelowa is what we used. ( my iPad seems to change is to isn't of its own accord)
Bigos without juniper berries? Bigos without dried prawdziwki? Bigos without prunes or dried apricots? Bigos without red wine?
Bigos with WATER added??????
What kind of kielbasa did you use? Krajana? Siekana? Krakowska? Sucha? Myśliwska? Each one imparts a different flavor.
The essence of bigos is NOT cooking it for six hours in one fell swoop. It is to cook it for two hours and let it cool overnight. When you cook it the second day it is edible - but you cool it overnight.
Finally when you cook it the third day the various flavors have interlaced and are at the correct stage.
This cooking method originates with what hunters did - they hunter, returned to camp, threw in the meat and let it cook, then cool. The next day they hunted and repeated the cycle. The meat needs to marinate in the juices... incuding the wine.
Bigos with WATER added??????
What kind of kielbasa did you use? Krajana? Siekana? Krakowska? Sucha? Myśliwska? Each one imparts a different flavor.
The essence of bigos is NOT cooking it for six hours in one fell swoop. It is to cook it for two hours and let it cool overnight. When you cook it the second day it is edible - but you cool it overnight.
Finally when you cook it the third day the various flavors have interlaced and are at the correct stage.
This cooking method originates with what hunters did - they hunter, returned to camp, threw in the meat and let it cook, then cool. The next day they hunted and repeated the cycle. The meat needs to marinate in the juices... incuding the wine.
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Hence: Hunter's Stew.
‘‘I moved away a few years ago, but now, when I come back with my baby and go to a cool coffee shop, the people look at me like: ‘Great. Here come the stroller people. There goes the neighborhood.’ ’’
You really have no idea what people are thinking based only on their facial expressions. This tells you everything you need to know about your projections, however.
You really have no idea what people are thinking based only on their facial expressions. This tells you everything you need to know about your projections, however.
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"Great. Here come the stroller people. There goes the neighborhood." People wouldn't feel this way about the stroller people if these parents didn't think it was perfectly OK to bring their screaming babies and toddlers into bars where adults are trying to relax in an adult environment. I once saw a group of parents changing their babies' diapers on an outdoor picnic table where people eat and drink at the bar located on the corner of Franklin and Green St. (TBD? is the name of the bar). This is not cool.
It is also not cool when parents think it's perfectly acceptable to let their kids run around restaurants screaming and carrying on when people are trying to enjoy their meal. There are parents who do a great job of keeping their children quiet and well behaved in restaurants; I applaud these parents. The parents who are not able to do this should eat at home and not ruin dinner for the rest of us.
It is also not cool when parents think it's perfectly acceptable to let their kids run around restaurants screaming and carrying on when people are trying to enjoy their meal. There are parents who do a great job of keeping their children quiet and well behaved in restaurants; I applaud these parents. The parents who are not able to do this should eat at home and not ruin dinner for the rest of us.
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The self-referential tone of the article was very off-putting. It is typical though of northeastern journalism today, especially in the NYT.
First, even assuming the people on the street didn't typically smile at or engage the writer, maybe that is a cultural thing. Maybe that is what makes part of the old community, something the author ostensibly prized, what it was. More likely, they had cares and concerns of their own and like most New Yorkers in public, including the urban areas of the boroughs, were circumspect in public.
For the supposed stroller reaction, how did locals know that the mother and child weren't related to someone in the community?
No one owns a community in America, people can move where they like if they are law-abiding. Those residents' ancestors surely "replaced" something that was there before... That's part of American mobility and freedom. Why should you learn about the names of sausages - actually you should (I would have) but it's not something to feel remiss over!
An article on bigos ended up being half about something else and not in a good way.
First, even assuming the people on the street didn't typically smile at or engage the writer, maybe that is a cultural thing. Maybe that is what makes part of the old community, something the author ostensibly prized, what it was. More likely, they had cares and concerns of their own and like most New Yorkers in public, including the urban areas of the boroughs, were circumspect in public.
For the supposed stroller reaction, how did locals know that the mother and child weren't related to someone in the community?
No one owns a community in America, people can move where they like if they are law-abiding. Those residents' ancestors surely "replaced" something that was there before... That's part of American mobility and freedom. Why should you learn about the names of sausages - actually you should (I would have) but it's not something to feel remiss over!
An article on bigos ended up being half about something else and not in a good way.
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Dried mushrooms are essential to bigos. Also, we use leftover red wine, about a half cup. We use that to deglaze the pot after you simmer tomato paste with the meats and vegetables. Then add wine, broth, we don't use canned tomatoes, just the paste. We also usually add some smoked pork chop. Our three meats are pork shoulder, kielbasa and smoked chop. Saveur magazine had a recipe about 9 years ago that my family says is the most authentic. I recall the date well since I made it and my father in law died the next day. I brought it for all the relatives to enjoy after the funeral. It was my father in laws favorite dish. Sadly he missed my version. How ironic that I made it the day before he died and the house was then filled with Polish relatives?! I'm going to make it this weekend. Thanks for the reminder, bittersweet now.
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Your additions to the recipe sound right. Do the readers a favor and go to the recipe and add this very useful cooking note. Thanks!
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018007-bigos
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018007-bigos
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Unfortunately, either because of language or apathy, the Polish population of Greenpoint has never been very politically active. Couple that with an influx of disinterested, transient hipsters and you have easy pickin's for developers. If residents walked just a few blocks towards the East River, they would see their future spelled out in a mile-long, unbroken wall of luxury condos under construction. Nothing, surely not by their elected representatives was done to mitigate this an iota. Soon, even an article like this will seem quaint as another neighborhood assumes the glassy features of Bloomberg's Borg.
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Ah Stan the man...beauty like neighborhood development is in the eyes of the beholder. I am a senior and lived or visited this area all my life.
Yes...the area is changing. I miss the ole stores, people, etc but also don't miss the areas of the neighborhood that became blighted, abandoned.
There are young "hipsters" here on a community blog/board that attempt to mitigate any "bad" things that development brings.
Yrs. ago on Kent Ave, a main drag here, there were hookers and wild dogs. You could not even drive your car, now it is one of the trendiest blocks in the world...
Yes...the area is changing. I miss the ole stores, people, etc but also don't miss the areas of the neighborhood that became blighted, abandoned.
There are young "hipsters" here on a community blog/board that attempt to mitigate any "bad" things that development brings.
Yrs. ago on Kent Ave, a main drag here, there were hookers and wild dogs. You could not even drive your car, now it is one of the trendiest blocks in the world...
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When I lived in Greenpoint in the 80s, I remember people looking at me strangely too--esp. other "yuppies," as we were called back then. 100% Polish with a Slavic look and they couldn't figure out if I was a local or one of them.
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I am, was just like you Jane......actually atlhough Greenpoint has never lost its polish flavor in the 80s there was a sizable hispanic pop and like the polish are slowing being replaced by the "hipsters"...the locals call the newcomers yuppies, the media call them hipsters...
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That meat is begging to be made into meat pies.
Those are begging to be made into meat pies.
In fact, a bigos meat pie sounds delicious. I have been waiting to decide what to do with the piecrusts I froze a few months ago, and I think you've just given me the answer. Thanks!
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I liked your editorial! You're quite right about Greenpoint AND Bigos. Both are very interesting but Bigos are much more "inviting" and "delectable" than Greenpoint is.
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I was born and raised in Greenpoint. It is still charming and special, for how long I don't know, with luxury apartment buildings being built everywhere in this once working class neighborhood that I still regard as home.
Nice article. Makes me miss those $4 Greenpoint lunches at Lomzynianka that came with a sausage, a smashed potato and sides of fresh grated carrot, fresh cabbage and sauerkraut. As closed to home-cooked as it came.
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Agreed molly..the rumor (not 100%) sure was that they lost their lease with a astronomical rise. This restaurant was one of the few that made the transition from polish to hipster, like Peter Pan donuts here, frequented by both groups..
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Besides Francis, I believe Sam Sifton also hails from Greenpoint. These old line polish restaurants are slowing giving way to trendy hipster restaurants with cutting edge award winning chefs.
I believe Pete Wells just gave his first two star review of a Greenpoint restaurant, Llama Inn..here.
It is good that we still have a few of these polish restaurants left here in Greenpoint, where you can get a seven course meal for under $10 and come out stuffed and satisfied albeit artery clogged.
Of course, you are not dining with the "beautiful" people, the young hipsters from all over the US and western world, but then that at least doubles the bill.
I believe Pete Wells just gave his first two star review of a Greenpoint restaurant, Llama Inn..here.
It is good that we still have a few of these polish restaurants left here in Greenpoint, where you can get a seven course meal for under $10 and come out stuffed and satisfied albeit artery clogged.
Of course, you are not dining with the "beautiful" people, the young hipsters from all over the US and western world, but then that at least doubles the bill.
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Pete Wells writes up a non-Polish restaurant in Geenpoint - but doesn't bother visting Królewskie Jadło which is on the Michelin Bib Gourmand list.
Go figure.
Go figure.
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Will definitely have to try this, though I am grateful you left the calorie count off the recipe! I have always said I want my last meal to be the bigos they serve at Little Poland on 2nd Ave.
Hey Anne...if you are gonna clog your arteries one time (and you will), do it with bigos instead of a mcdonald's big mac...(although as senfeld taught us not that there is anything wrong with a artery clogging big mac)...
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Greenpoint, once a lower middle class / working class neighborhood has been gutted by the post 9-11 real estate fetish. Where once lower middle class people and , yes, families, could raise their children , is now home to trust funders, facile bankers and traders , and people desperately trying to look " hip" , and willing to pay for the privilege. The combination of new money, greed , and narcissism have made this a transitory stop , no longer a neighborhood. Greenpoint is long gone , save as , ironically , a brand.
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Pat..read my previous post...you are half right, where you are wrong is this is the price we have to pay to save a dying neighborhood...
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Out on the East End of Long Island we enjoy Polish culinary delights, too. My friend Ella introduced me to bigos years ago. Who would have thought a combination of meats and cabbages could taste so delicious? This dish is worth trying.
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A few points. I grew up on Long Island, I've heard of Greenpoint, but I can't say I've ever been there. Very sad that you idealistic New Yorkers like to live in a dream world of NY being a melting pot of social integration, where everyone gets along and blends in, only to find yourself smacked in the teeth with reality. As a neo-Southerner, it's sad to see that 30 years after I left, you remain as segregated as always. Anyway, the topic at hand, bigos. Just as I've never been to Greenpoint, I had never heard about bigos until a NYTimes article on the dish showed up about 5 years ago. Do some research - it's much better recipe than the simplified version here. And a warning. You cannot make proper bigos for 4-6 people. It does not, it cannot happen, attempting it is foolish. Budget at least 12, as I did, and we had leftovers for 12 more, on 2 separate days. (It expands with time.) It's a great dish. Aside from the cabbage, this stuff will probably shorten your life a year or two, but if you are with friends, and a couple of bottles of (relatively) cheap red wine, you will be in for a treat.
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We New Yorkers love our ethnic neighborhoods. I was born and raised in Greenpoint and lived there into my mid-twenties. You should visit this neighborhood and bring an appetite.
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What a sour, unpleasant post. Not a person from whom I'd be disposed to take recipe recommendations.
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