Savoring Polish cuisine and Żywiec.

When my Polish friend's family took me around the country, I had the opportunity to savor a variety of Polish cuisine, both at their home in Żywiec and at restaurants around the country. Polish cuisine contains much that is distinctive, but little that is truly unique to the country, with most of it representing a blend of culinary styles that run across countries in east-central Europe, such as Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Meat and potatoes are the mainstay of the national diet, while north European vegetables including carrots, cabbage, and beetroot provide good accompaniment.

When I visited, it was in February, still the winter season, though at the end of it, so there was plenty of snow that had yet to melt. During this time of year, vegetables become harder to come by, excluding those imported, and together with the long cold season, the people consume more meat and cheese. Every morning, together with the family I had bread with many kinds of cheese and ham. It was simple, but the bread bought at a nearby bakery was certainly not something I find everywhere, and it was the first time I felt I could eat cheese without eating it with something else. Simple, but depending on the combination of bread, ham, and cheese, you could enjoy a variety of tastes. A good choice of sweet pastries goes along well too.

What I also enjoyed much was the soup. It plays an important role in any Polish menu, serving as an introduction to a multi-course meal or just a mid-day stomach-filler. The most famous of them, and what I found to be my favorite as well, is barszcz (borscht), a reddish beetroot-flavored broth with a mild yet perfect balance of sweet and sour tastes. If you visit in the summer, you would find a refreshing variation on these theme called chłodnik, which is cold borscht served with lashings of sour cream and a side order of boiled potatoes. Another soup I remember is the fasolka, a solid, almost stew-like combination of beans and smoked sausage.

As I previously mentioned, meat is often the main part of Polish cooking, but it is pork that takes up top billing. You can reveal for yourself how important the pig is to the Polish society if you look over the delicatessen counter and see the sheer size of the repertoire of sausages and smoked cuts of pork. Although the generic name for sausage is kiełbasa, there are plenty of varieties to choose from: the thin, smoked kabanos, the garlic-rich wiejska, and the pink, mildly-spicy krakowska. A pork dish that I remember well is golonka, a deliciously tender roasted pork knuckle, traditionally served with chrzan, which is horseradish sauce. Dairy products, especially the cheese, is also central to the Polish diet. The oscypek, which is a bun-shaped sheep milk cheese sold everywhere in the town of Zakopane (though available in other places as well), was delicious, especially the smoked ones.

Something not to miss, and what has become more or less an icon of Polish cuisine is the pierogi. They are boiled dumplings of scallop shell shape and size, and are stuffed with a variety of savory or sweet ingredients, from minced meat, cabbage, potatoes, mushrooms, and cheese, to strawberries, cherries, or other fruit. The food is consumed well in this part of Europe, where the people speak language of the Slav origin. Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Czech are all among them, although sometimes they are under different names such as kalduny in Belarus, and koldūnai in Lithuania. There is a similarity to the Italian ravioli and tortellini, or the manti, khinkali, or chuchvara in the trans-Caucasus region, including Turkey, while not too similar but still sharing some aspects are the Afghani mantu, Mongolian buuz, Nepalese-Tibetan momo, Chinese wonton, Japanese gyoza, and the Korean mandu.

Oh, yes, and I didn't leave out beer! Situated in the southeastern corner of Silesia province in Poland, Żywiec is a peaceful countryside town with a population of just over 30,000, and it is known for the beer that is named after the town. Although now under the Dutch Heineken empire, the Żywiec Brewery was originally founded by the Habsburg family in 1852 and has been producing ever since. Competing brewers include Tyskie and Lech, and though I could not recognize too much of a difference between the three, it was certainly nice to visit the history-rich bar located adjacent to the brewery and sip on a glass of Żywiec, naturally the most popular of the three in this part of Poland, enjoying the atmosphere of a Polish countryside bar.

Strolling in Luang Prabang.

Between the mountains covered with jungles in north-central Laos lies the city of Luang Prabang. It is situated where the Nam Khan River flows into the Mekong River, well over 400 kilometers north of Vientiane. Every dawn, lines of monks dressed in orange robes walk through the streets to collect alms, and along with the Buddhist temples and the simple concrete buildings, the atmosphere seems to resemble that of its neighbor Thailand at one glance. Even the language is very similar to that spoken in 'Isan', the northeastern part of Thailand. The cuisine is similar too; Tam Mak-Hung (papaya salad) is basically the same as Som Tam, and they eat that with Khao Niaw (sticky rice), and it even goes along with Kai Yang (roasted chicken).

However, if you look carefully, the decorations of the temples are different, architecture reflecting the days of French colonization still remains in many houses, and most of all, its social systems, including education, health care, and welfare is like those of its neighbor decades ago. Education is essentially free for public primary school (five years), junior high (three), and senior high (three), but the percentages of children enrolled are 84.2%, 54.4%, and 34.2%, respectively. And, since the country does not keep track of personal identification records, the actual age a child gets enrolled varies. The number of years for university education varies from two to seven depending on the majoring subject, however, none are free. Free health care is not available, but government aid may be issued if you travel all the way down to Vientiane and ask for it.

I paid a visit to this landlocked country in the Indochina Peninsula in August. Registered a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1995, the compact city of Luang Prabang is a nice and calm place to spend a couple of days. Besides the symbolic temple of Wat Xiengthong and the hill of Phousi, where you can get a picturesque view of the entire city, there are many so-called 'speed boats' that take you up and down the Mekong to various nearby villages and the buddha-adorned caves of Pak Ou, while 'songthaews' or 'tuk-tuks' (same nomenclature as Thailand!) can take you to the beautiful waterfalls of Tat Kuangsi. At night, nearby villagers, including the Hmong, come out to sell various goods, creating a bustling street market scene.

The recent influx of tourists to this economically underdeveloped nation has given birth to a plethora of bed-and-breakfast's and restaurants that satisfy a westerner's taste buds, however, this happened after restaurants catering for the locals came in, ironically. Families were and are still not too used to eating outside the home. So, it wasn't easy for me to find local food with a local taste at a local cost. Even the packaged foods, most, if not all of them, are imported from Thailand. People say that the more north you go, the more products from China and Vietnam you will find. But basically, there are only a few mass-produced goods (not to miss the famous Beer Lao!) packaged on Lao soil. What I personally liked the most was the Khao Soi (different from the Thai cuisine with the same name) I found being served at a 'street picnic table' right beside the Mekong. I even went for a second on the following day.

Banning fast-food in low-income communities.

On July 29th, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to place a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles, an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above-average rates of obesity and diabetes. The action, which is yet to be signed by the mayor, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major city to protect the health of a people in a community, in this case, a low-income neighborhood.

An area with a population of 500,000 people, most of whom are African Americans and Hispanics, 28% of families here live on a budget of under 20,000 U.S. dollars a year. According to a report by the Community Health Councils, 73% of restaurants in this district are fast-food eateries, compared with 42% in West Los Angeles. These eateries alike are popular choices especially among the economically-handicapped. And not surprisingly, 30% of adults in this area are obese, compared with 19.1% for the metropolitan area and 14.1% for the affluent Westside, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found out.

The year-long ban of new fast-food restaurants is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food. Often referred to the 'Food Apartheid' by the health-conscious, the number of stores selling fresh foods is less than a quarter of that in other areas of the big Californian city. Research has shown people will change eating habits when different foods are offered but cost is a key factor in low-income communities. If you are running on a low income, or don't even have a job, and you don't have a car or other means of easy transportation, fast-food restaurants in the neighborhood serve as a cost-saving and convenient option. Although depending on what products you choose, it is not difficult to eat three meals a day for under five U.S. dollars total. Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity.

However, some people in the community believe this is not enough to solve the issue. Many people are aware that fast-food is unhealthy and it is not that they don't have any supermarkets selling fresh foods. Formerly called South Central Los Angeles, this is a part of town whose name was replaced by the current one in 2003, as 'South Central' had become almost synonymous with urban decay and street crime. One pointed out that local gangs dominate some areas near the supermarkets, and people wouldn't dare to take the risk of getting robbed, beaten, or shot. The same could be said for the supermarkets, as their numbers are actually dwindling, because they don't want to risk being attacked and robbed by the gangs. To add to that, even if the crime rate is lowered, many people in the area don't know how to cook, as they have never learned how to.

The ordinance comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. By the year 2030, it is estimated that 86.3% of Americans would be obese. L.A.'s ban, which can be extended by up to a year, only affects stand-alone restaurants, not eateries located in malls or shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping. It exempts so-called 'fast-food casual' restaurants, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order, such as El Pollo Loco, Subway, and Pastagina.

Meanwhile, representatives of fast-food chains said they support the goal of better diets but believe they are being unfairly targeted, claiming they already offer healthier food items on their menus. Not surprisingly, the California Restaurant Association and its members are considering taking a legal challenge to the action.

A former gangster in the area has said the ordinance would bring minimal change, and for fundamental change, it has to be done by the people in the community... and this is an idea that lies at the roots of primary health care (PHC). :-)

An evening in Shinjuku's good old backstreet.

A block still retaining post-war Showa era style, near bustling Shinjuku Station, houses over 30 "nomiya", or Japanese-style counter bars. It's called Omoide-Yokocho, which translates to something like "the backstreet of the good old days". The small community truly lives up to its name.

On October 28th, after we had the patient assessment workshop, I decided to go for a glass of beer and a light snack in Omoide-Yokocho with two of my friends who also participated in the activity. It's Sunday night, so not all of the nomiyas are open, and if you want to see how it is when it's busiest, Friday night would be best. So we walked down the small but lively alley and hopped into one named Asadachi. Many nomiyas call people walking by to come in, but this place didn't, so we just said why not.

This place had a very interesting, or to some maybe peculiar menu. They had raw pig and cow liver, testicles, penis, and uterus, while also boasting frogs, whale meat, fish, and many kinds of shellfish. Most of these could also be served cooked. A wide choice of rare alcohol was also offered, like "sake" made from aloe, snakes, lizards, etc... but with all of this, the two-hour talk with the owner of this place was so interesting that it made the menu irrelevant.

When he talked, he talked as though if he had met everyone from everywhere. And he closely looked into the other's eye when talking, and continued to look into it even after the other had shifted his eye somewhere else. Very observant he was... he really reads people's expressions. He's met all kinds of people, from TV superstars to politicians and company executives to front-line employees. They all come here to babble about what's up in the world they belong to, and that's why he knows a lot about them... And maybe because he has seen the eyes of so many that, he says he can read one's personality just by looking into the eye.

A 68-year-old actor came in while we were there, and says he has been a regular visitor for over a decade. The owner knows a lot about his life... that he was a playboy when he was young though having a wife, did ordinary desk work in his 40s and 50s at an insurance company, but decided to become an actor after he retired at 65.

The owner told us many things... but the one that seems to have been carved in my mind is "What's most important is your heart, but just that won't get you anywhere... you have to be clever, maybe sometimes even cunning or sly..." Hmm, maybe so. :-)

Lunch time in Japanese med schools.

Lunch time in Japanese medical schools is interesting.

Our university is in a highly-developed area, a very urban area, so most of the students go out and buy their lunch. We have an extensive selection to choose from... many kinds of food, meaning a wide range in prices too. Students with relatively more cash don't hesitate to and tend to hop into relatively high-class restaurants, while the ordinary (like me) are always trying to find the cheapest food around. Sometimes is fine, but sticking with with those affluent people for lunch everyday would easily put me into bankruptcy in a matter of days.

So what happens is, rich students tend to hang around with rich students, and ordinary students tend to hang around with those of its kind. And they become good friends... not that it is causing any problems (so far), but I just thought it's an interesting phenomenon... :-)