0:00 Oh, no.
0:01 Oh, these are jellied eels, f**k.
0:03 The jelly is, like, so nostalgic of a very specific time that is not now.
0:09 You don't even have any
bread to go down with this?
0:11 You're just having me, like, raw dog fish?
0:17 Hi everyone, I'm Antoni Porowski and this is, Snack Wars: UK Versus
Poland, for LADbible.
0:23 I believe I'm about 85% genetically Polish and I'm really curious to see if there are things that
I've never tried before, 'cause I only know what I know, so I'm pumped to get started.
0:35 Wait, oh no, this is Sophie's Choice, and I've never seen the movie.
0:40 I went to a Polish school that was run by, like,
the Polish community, and the group in Montreal growing up when I was like seven or eight years old.
0:46 And I went to a stand where
they would have pąckzi, which are Polish donuts and
you can get tea and sodas.
0:51 And they had Prince Polo,
which is basically like our KitKat, but far
superior for many reasons.
0:55 And I remember taking a donut and I remember taking one of
these and I didn't have money.
0:59 And the woman was like, you're
a Porowski, don't worry.
1:02 Let's just start a tab.
1:03 Big mistake. Huge.
1:05 Two months later my parents
come pick me up afterwards and we were supposed to go shopping 'cause I was supposed to get the new Lego that was coming out, and the woman goes up to
my dad and she had a tab and it was 140 bucks.
1:15 I started buying all of my friends' things and I got in trouble 'cause I
learned about what a tab was.
1:19 And Cadbury Creme Eggs, 'tis the season.
1:23 This is one of the greatest treats in the history of the world.
1:30 But it depends, these are seasonal.
1:32 You might not think it's a seasonal treat, but it really is. From
the beautiful, iconic star you know exactly where it was sealed and where the insides were
just kind of, like, injected.
1:43 I adore this.
1:49 It's so good.
1:50 This is a perfect dessert for me.
1:53 Icing, whatever you
wanna call the insides.
1:55 The ratio is higher than the chocolate and I'm that kind of guy.
1:59 Oh look, they took a
note from the Americans in making everything five times too big.
2:02 Let's call it XXL.
2:05 Okay.
2:09 This is a tough one.
2:11 This is a lot easier to digest and enjoy.
2:17 It's a little less sweet.
2:19 The Cadbury Creme Egg is
beautiful and overwhelming.
2:22 This is the very thing, I
was allergic to chocolate as a kid, but I fought it out of me.
2:26 Like lactose intolerance.
I'm not even kidding.
2:29 It's true. When I was a kid I was obsessed with Cadbury Creme Eggs.
2:32 It's what we had on the table.
2:33 And I would, like, fight my sisters so that I could have all of them.
2:36 And as much as I love a Prince Polo and as much as I love my home country, I gotta give it to the Creme Egg.
2:44 Mmm, śledź.
2:46 Pickled herring, I love this stuff.
2:48 So I had a tartine in my first cookbook, which you can still
definitely buy somewhere that had pickled herring on it.
2:54 That and my recreation
of Nando's Peri livers were the two least made
things from my cookbook.
3:03 Did I know that going into it? Absolutely.
3:05 But did I wanna share them
with the world? For sure.
3:06 So these are old school style fillets of herring.
3:12 Delicately marinated.
3:13 I don't know what that means 'cause this is in a factory, but okay.
3:16 With onion.
3:18 I love when it comes in a sketchy wrapper.
3:20 This is from Poppies Fish and Chips.
3:23 Wait, what? Wait, what's
happening? What's happening?
3:25 What, and it's cold?
3:28 Oh no.
3:31 Oh, these are jellied eels, f**k, oh, there's a smell there.
3:36 Oh man, well I'm gonna start with joy, and then I'll move on to that. I'm sorry, guys.
3:42 It's the texture of it and the aspic, the jelly
is, like, so nostalgic of a very specific time.
3:50 That is not now.
3:51 Wait, actually, you guys
did, you guys did f**k me because you gave me chocolate and now you're giving me
herring, literally right after.
3:58 You don't even have any bread to go down with this?
4:00 You're just having me, like, raw dog fish?!
4:03 Thank you so much.
4:04 I appreciate it.
4:09 Oh, but this is kind of lovely.
4:10 Look at the perfect cross
section of the onion and it's still intact.
4:13 It's got the integrity
'cause the root was kept.
4:15 No one cares.
4:16 Alright, let's...
4:19 So this I would typically
have over rye bread- (Goddamn, I'm gonna have to brush my teeth after this) with a little bit of butter.
4:26 And then thinly sliced apple or celeriac.
4:31 Yeah, that's legit. It's sweet.
4:34 It's got the creaminess.
4:35 A little slick from the skin.
4:39 Ooh.
4:42 Guys.
4:47 I'll do, like, that one
episode on Queer Eye when they've had to
make me eat raccoon stew with the hatchback chilies.
4:53 I'm gonna commit and I'm
actually gonna take a real bite, but I can't do the skin and I can't chew on the... On
the cartilage, on the bone.
5:06 Oh.
5:10 So it's a lot more subtle than
I thought it was gonna be.
5:13 Oh no, the fishiness
definitely kicked in there, it just took a second 'cause it was cold and when it warmed up I
can definitely taste it...
5:20 I'm sorry, śledź for me, it's the herring, all the way.
5:23 We have vinegar.
5:24 We have eel jelly here.
5:25 This is- We're crushing it.
5:30 Sorry, I had to get
all the fishy bits out.
5:32 I never thought that'd be
a sentence I'd be saying.
5:34 I love that you're balancing
it from briny, salty, oceanic, gelatinous to chocolate.
5:41 Savoury!
5:42 Okay.
5:43 Onion-flavoured little- they look like little pretzel sticks.
5:48 Mini Twiglets.
5:49 These are the Marmite ones, right?
5:51 JVN who's my castmate on Queer Eye, his husband Mark is a Brit
and he brought me these and I am obsessed.
6:00 I love Marmite, which is a hot take if
you're not Australian and you love Vegemite.
6:05 But there's just something
about it that I really like.
6:08 These are definitely like a little, they're a little on the bitter side and they really do char them.
6:14 They're surprisingly bitter.
6:16 They're definitely burnt,
but there's still something really enjoyable about 'em.
6:21 I don't know, I wouldn't accuse these
of being delicious, but there's something that's so satisfying and it leaves you wanting more.
6:30 I would have this with
crumbled cheese on the side.
6:34 It's so weird 'cause explaining
this, it's really bitter.
6:37 But they're actually enjoyable.
6:43 Yeah.
6:45 Well, respectfully, if you
describe anything as yeasty, I don't exactly know anybody who's gonna
be running towards it.
6:51 But it was important during the war 'cause isn't it vitamin, the richest source of vitamin B, that's Vegemite's whole platform.
6:57 They would drop it for the soldiers.
7:00 These are delicate.
7:02 They're oniony, but not too much.
7:05 I prefer these.
7:08 I've never seen these before, Paluszki.
7:10 So little onion-flavoured fingers.
7:13 Yeah, these are quite good.
7:16 Whenever you're ready.
7:18 Oh, we have a fork.
7:20 Interesting.
7:23 Okay.
7:25 I have never had a pickled egg before and I'm obsessed with pickle, with what's it called, with devilled eggs.
7:34 And sometimes in the yolk
there's a little bit of acidity from something that's added.
7:38 So I'm actually really excited to try, 'cause I typically average four
eggs every single breakfast, soft scramble.
7:43 This is a slightly different form.
7:44 Ogórki kiszone, these are my DNA.
7:47 If you have a hangover, have pickle juice, it's really good for you.
7:52 And also pickle juice is used in one of our traditional soups.
7:57 So how does this...? Wow.
7:58 The fact that this
comes in a bag like this is so wild to me.
8:03 No, I got it.
8:05 That's what the canines are for.
8:06 There's a lot of liquid.
8:09 Oh, she is juicy.
8:11 Okay.
8:13 Also, this, Poland, gosh,
I love you guys so much.
8:17 I am you...
8:18 Like, figure out a bag situation
where it doesn't fall over and all of the brine pours out.
8:22 Like, come on.
8:25 Oh, they're the perfect size.
8:26 These are like gherkins on steroids.
8:34 This is gonna be tough to beat.
8:36 This is so good.
8:40 These are amazing on their own.
8:43 A little thin piece of a
good English sharp cheddar with the little crystals and
a little piece of sourdough with some room temp butter
and thin slices of this, favourite sandwich.
8:53 Okay, let's try some pickled eggs.
8:58 Eggs in a jar.
9:00 What could go wrong?
9:02 Okay.
9:04 Oh, you're bringing me napkins?
9:05 Thank you so much.
9:07 Thanks.
9:08 Oh my gosh, the liquid is all pouring out.
9:10 See, Poland! Like, come
on, guys, figure it out.
9:13 We got this, we're crushing it.
9:17 All right, let's try the pickled egg.
9:23 You know, this actually
isn't really bad at all.
9:28 This is really yummy.
9:29 And the mild vinegar lends
a bit of a sweetness.
9:33 I don't know how often
I would, you know what, actually it's like a good
protein-filled snack.
9:39 You get your omega-3's.
9:40 But Poland 100% wins.
9:42 These are for...
9:43 obeczki means pickles from a barrel that you would get at a kioska, a shop for a mass-produced situation, these are pretty incredible.
9:52 Oh, and they're bio. Wow.
9:53 These are 10 outta 10.
9:54 I'm really surprised and
delighted, pickled eggs are good.
9:58 But this takes the cake.
10:01 Yes.
10:02 0oh, I don't know what a mini roll is.
10:04 Let's try these first.
10:06 We'll get into these.
10:07 There's a lot to unpack with this, too.
10:10 My hunch is that this is gonna be like a bit of a Swiss roll situation.
10:16 Oh, s**t, this is so delicious.
10:18 It's that classic Cadbury chocolate that's sweet enough to hurt
your molars and your fillings just a little bit, but
not in an aggressive way.
10:28 So Wedel, iconic brand,
it's the Cadbury of Poland.
10:33 Ptasie Meleczko literally
translates to bird's milk, which is kind of gross,
considering they don't lactate.
10:41 So where does the milk come from?
10:42 But we're not gonna go there.
10:44 These are an iconic
gift over the holidays.
10:48 And they have a sponginess to them.
10:51 They're classy. They're in a nice little gold tray.
10:58 Satisfying crunch.
11:00 And the vanilla is like
a spongy marshmallow, but it actually tastes like vanilla.
11:07 These are so deeply nostalgic and it's obviously completely subjective, but I gotta honour Poland with these.
11:19 Polska!
11:22 I did my country proud today.
11:25 The best of the Polish
snacks was the pickle.
11:27 She surprised me.
11:29 I thought she was gonna
be soft and flaccid, but she was crunchy.
11:36 She had loads of flavour. Salty enough.
11:39 Had that wonderful snap and
I'm gonna think about her 'cause she's a woman.
11:44 I'm gonna think about her
when I go to sleep tonight, that pickle was really out of a bag.
11:48 I've never had a pickle that good.
11:50 And it really made my country proud, 'cause we know our pickles.
11:53 No, you have to let it sit for I think it was 140 something seconds.
11:57 I think it is.
12:02 Well, in the interest of me being Irish, we have to wait.
12:08 That's a very English outlook on things.
12:09 Let the guy settle.