[jedrek]

I left Poland in 1983 and came back in 1992. Before we left, I had never had pierogi ruskie. If we had pierogi, they'd either be with fruit (strawberries or wild blueberries), sauerkraut and mushrooms or ground pork. That was pretty much it. We came back and ruskie were everywhere -- and rightly so.

[ajuc]

This depends entirely on family traditions. My mother is from near the eastern border of Poland (Włodawa), my father from around Lublin, my wife from central Poland (Kutno).

Each family makes different versions of pierogi, even ruskie are different between the families. I (predictably) prefer the version that my mother makes, which has extra thin dough and slightly higher cheese to potato ratio, but all of them are good.

Other than ruskie I love pierogi z jagodami (with wild blueberries). They are the best summer food.

[badpun]

There's been an increase in some nasty parasite (can't remember which at the moment) among Poland's wild fox population. Foxes poop at wild blueberry bushes in the forests, and the parasites eggs get on the blueberries.

A parasite specialist quoted in the paper said that these eggs are so resilient they can survive boiling water or being baked in an owen. The parasite itself is a nasty one (e.g. will eat out your eye from inside if it lodges there). This convinced me to drop wild blueberry dishes I didn't prepare myself.

[ajuc]

Yes, bąblowiec, I'm well aware. My sister is a vet. We always wash the blueberries after gathering because of that (and preferably you should gather berries after a strong rain). Also cooking the berries (like in the case of pierogi) might not help but I think usually will kill them? I've seen different opinions (even among doctors).

You can also get slightly different version of bąblowiec from dogs, and dogs touch EVERYTHING when they go on a walk, so basically if you're afraid about that you should deparasitize (is that a word in English?) the dog every year if you take your dogs for walks in nature (or visit places where lots of dogs poop - like dog parks).

In the end it's not that common (I mean it's common among foxes but not common among people - there's like few dozen cases a year in Poland AFAIR). Probably many more causes are never recognized because it develops very slowly but still - if it was easy to catch people would talk about it constantly.

[grozmovoi]

I'm born and raised in Poland until I was 22, and I visit often. Now living abroad.

Pierogi Ruskie is my #1 food when going back. That cheese filling with onion + a good dollop of sour cream. They are the best pierogi for me.