The Roaring Nineties: Transformation Food

mcdonalds-1992-fot-cezary-slominski-pap_19920600_012.jpg, default, The opening of the first McDonald's in Warsaw, 1992, photo: Cezary Słomiński / PAP, center, #000000

#polish cuisine

It's 17 June 1992. On the corner of Marszałkowska and Świętokrzyska Streets, right in the centre of Warsaw – the first McDonald's is opened. It is a very special occasion, which is reflected in the elegant dresses and suits worn by the first clients – artists, journalists and politicians, who drink champagne from plastic cups to celebrate a new beginning. With that, the fast food era began, together with the Americanisation of Polish food and probably the craziest decade in our culinary history.

The nineties – for a long time romanticised as the 'decade of freedom' in mainstream media, remembered with nostalgia by the millennials, but now also analysed by researchers and criticised by politicians, were a time of transformation, also when it comes to food. The shortages of the PRL era ended, giving way to imported goods and new inventions of Polish producers. Never before has our diet been so varied… but possibly also rarely has it been less healthy.

The New World of Snacks & Cans

Thumbnail — Warsaw's first McDonald's in 1992, photo: Jan Morek / PAP

Celebrated food writer Michael Pollan says the main rule of a healthy diet is avoiding products your grandparents wouldn't recognise as food. And that's exactly what we started eating in the nineties: massive quantities of jars, cans, powders, jellies and frozen foods in colourful packages, which had little to do with raw materials they were made from, filled the shelves of our grocery stores and the first supermarkets which opened in the Polish cities.

As a child of the nineties, some of the foods I remember from my that time are: frozen fish sticks and curly fries, which my mum put in the oven and served with a slaw (not to completely abandon fresh foods); Uncle Ben's sweet-and-sour sauce served with chicken and rice (pineapple and bamboo shoots swimming in this slightly cloying gravy were the first taste of the Orient for a whole generation!); instant soups – both 'Asian-style' instant ramen and Polish soups in powdered form, which you could pour hot water to and drink from the cup – and obviously a whole array of foreign candy, crisps, cookies and chocolate bars. My husband grew up on toast (Toasters! Packaged pre-sliced bread! American cheese! It was all so new!) We'd watch Mentos commercials as if they were short films, and exchange slogans in our daily conversations. We'd buy Cheetos and lick our fingers and a get sugar rush from Mars and Snickers – just as American children do! And then there were fast foods.

The Burger & What It Meant

The iconic Polish zapiekanka was the most popular fast food item in the 1970s and 1980s, but right after the fall of communism, little stalls with hot dogs and burgers started appearing all around the country, mimicking American staples that in their 'original' form weren't even present in Poland yet. But in 1992 it all changed, with McDonald's and then also Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut making their entrance. Poles flocked to these new establishments which represented so much more than just 'mielone cutlets put inside a bun' as some depreciatingly called them. Having a burger at McDonald's meant we were finally becoming a part of the Western world which we desperately wanted to belong to.

In Warsaw though, it wasn't just about the West: the nineties were also the time when Asian – mostly westernised Vietnamese cuisine – appeared, at first mostly in big cities. Vietnamese food culture in Warsaw is historically connected to two main locations: the legendary stalls located on Constitution Square in the centre of Warsaw provided Poles with the first taste of the Orient in the early nineties. Deep-fried spring rolls – which in Poland are called sajgonki – have been a clear favourite from the start, as well as pho soup, the biggest hit in the times of the a10th-Anniversary Stadium and its ‘Europa Bazaar' (which was replaced by the National Stadium, built for the 2012 Euro Cup).

Fusion Confusion

The biggest bazaar in '90s Warsaw, the 10th-Anniversary Stadium; 1990; Warsaw; photo: Andrzej Iwańczuk / Reporter

A sudden inflow of imported products resulted in a whole lot of new combinations and – to be fair – weird concoctions. My experimental grandmother started adding olives and canned corn to her mayo vegetable salad (sałatka jarzynowa) along with the usual carrots, gherkins and peas. The combination of pineapple, cheese and ham won our hearts – not only on pizza, but also on toast or in a salad with mayonnaise. Canned tuna, canned beans and canned corn were also binded by mayo, although in some houses vinaigrette made its entrance. Serving pork, chicken or turkey with canned pineapple and peaches became quite fashionable, just like fruit salads (with fruit from the can, obviously) decorated with sprayed whipped cream – a Polish take on the American ambrosia. Traditional cakes were replaced by inventions from the box, such as kopiec kreta (Mole Mound) – cream, banana and chocolate cake made to look like a pile of dirt, and Kilimandżaro – a cocoa sponge with vanilla custard and apples.

Nowadays the cuisine of the nineties seems crazy – and the reaction later on was in tune to what's happening in the culinary world: first, Poles turned to foreign cuisines, like Italian, Mexican and Greek, then went crazy for the more exotic flavours, only to start looking fondly at local and seasonal produce. Being a part of global food culture means not only knowing what to do with foreign ingredients, but also appreciating familiar ones.

Language English

contemporary polish cuisine

junk food

Pierogi & Other Stories

macdonald's

fast food

post-communist transformation

nineties

polish food

Pierogi & Other Stories