My Kingdom for a Nut My Kingdom for a Nut
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photo: Wouter Supardi Salari/Unsplash
Good Food

My Kingdom for a Nut

Dominika Bok
Reading
time 6 minutes

They resemble the shape of the human brain and have a great effect on memory, concentration, and mood. To make sure they are absorbed better, it is worth soaking them before eating them or—for advanced connoisseurs—pressing the oil out of them.

The name of the walnut in Polish, orzechy włoskie, meaning “the Italian nut,” suggests that this plant is particularly fond of warmth, typical of southern Europe. Indeed, there is some truth in the etymological explanations, this type of nut could be found in Poland’s climatic zone, quite sunny at that time, before the Ice Age came, and with it a large part of the flora became extinct. However, when the walnut tree settled in Poland for the second time, there was a funny mistake. In fact, it did not come from the Apennine Peninsula, but from the Balkans through Wallachia (a mountainous land in Romania). It is not without reason that in old cookbooks you can still find “Wallachian

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An Introduction to Przekrój An Introduction to Przekrój
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An Introduction to Przekrój

Sylwia Niemczyk

Near the end of the Second World War, a magazine made of wit and levity was born; everyone in Poland read it. While the external factors may change over time, our inner vibe remains the same.

If this text had gotten into the hands of Marian Eile, this paragraph wouldn’t exist. The founder of Przekrój always cut out the introduction, with no mercy and no hesitation. He believed an article with no beginning was better, and usually he was right. On rare occasions the editors would secretly restore the deleted passage, keeping their fingers crossed that the boss wouldn’t notice. Even when he did, he let it go. The issue went to print, and, as nature abhors a vacuum, other texts were already waiting in line where “the great editor”—as his colleagues called him with both humor and admiration—could cut other things out. And that’s how it went, week after week, for the full twenty-four years and 1,277 issues of Przekrój.

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