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{{data|1 October 2018}}
{{Z wizytą w Soplicowie}}
''Pan Tadeusz'' is a heroicomic poem penned by Adam Mickiewicz (pronounced: {{pronczyt|meets|kyeh|veetchAdam Mickiewicz}}), one of the greatest Polish poets that ever lived, in 1834. Even though it begins with the words “Lithuania, my country” and its only two entirely positive characters are a Jew and a Russian, the poem has somehow attained the cult status as Poland’s national epic. Thanks, in part, to its mix of humour with nostalgia for the lost world of the Polish-Lithuanian civilization, which came to its demise during the poet’s lifetime, and for the old way of life of the Polish-speaking Lithuanian gentry.
Some of this nostalgia shows in the depictions of food and drink; in fact, ''Pan Tadeusz'' may be seen as a great literary monument to Old Polish cuisine. Some of the dishes you can find in it – like ''bigos'' and ''zrazy'' – are still Polish favourites today; some other, like ''kontuza'', ''arkas'' or ''blemas'' – had already been forgotten by Mickiewicz’s times. It’s also interesting to see what does not make an appearance in ''Pan Tadeusz''; there’s no mention here of such Polish classics as ''pierogi'' or ''gołąbki'' (if ''gołąbki'' are mentioned, it’s in reference to pigeons raised for meat rather than stuffed cabbage leaves).
== What Is It About? ==
If you graduated from a Polish high school, then you are no doubt familiar with the poem. But if not, then let me give you a brief synopsis before we dive into the world of Old Polish food and drink. The epic is set in Soplicowo (pronounced: {{pron|saw|pleet|sawczyt|vawSoplicowo}}), a fictional manor located in what is now Belarus, at the time of Napoleonic wars. Ostensibly, the main plot is a litigation over the ruins of an old castle. The story begins with the titular 20-year-old Pan (Lord) Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Soplica (pronounced: {{pronczyt|pahn}} {{pron|tah|deh|Woosh}} {{pron|saw|pleet|sahPan Tadeusz Soplica}}) arriving at the house of his uncle, Judge Soplica, only to find it filled with the Judge’s old lawyer friends who have all arrived for the dispute. The Judge, mind you, is not going to be a judge in this case; he’s one of the litigants. Don’t expect a courtroom drama, though; both sides of the dispute quickly resort to the tactics of ''faits accomplis'', culminating in an all-out battle later in the storyline. Before it comes to this, however, Thaddeus, his uncle, the lawyers and even the Count – who is the other claimant – spend most of their time together on their favourite activities – hunting and gathering, eating and drinking.
[[File:Jan Czesław Moniuszko - Opowieść Tadeusza Soplicy 1899.jpg|thumb|350px|Thaddeus Soplica’s Tale as painted by Jan Czesław Moniuszko]]
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Modern Polish readers tend to imagine that these were ''zrazy zawijane'' (pronounced: {{pronczyt|zRah|zih}} {{pron|zah|vee|yah|nehzrazy zawijane}}), or Polish beef olives filled with mustard, onions, gherkins and mushrooms. Eating eleven of these per person would have been quite a challenge indeed! But, even though ''zrazy zawijane'' do pop up in Polish cookbooks of the time, they were not the rule. The word ''“zrazy”'' by itself referred simply to small fillets of thinly pounded meat or even to patties of finely chopped meat, which were fried and then drenched in some kind of sauce. It wasn’t necessarily beef either. Considering all the hare hunts in Soplicowo, these may have been hare ''zrazy'' just as well.
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