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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

There is absolutely zero issue buying lard in Poland. Literally any store will have some in fridges next to meat.

In a Polish restaurant, i had a starter of lard on bread - you get some slices of bread, and a pot of lard with little flecks of gherkin or something in it. I wasn't all that taken with it, i have to confess.

But in Britain we do have, or once had, something distantly related:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dripping

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/feat...

Toast and dripping (with plenty of salt sprinkled on it) - a fantastic tasty memory from my childhood in the North of England.

I'm going to have to get/make some. (I suspect my wife won't be happy).

> In a Polish restaurant, i had a starter of lard on bread

This sounds like something they could do in Ukraine. Was the large a solid piece, or a spread? Eating solid pieces of pork fat is very normal in Ukraine.

Pork lard is eaten in the same way across Eastern Europe, not just in Poland or Ukraine, i.e. also in Hungary, Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and Russia and among Russians in Central Asia.

The Ukrainian version seems to be a particular thing, at least for the Ukrainians:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/06/salo-ukraine-n...

No. Ukrainians might be more passionate about salo as a "national food", but you will find the same thing in neighbouring countries.

It was like a spread - i could scoop it up with a spoon, rather than having to slice it.

I haven't had a chance to try to Ukrainian style solid fat!

Oh, it's a major thing. And it's delicious. You can pick it up in any Russian grocery on the east coast.

They still serve it in Germany sometimes. It's called Schmalz.

When I was a child - northern England, mid-1980s - my grandmother would give me dripping on toast to eat as a special treat.

This is also true in the UK. Any supermarket will stock lard, beef dripping, duck and goose fat.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300346570

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/288354065

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/290068361

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