Part of a series of posts about food I’ve eaten around the world. See: Iran
This year I spent a few days in Poland visiting a friend, Will Badger, who has lived in the country before and speaks the language pretty fluently.
I was looking forward to trying Polish food as I’d never experienced it before, with the notable exception of pierogi (more below). I wasn’t disappointed, and Will knew where to take me to get the best stuff!
My favourite meals were eaten in milk bars (bar mleczny): originally cafeterias for students and workers during the Communist times, still running today, serving good, wholesome, inexpensive food.
Oscypek (smoked sheep cheese) with lingonberry jam. Salty, warm, melt-in-your-mouth, with a side of sweetness. I bought this one from a street vendor on a cool May evening in Warsaw:
Breakfast! Scrambled eggs, ham, cottage cheese, fresh bread, pancakes (nalesniki), and coffee:
A closer look at those pancakes. These were not very sweet, which was nice; it meant that they went with the rest of the food without feeling like a dessert:
Not particularly Polish, but this was a particularly good chocolate mousse torte I had, with strawberries and chocolate chips:
Carrots, red cabbage, and coleslaw, displayed with mathematical precision alongside a redcurrant compote:
Pork goulash (gulasz mysliwski) poured over potato pancakes (placki ziemniaczane), a Hungarian dish particularly prominent in southern Poland. Just what I needed after a morning of sight-seeing:
A soft “Ruthenian”pieróg with an onion garnish. I first had pierogi in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it is quite a popular snack due to the history of Polish immigration in the area. In fact I was told by someone in the airport as soon as I landed, ‘If you’re going to go to Pittsburgh, you gotta have a pierogi’. I haven’t eaten them since, but when I got to Poland I knew I had to try them in their home country, and I was pleased that they were just as good as the ones I’d eaten in America. They have a hearty, comforting simplicity:
This was a thick hot chocolate from a Wedel cafe in Krakow. I had plain unadulterated chocolate, but they offered it in a range of flavours:
More soft pierogi (because, Poland). These were flavoured with apple, plum, and forest berry:
A pączek — a large round doughnut filled with rose jam and covered in almond flakes — is one of my favourite things ever. I could have eaten a thousand:
This bowl of Zurek soup, or’sour’ soup — ‘Zurek’ sounds more appetising — was delicious and sour in a very pleasant way (think of sourdough, which is basically what it’s made from):
Pork schnitzel with spinach and garlic. The soup in the background is Barszcz, made from beetroot. The schnitzel was far more moist than any I’ve had before, and the spinach / garlic was a welcome change from my usual ac accompaniment (tomato ketchup!):
Gabriel Schenk 