Going out for a dinner in a
foreign country can be a real adventure but sometimes we all need
some help from the locals. That's why I've decided to create this
short dictionary of traditional Polish dishes. If you haven't eaten
any Central European dishes before, they might strike you as weird
but they are usually really delicious. Just try them and find out for
yourself! :)
Barszcz
Tradycyjne polskie potrawy
Traditional Polish dishes
bigos
a Polish national dish made of cabbage,
sauerkraut, cuts of meat and sausages. My family eats bigos during
Christmas time and we season it with forest mushrooms and a glass of red
wine. It's strange but delicious!
gołąbki
cabbage rolls made of cabbage leaves
stuffed with spiced minced meat and rice, sometimes served with tomato
sauce. My granny makes the best gołąbki in the world! :)
gulasz
goulash, meat stew. It's the national dish of Hungary but Poles also love it and eat it a lot.
kasza
groats. The most popular is kasza gryczana (buckwheat groats) often served with gulasz or meatballs.
kaszanka
a traditional blood sausage made of kasza gryczana (buckwheat groats) among other things...
kisiel
a fruit dessert similar to jelly. Served warm or cold, sometimes with pieces of fruit or cream.
kotlet schabowy
pork cutlet coated with breadcrumbs.
It's very similar to a Viennese schnitzel but we still believe it's one
of our national dishes. ;)
pierogi
Polish dumplings. The fillings may
range from meat, to sauerkraut, to fruits (especially blackberries) but I
especially love pierogi ruskie (literally Russian pierogi) filled with
boiled potatoes, cottage cheese and onion.
placki ziemniaczane
fried potato pancakes. They're usually
garnished with gulasz (see above), mushroom sauce or sour cream.
Probably my favourite Polish dish. :)
smalec
lard with crispy pieces of pork rinds. Bread with smalec and a pickled cucumber is often served as a starter.
zupa
soup. Polish people love soups of all
kinds but the most popular ones are: pomidorowa (tomato soup), jarzynowa
(vegetable soup), barszcz (beetroot soup), krupnik (barley soup), and żurek
(sour rye soup).
żurek
sour rye soup. Traditionally, we eat it
for Easter breakfast. Żurek is usually garnished with a piece of
sausage, boiled egg or potatoes (or all of them at once).
Gołąbki
Most of the Polish
restaurants, especially in big cities, have menus in both Polish and
English, sometimes also German or Russian. But if you have to
struggle with an all-Polish menu, here are some most common things
you might want to order:
Mięso i ryba
Meat and fish
indyk
turkey
kiełbasa
sausage
kurczak
chicken
łosoś
salmon
pstrąg
trout
ryba
fish
szynka
ham
wątróbka
fried liver with onions
wieprzowina
pork
wołowina
beef
żeberka
pork ribs
Warzywa i dodatki
Vegetables and side dishes
frytki
French fries
kapusta
cabbage
kapusta kiszona
sauerkraut
kasza
groats
marchewka
carrot
ogórek
cucumber
ogórek kiszony
pickled cucumber
pomidor
tomato
sałata
lettuce
sałatka
salad
ziemniaki
potatoes
Sernik
Desery
Desserts
ciasto
cake
lody
ice cream
sernik
cheesecake
szarlotka
apple pie
Napoje
Beverages
piwo
beer
kawa
coffee
kompot
juice made of various fruits boiled in water. In most restaurants it's cheaper than bottled soft drinks.
herbata
tea
wino
wine
wódka
vodka
Placki ziemniaczane
And here's proof that
Poles love their vegetables, especially tomatoes. It's a satirical
song from 1960's titled 'Addio Pomidory' - 'Goodbye, Tomatoes!' ;)
I usually prefer light
dishes, especially in the summer, but sometimes I feel an urge to eat
potato pancakes ('placki ziemniaczane' in Polish). If the urge
becomes irresistible, I most often go to W Starej Kuchni restaurant
(which means 'In an Old Kitchen' ), which serves traditional Polish
dishes tasting almost like homemade.
The interior resembles an
old cottage: the walls are hung with cast-iron pans, rings of
sausages and garlic wreaths. Wooden cupboards are full of preserves
in round-bellied
jars, some of which you can even buy, while a wood-fired oven exudes
cosy warmth in the winter. The only incongruous element seems to be a
wall painting of a huge library. Is it really possible that a
19th-century
cottage had such a luxury as a book collection filling one of the
rooms? ;)
Potato pancakes served
here are crunchy and fresh. We usually order them in one of the two
forms: several smaller pancakes in forest mushroom sauce (PLN 32) or
a huge 'mill-wheel' pancake with oscypek (sheep cheese from the Tatra
mountains), bacon and cranberries (PLN 37). The latter dish is so big
that if you're stomach has a limited capacity, you'd better share it
with your companion. Sometimes when we feel like eating something
more meaty we order grilled ribs, which are also nice but very, very
filling.
The restaurant gives a
free snack before the meal (it's usually bread with lard or garlic
butter) and a shot of wiśniówka (cherry vodka) as digestif. The
vodka not only is tasty, but it also helps digest the heavy,
traditional dishes. And even though I'm always totally full up as I
leave W Starej Kuchni , I don't regret a single, tasty calorie...
Until tomorrow (7th
July 2013), you can visit a beer, wine and food festival Jemynapolu
(meaning 'let's eat alfresco' in Polish). In Mały Rynek (meaning 'Little Market Square' in Polish) in Kraków
you can buy and consume delicacies from remote corners of Poland and
Europe. You can find here Polish sausages and oscypek (sheep cheese
from the Tatra mountains), as well as more exotic goodies from such
countries as Hungary, Lithuania, France, and Italy. We've decided to
buy a bottle of mead and some ice cream. A stall with grilled
sausages and meats seemed to be most popular by far, while the winner
of the strangest object contest is... a pig's head wearing a highland
hat.
If you can't make it this
weekend, the next festival will be already in August. :)
