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Drinks were the first part of the trip to Poland on eating and drinking. Now it’s time for main dishes, polish cuisine! 🙂
As I wrote in my general impressions, Polish cuisine is predominantly meat and pastry. Even though I normally try to avoid these, of course, I could not resist the attractiveness of new dishes. I tried most of them. There was also the relief of taking thousands of steps for days. 🙂
Polish Cuisine Culture
Polish people generally prefer Milk Bars. These restaurants were established during communism in order to serve cheap meals for the people and later became a part of the Polish culture. In every city, you will definitely see a few of them. It is possible to find local, cheap, and delicious food here. Workers don’t usually speak English, but I think this may be an opportunity to meet new tastes you never expected. 🙂
The Polish cuisine is really wide. I didn’t even have the opportunity to try some of the dishes I was wanted to, but I will try to mention all of them here.
Let’s Start With Soup: Zurek
In Poland, soup is really popular. Zurek, the most famous soup, was my favorite throughout the whole trip, and I ate a lot J Zurek is a delicious soup made with rye, potatoes, and sometimes with different vegetables. Just before the service, boiled eggs and Polish sausage are added. Some places serve bread. I think it is more like a main course than soup and definitely my first advice to those who want to try Polish cuisine.
I had the best in the Polish restaurant “Konspira’ in Wroclaw. The theme of this restaurant is as nice as the dishes. When you get to Wroclaw, you must stop by.
Barszcz – Polish Cuisine
Another famous soup is Barszcz. This is quite similar to the famous Russian beetroot soup. As a beetroot lover, I tried with great curiosity; but I can’t say I liked it. It was like hot beet juice with a piece of pastry. 🙂 Maybe there are places that make it better but I haven’t tried it again.
Krupnik – Polish Cuisine
For a more familiar taste, you can try Krupnik. This can be described as vegetable broth soup.
Rosol
Another soup option is Rosol. It’s chicken broth soup and made either with noodles or rice. Nice, but not different. Ideal for those who want to stick t5o old habits 🙂
These are just the soups I tried. But as I wrote at the beginning, there is a wide soup culture in Poland. They can make soup from almost any vegetable such as cucumber soup, cabbage soup, and mushroom soup.
Eastern European starter: Tartar
The most famous of the starters is the Tartar. This cold dish, which you can find in most Eastern European countries, is prepared by mixing raw ground beef, egg yolk, and spices. I admit that such a mixture doesn’t sound nice, but it can be really tasty with good beef. I recommend you to dare and try.
King of main dishes: Pierogi
As the main dish, the most famous one is the Polish dumplings, Pierogi. These dumplings, which are very variable in the filling, are either boiled or fried, but both are very delicious. Chicken, spinach, potatoes, cheese, minced meat, or their mixtures are used in general as filling. It is served with butter or sometimes with different sauces.
I tried Pierogi in several places, and I can easily tell my favorite Pierogi restaurant is Mandu in Gdansk. In addition to Pierogi, this is a restaurant where you can find all kinds of dumplings from all over the world. I have not tried the others but the Pierogi they make is absolutely wonderful!
Bigos
Another meal I enjoyed is the hunter’s stew, Bigos. It is made with plenty of cabbage and game meat. This dish, which has a slightly watery consistency, is usually served with plenty of bread. I think should be tried! One of the restaurants I enjoyed was Pod Wawelem in Krakow.
Polish cuisine is not only these dishes. It is quite large, with all kinds of meat available and generally very tasty. What I have been writing about here are just the most famous local delicacies. Golabki is one of the dishes that I didn’t have the chance to try. This is like a stuffed cabbage dish. It is interesting that we could not coincide for two weeks 🙂
Breakfast???
As for breakfast, I couldn’t find anything special. The sausage used in Zurek, also called Kielbasa, is consumed quite often for breakfast. It is possible to find muffins, sandwiches, omelets in every cafe or bakery. None of them is better than the breakfast I prepared, especially with the Baltic Sea view 🙂
If you already selected the main dish, here is your guide for drinks 🙂
