The British Berliner
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The food of Poland and how much I have to eat!
Very early tomorrow morning, “The Tall Young Gentleman” and I will be starting our journey to the Baltic Sea in Poland.
If you haven’t been frightened by why you shouldn’t bother going to Poland or even how to get to Poland itself, then it’s time to understand the food of our Eastern neighbour – Poland.
Poland is not known for having the best cuisine and to best honest, it’s not the healthiest either, as meals are quite rich in sugar, butter, oil, salt and oil. What it has going for it, is the use of local resources.
Perhaps in the big cities, you’re going to be served passion fruit ice-cream and lemon grass soup, but at the Baltic Sea the thing to go for is seafood and or local produce.
©Victoria Ade-Genschow – The British Berliner – Poland – August 2019
Let’s start with:
• BREAD: In Poland the bakery is called Piekarnia or bread shops and boy do they have a collection of bread in different shapes and sizes. The bread is quite different to what you find in Germany although, it too is brown. It seems to be of a thicker consistency or is enormously sweet. Like cake and similar to French bread. I guess it’s the butter as you don’t seem to need anything else added to it like jam. The brown bread is also eaten in the morning with a huge grilled sausage and sweet mustard or ketchup, and a side cucumber and onion salad.
• CAKE: In Poland, the confectionary or cake shop is called cukiernia. I would personally call it a bakery but apparently, it’s quite different! I have to tell you that Polish cake is rather yummy and filled with lots of cream similar to British cake and very different to that of Germany which is either (to my taste) rather dry, or not considered a cake at all, but a torte.
• Some cakes are Polish classics like Makowiec which is a poppy-seed cake. Not my thing but the locals love it or Paczki which is a type of doughnut-like sticky bun. Really sticky and filled with strawberry jam, a type of custard blancmange, sweet cheese or chocolate spread. There is also Sernik or cheesecake filled with cream cheese and sometimes raisins.
• BISCUITS: Poland has a lot of things available for those who either have a sweet-tooth or just want to snack. Piernik or gingerbread is considered a cake in Poland but I would say it was a gingerbread biscuit. This Piernik is similar to that found in Germany except that it has a filling of chocolate or plum jam.
• What I really like was this floury biscuit called Faworki aka chrust or angel wings. They were quite plain but rather delicious, and made in the shape of a bow-tie!
• FISH: In Poland the fishmonger is known as Sklep Rybny. Being that we’re going to the seaside, you would be a fool not to try out and indeed, take advantage of all that fish and seafood.
Yes, it’s not going to be anything fancy like lobster as this isn’t Rhode Island in New England, USA and neither are you going to get exotic wonders like swordfish, or sushi salami from Japan, or even mouth-watering oysters which are all the rage in France. What you will get is solid good old-fashioned stuff like eel which is later smoked, halibut, trout, pike, mackerel, fried Pangasius fish, sole, tuna, carp, cod, salmon, flounder, turbot and herring.
Most of the fish is either sold straight from the trawlers and fishing boats, or smoked and fried to a deep crispiness, and served with shredded carrot and sauerkraut (white pickled cabbage).
• VEGETABLES: Like other East European countries, the concept of being a vegetarian or indeed a vegan is not well understood or respected.
I remember when I lived in the Czech Republic and I had a group of young British under-graduates in my charge, many of whom were vegetarian. The restaurants that I worked with just didn’t understand what I meant and the most that they could offer was fried cheese covered in batter for lunch and fried cheese covered in batter for dinner.
In those days, the meat was rather dodgy and from unknown don’t-ask-questions-you’re lucky-to-get-any sources, so even though I’m a meat-eater most of us ended up having fried cheese covered in batter for rather a long time, such that I can’t stand fried cheese today! But I digress.
• Mizeria is a simple salad made of sliced fresh cucumber and cream and Ogorki kiszone, known as pickled cucumber or dill pickle, is added as a side dish to almost everything concerning bread and potatoes. It is also used as an appetizer for vodka!
• MEAT PRODUCTS: In Poland, the butcher’s is known as Sklep Miesny. Cold cuts of meat are very popular and are considered staples, eaten with bread or as a quick snack eaten with a cucumber or gherkin pickle. Similar to Germany, there are a wide variety of sausages such as kabanos sausage, kielbasa sausage, and kaszanka, which is black pudding.
• A popular dish is Bigos or hunter’s stew. Bigos is a stewed dish made from cabbage as a main ingredient. Fresh cabbage or pickled white cabbage (sauerkraut), sausage, mushrooms, onions, apple or dried plums and spices. To give an extra punch white wine is usually added and eaten with thickly-cut slices of brown bread.
A well-known dish called pierogi or dumpling is considered to be a national Polish dish and is like a ravioli in that it is stuffed with a variety of fillings such as potatoes, cottage cheese, meat, white cabbage, and mushrooms. Pyzy is another type of dumpling but in small balls made from grated potatoes and often stuffed with meat eaten with pork scratching, sausages, lard or fried onions.
• Another meat product dish is Kotlet schabowy or pork schnitzel similar to that found in Germany or Austria, and of course, goulash made from beef, red bell peppers, tomatoes and onions and served with potato dumplings.
• SOUP: Ah yes, soup. When you think of Polish food, most people tend to automatically think of that most famous of soups – Barszcz czerwony or Borsch. Borsch is a soup made chiefly from beetroot and depending on whether it’s Hungarian, Russian or Polish is served with various vegetables or cream. Traditionally, borscht is served with uszka which is a type of stuffed dumpling or served with sour cream, as most of us know it.
• However, there is also Zurek or Polish sour rye soup which is a traditional soup eaten at Easter. About right now. Great!
I’ve not had this soup yet but I’ve heard that it’s extremely sour and is served in a special hollowed-out round loaf of bread with an enormous hole in the middle of it. A bit like a huge Yorkshire pudding! A hard-boiled egg or a smoked sausage, bacon or ham is sometimes added to the Zurek.
We also mustn’t forget Flaki which is a type of beef tripe soup made from spicy shreds of beef stomach, lots of herbs, and eaten with bread.
As a last note. Waffles.
In Poland, waffles are normally sold at the ice-cream shop or gofrey. Waffles with double-cream and berries covered with sprinkles of hundreds and thousands.
OMG so delicious.
So creamy.
So wicked.
So cheap!
What can I say!
This article is not sponsored and all opinions are my very own. I’ll be in Poland for the week so you can catch me on Twitter.
Watch this space!
Have you ever had Polish food? Did you like it? Would you suggest something that I should try while I’m out there?
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44 Comments on “The food of Poland and how much I have to eat!”
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The tall young gentleman us such a cute kid!!! Everything looks good. The vegetarian fried cheese story cracked me up! At home, they would look at you like you had two heads if you said you were a vegetarian. Of course everyone would assume it was because you couldn’t afford meat..lol!. It sounds the same in Poland, meaning l’m going to love it! Have fun..
Awww! Thanks so much kemkem. I’ll tell him. 🙂 You’ll definately love Poland. We’ve only just arrived and it’s surprisingly quiet ‘cos of Easter Monday as it’s quite a traditional country but we’ll be going into “town” soon to see what we can find for dinner and having a very early night. 🙂 Yeah, fried cheese? No can do. In Greece, vegetarianism used to be that you’d be offered chicken. Many developing countries think the same LOL!
The food seems hearty if a little basic. I am all about the bread – the only country, so far, where I hadn’t liked the bread has been Spain – but that fish looks a little TOO fresh. Like I just dove in and caught it with my teeth.
Yep! Sometimes plain and simple food does the job better than the sophisticated fare that we, in the modern age, are quite used to. Especially, if you’re ill. My mother used to give us minestrone soup, plain bread, rice with a bit of butter, or a hard-boiled egg. The soup used to make me vomit but I was quite partial to the egg and rice LOL!
I hear you about the bread Anna. So important. The only place that I hadn’t liked the local bread was in Vietnam. Sweet roll bread with melted butter, covered in spoons of sugar. Disgusting! It actually made me gag as I wasn’t expecting the sweetness. Shudder!!
Oh, yum! This post made me very, very hungry!
🙂 🙂 thank you so much Katrina. Was there any in particular that took your fancy? I’ve eaten most, but certainly not all.
I’ll have a dozen pierogi’s and some kielbasa! Thanks!
Coming up along with some Zurek. What more can a man need LOL!
Gosh the food looks amazing!! We are off to Poland later this year and won’t know what to try….
Thanks so much @wisemonkeysabroad! Poland is great. We had dinner at a posh hotel last night and it was brilliant. We were stuffed and the prices were so reasonable. No way could you get them in Western Europe at that price except perhaps in Berlin LOL! Poland has such an amazing choice. Try them all I say. Why not….?
Just saw our reply back in April 🙂 Now we can definitely compare notes on the foods!
Absolutely! Such good food!
I remember the Polish sausages, -they were amazing! The cakes were a bit too sweet for me, but I didn’t try a lot. That story about the fried cheese really made me laugh:) Enjoy your trip to Poland.
Thank you so Mitzie. We’re having a blast right now and the fish and sausages ARE amazing. I’m glad that you liked the fried cheese situation. It was dismal at the time but you’ve gotta laugh LOL. 🙂
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Oh my gosh the food looks fantastic! Especially that cake. Don’t suppose you could get us some recipes?
Thank you so much @Menopausal Mother! The cake was indeed delightful. We had it at the castle that they have in Leba – the Hotel Neptun. They really have classy stuff there and a very good chef! I’ll see what I can do. Thanks once again for coming by. 🙂
OK @Menopausal Mother! I passed on your request to Hotel Neptun and this was their reply “Dear Madame, you will not find our recipes and I can’t give them. All our recipes (also on cakes) are our secret.”. Well, I tried LOL! 🙂
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I found quite a lot of good food in Poland as well. It was much better than I had expected. Now I have Poland on my mind 🙂
Nice one Cristin. 🙂 The food really is much better than we think. Yes, it can be simple fare but it can equally be sophisticated stuff. And even though most of the shops were closed, we certainly didn’t go hungry LOL! Which part of Poland have you been to?
I have really enjoyed discovering your posts on Poland. I have visited Krakow and Torun and Gdansk as well as some fleeting trips to Malbork etc. I have written posts about Krakow which I adored. I think your posts are really fascinating and will encourage others to visit that beautiful area.
Thank you so much for your lovely comments @heavenhappens. I really like Poland and have been to both Krakow and Gdansk with Krakow being one of my very favourite cities to visit. A lovely place. 🙂 I hope more people will visit Poland too and very much look forward to reading your posts.
Mmmm… żurek in a chunk of bread, lovely! 🙂
I tell ya. It was lovely. Thank you! 🙂
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Hello. „Ruskie pierogi” doesn’t mean „Russian pierogi”. These kind of pierogi were very popular in Poland in region: Województwo Ruskie and in Lwów. Polish citizens made it the most 🙂
Thank you for your comment Krak!
I understand “Russian Pierogi” to mean “Russian style.” I don’t believe that I used the word “Ruskie Pierogi!” And of course, I am very aware that Pierogi is Polish. If you look further up the page you will see that I wrote: “A well-known dish called pierogi or dumpling is considered to be a national Polish dish and is like a ravioli in that it is stuffed with a variety of fillings such as potatoes, cottage cheese, meat, white cabbage, and mushrooms!”
For further info on how much I adore pierogi here’s another article that I wrote on it, when I went to Warsaw: The secret of eating & drinking in Warsaw – How to make pierogi and eat it!
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