My Favourite Polish Cuisine
Thanks to Milk Bar (Bar mleczny), it’s easy to get Polish food with a very reasonable price. The term milk bar (different from Australian term) was created in 1896 in Warsaw, because the place offered milk-based food. However, the role of milk bar carried through World War II. Poland became a communist state and a part of the Soviet Union after the fall of German Nazi. The population was too poor to even eat by the time. Most restaurants were nationalized and closed by the communists and milk bars became the essential place to eat for the common folks. In the mid-1960, milk bars offered cheap meals to working class people.
The hard days are over, or getting better at least, but several milk bars are going strong, still beloved by the local people. Some of them even continued their business changing to more modern style to attract more customers. You can feel the daily life of Polish people in milk bars, and you get to have the home cooked meal with a very good price. What not to like?
Pierogi
How can I not mention pierogi, when talking about Polish cuisine? Pierogi is a type of dumpling, similar as Korean mandoo, jiaozi in China, Turkish manti, Uzbek manti, and Italian ravioli. Great minds think alike, indeed. Polish pierogi are made with grounded meat, potato, vegetables, and cheese. They are boiled first and fried with lard or oil and served with fried onions and bacon.
Kielbasa
Kielbasa is a staple food of Poland and comes with various varieties as every regional has their specialties. Originally Kielbasa was made at home in rural areas with their family recipe. Kielbasa is served in many different forms. It is cooked with soup like zurek, eaten as cold appetizer, cooked with sauerkraut, and grilled.
Cutlet (Kotlet schabowy)
My favourite dish to eat in milk bars, Kotlet schabowy, is a pork-breaded cutlet similar to schnitzel. And schnitzel was my favourite cuisine in Germany. I see the pattern here. It is served with mash potatoes, home fries, sauerkraut, coleslaw and/ or beet salad. The history of schabowy dates back to the 19th century. The collection of different recipes for cutlets is featured in 1860’s cook books.
Gołąbki (Golumpki)
A cabbage roll is another hearty Polish treat. Made from lightly boiled cabbage warpped around minced meat, vegetables and barley and baked in tomato sauce. This dish is called holubky in Slovakia.
Soup
Zurek (sour rye soup): love it or hate it. It is made of sour rye flour (sourdough) and meat (kielbasa, ham or pork) but recipe varies from region to region. The strong sour taste hit me strong at first, but soon after I could appreciate the taste. It is popular year round to Pols. Zurek sometimes is served in an eatable bread bowl in restaurants.
Tomato soup (Zupa pomidorowa) and red beet soup (Zupa buraczkowa) are also common.
Microbrew Beer and lard sandwich
In bars, you’ll be served a couple of sandwiches or bread with a bowl of spread along side of beer. The spread taste very greasy, but it is fulfilling. It is lard spread. Lard is used not only for cooking, but also widely eaten as a snack in Poland and neighbouring countries like Slovakia and Hungary. Usually prepared with fried onions and chunk of fried pork.
Zapiekanki
essentially Polish-style French-bread pizzas with a variety of toppings—the obwarzanki of Kraków, which are like bagels (only with bigger holes); and precle (or pretzels). The most common street food in Poland, however, seems to be lody, or ice cream. Long lines outside ice cream shops, and scores of pedestrians toting cones, are a regular fixture of Polish streetscapes.
Sauerkraut
Saurkraut, directly means sour cabbage, is finely cut fermented cabbage. It is going through a similar process as Korean kimchi. Even though it is mostly eaten with German cuisine, sauerkraut is not originated from Germany. Saurkraut is widely spread in Eastern Europe and Germany ever since it was introduced in Europe from China. It is common to pan-fry sauerkraut in Poland.
Do you like Polish cuisine? Am I missing anything?
I love the post! And I’m even happier that you like Polish food. I believe that people in Poland tend to underestimate our cuisine, thinking it’s too simple and not fancy enough for other nations to appreciate. My Portuguese boyfriend, who is a foodie (I mean you almost are obliged to love food when being from a Mediterranean country) loves it (almost) all- zurek, pierogi, big schabowy. He is fan of bigos, which can be quite ugly as a dish that is just delicious. The only thing he can’t eat is barszcz- beat soup.
Glad you liked it Aga! I agree it’s simple cuisine, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not any good. I liked going milk bars, I don’t know if young Pols are still going. Home made zurek was the best. My friend from Myslowice cooked for us!
Lovely post Juno! I absolutely love Polish food, when I was there my friend had all the food home made, which I think made it even more tasty. I had mizeria (cucumber with cream), it was really good. Then I was also given persil and lemon juice – don’t know if this is Polish or just a family tradition but boy was it delicious!
Oh I’ve never had cucumber with cream, but it sounds delicious! Another food I liked was blood sausage. Forgot what it’s called!
blood sausage = kaszanka ^^
I just got really hungry. Great photos.
Thanks Ross! So I made cutlet last night. 😉
I love Polish food, partially because I just love it, but also because it has a lot of memories for me. A lot of Eastern European food has made its way into the Jewish food category, so i grew up eating pirogis, blintzes and kreplach. I didn’t even realize they were originally Polish until years later when we found an amazing Polish restaurant named Teresa’s in Brooklyn.
There’s not much variety of food where I live in Salta, so we tend to make a lot of foods on our own. We even started a tradition of monthly dinners of foods from another country. I think you may have just inspired our next international dinner.
Really interesting to hear that Leigh. I think it’s a good idea; international monthly dinners. Zurek was quite complicated to make, if I remember correctly, but the others were pretty simple. But I’m sure there’s know-how behind of it. Another interesting food was plum dumpling. It’s almost same as pierogi but just whole plum was the filling. It was sweet! And delicious.
Plum dumpling sounds good. Did you make them yourself? I’m wondering if we can use tapas de empanadas for blintzes and pirogis. We’ve used them for so many other things.
Thanks for bringing back the good memories. I love Polish food–so much home cooking and comfort foods. And the milk bars are great to eat at for travelers.
Yummy!
My roommates and I do a night of cooking each week and tomorrow it’s my Polish roommate’s turn. She’s making pierogies and I’m super excited!
Awesome. What kind of Pierogi she made?
It would not be good for the waistline but it really looks so delicious.
Not at all. The deep-fried cutlet?! Taste so good but couldn’t have it everyday. Why so many delicious things are like that?!
I have “tested” all 3 Bar mleczny while I was in Warsaw. Polish food ( almost all the food might contain potato) is very consistent and delicious. I am looking at your photos and I feel like going again there to try the foods again!
The ones in Wroclaw and Krakow were better than the ones in Warsaw, in my experience. I miss zurek!
Okay, I’ve never been interested in eating Polish food until now, yum!!!
All this cabbage is giving my stomach preemptive pain. <3 NOMNOMNOM
Love it all! Thanks for sharing.
Never tried Polish food… The Zurek looks delicious to me and the Zapiekanki looks so huge! ^^
Not sure I’ve ever had proper Polish food—I’ve still never been to Poland—but you have made me want to try it, immediately. All these photos look good enough to eat off the screen!
I’ve been making kutlet with pork a few times, and it’s becoming one of my favourite foods to cook!
Yum! Kielbasa and pierogies are the best. And you’re photos make them look extra appetizing! 🙂
Hi Juno,
This is a fantastic post. All the photos and descriptions look so appetising that it made my mouth watering. I must admit you haven’t missed any of the signature Polish dishes that I always introduce my friends from abroad to! How did you find out the secret spot for Zapiekanka in Krakow? haha I so enjoyed finding out the names for pierogi brothers in different cuisines! Thanks again
polish food is so delicious and underappreciated! i need to go back to visit and eat my way across the country. i like pierogi so much that one time last year I spent 2 days hand-making almost 200 so my freezer would be fully stocked for a long time. (making pierogi is a real pain, so if you are going to do it may as way make a ton right?) Also, a Polish friend recommended that I try bigos, which is a hunter’s stew and like all other Polish food…. it was amazing.