sLOVEnians travel

Or a short review of Polish specialties enjoyed on our visit to Warsaw

Slovenian cuisine is known for being quite rich in calories. But what would you say to the fact that the Polish cuisine is even richer? Basic ingredients are potatoes, cabbage, red beat, mushrooms, sour cream, very often accompanied by sausages in various forms. The city (especially the old town) is full of traditional restaurants. Just choose one that suits your liking and budget. Here are some of the most famous dishes:

• Pierogi

If you ask the Poles what not to miss, they will always say Pierogi. Basically they are dumplings stuffed with different ingredients and come with different sauces. They can be served as a starter, main dish or desert. After consulting the waitress we ordered pierogi stuffed with mushrooms and meat and covered with cracknels. This is supposed to be the most traditional version.

• Bigos

This dish is also known for being a stew eaten by Polish hunters. It consists of sauerkraut, dried mushrooms, cut up different type of meat, and cooked with red cabbage. Usually served with bread and best enjoyed in the colder months.

• Žurek

Sour rye soup, cooked with spareribs, roasted meat and dried mushrooms. Served with grilled white sausage, a boiled egg, horseradish and rye bread.

• Pea soup with smoked bacon

We chose this dish completely randomly (all the others were recommended by locals), because we were convinced by the picture on the menu. The soup is served in a small pot dangling over a small candle. It is a very thick and farinaceous soup with a smoked pork sausage. Again, it comes with rye bread.

• White Polish sausage

It was grilled and served with fried onions and sauerkarut. Obligatory accompanied by mustard and horseradish and again, rye bread.

• Chocolate babka

And what is left? The deserts. Chocolate babka is chocolate lovers’ favourite. Cherries in the chocolate pound cake, and the cake is covered by warm thick chocolate.

• Polish apple pie

We love apple pies and we have to admit that the Polish version truly is excellent. The fragile dough is layered with apples that smell like Christmas (mmm cinnamon) and on top of that you get another layer of dough. The yellow gold shinning beneath the sugary coating and to make things even better it was served with vanilla sauce. Do we have to add anything?

 

Drinks

Beer takes the top spot in competition with wine. But you can’t ignore all the different spirits which we will leave to you. We will present two drinks we never had before our trip to Warsaw:

• Mulled beer

Yes, you read correctly. The Poles make mulled beer. You get to choose between two options: with ginger and with raspberries. The ginger one is quite bitter and the raspberry one a bit sweeter. They make it as you would make mulled wine; with cloves, cinnamon, lemon and oranges.

• Dried fruit compote

When we ordered this for the first time, we thought we were ordering tea. It tasted a bit sweet until we figured out we were drinking warm compote. We have to admit nothing warmed us better in that cold November weekend and filled us with energy more than warm dried fruit compote.

 

Polish cuisine will definitely feed you, warm you up and challenge your digestion. So, be brave, you won’t be disappointed.

Disclaimer:
We were in Warsaw before we changed our diet to vegetarian. Next time we’ll write a blog post about vegetarian cuisine 😉