Poland - Eastern Europe - page 382

anything from potato meal, cottage cheese, or cabbage to ground beef or even rasp-
berries or strawberries. Pierogies are traditionally prepared boiled and served with fried
onions (except of course the fruit-filled ones), though you may also find them baked
or fried and topped with anything from sour cream to garlic sauce. Pierogies are
extremely flexible. They can be eaten as a snack or as a main course, for lunch or for
dinner. They also make a great option for vegetarians; just be sure to tell them to hold
the bacon bits they sometimes pour on top. Pierogies prepared “Ruskie” style are
meatless, stuffed with potatoes and cottage cheese. Placki, potato pancakes, are nearly
as ubiquitous and delicious, and are often cooked with mushrooms or smoked meat.
Meals generally begin with an appetizer, cold (przek º ski zimne) or hot (przek º ski
gor º ce). Among the former, herring ( 1 led 9 ), usually served in a sour cream sauce and
piled with chopped onions, is my favorite. Other popular cold starters include stuffed
fish or paté (pasztet). Hot starters can include pierogies or a piece of homemade
sausage (kie l basa).
Soups (zupy) are a mainstay. 0 urek is a filling, sourish rye broth, seasoned with dill
and usually served with sausage and egg. Barszcz is a clear, red-beet soup, often served
with a little pastry on the side. Bigos, known on menus in English as “hunter's stew,”
another national mania, is made from sauerkraut, and is something between a soup
and a main course. Every Polish grandmother has her own version, and local lore says
the homemade variety tastes best on the seventh reheating!
Main courses are less original, and often revolve around chicken, pork, or beef,
though game (venison or boar usually) and fish (pike and trout are popular) are also
common. Sides (dodatki) usually involve some form of potato, fried or boiled, or
sometimes fried potato dumplings. More creative sides include buckwheat groats or
beets, the latter sometimes flavored with apple. Desserts include fruit pierogies, the
ubiquitous ice cream (lody), and pancakes, sometimes filled with cottage cheese and
served with fruit sauce.
Mealtimes adhere to the Continental standard. Breakfast is usually taken early, and
is often no more than a cup of tea or coffee and a bread roll. Hotels usually lay on the
traditional buffet-style breakfast, centered on cold cuts, cheeses, yogurts, and cereals,
but this is more than what a Pole would normally eat. Lunch is served from about
noon to 2pm, though restaurants don't usually get rolling until about 1pm. Dinner
starts around 6pm and can go until 9 or 10pm. After that, kitchens start closing down.
Snack foods run the gamut from Western fast-food outlets (McDonald's, KFC, and
Pizza Hut are the most common) to kabob stands and pizza parlors. You'll find decent
pizza in nearly every Polish city and town of any size. Look especially for zapiekanki,
foot-long, open-faced baguettes, topped with sauce and cheese and baked.
As for drinking, Poles are best known for their vodka, but it's beer in fact that's the
national drink. You'll find the major brands, Okocim, Lech, Tyskie, and 0 ywiec, just
about everywhere. There's little difference among the majors, though Okocim might
get the nod—its slightly sweetish taste reminiscent of Czech Budvar. Men take theirs
straight up. Women frequently sweeten their beer with fruit syrup (raspberry is the
most common) and drink it through a straw! Among the most popular vodkas,
Belvedere and Chopin are considered top shelf, though increasingly imported vodkas
are squeezing out the local brands. In addition, you'll find a range of flavored vodkas.
0 ubrówka is slightly greenish, owing to a long blade of bison grass from the east of
the country in every bottle. Miodówka, honey-flavored and easy to drink in large quan-
tity, is worth a try. Wine is much less common, and nearly always imported.