A taste of Poland 🇵🇱
Connecting with my birthplace one bite at a time
My knowledge of Polish is limited to “hello,” “goodbye,” “thank you,” and about 20 different food words. While that means I’ve forgotten nearly everything I knew as a child, it also means I can still successfully get myself a piece of poppy seed cake in Polish bakery.
My parents moved to Krakow, Poland, in the mid-90s when the country was still emerging from the heavy hand of communism. My dad still remembers how the streets were littered with banana peels – one of the many imported products that were finally accessible.
Last month, I drove past the concrete maternity hospital where I was born, and it appears to still be delivering babies. The Google reviews mention a very attentive staff, which my mother confirms.
My parents quickly made friends through their church and the school where they taught English and by the time they left two years later, they had become conversational in Polish.
Back in the States, our small house was dubbed the Polish embassy. Friends would cycle through, sometimes staying for weeks or months, and we’d regularly visit Baltimore’s handful of Polish shops for imported kielbasa, pickles, kefir, black currant juice, and caramel candies.
Growing up, Poland became something of a mythical place for me. My parents told stories of adventures like crossing the Baltic Sea on an icebreaker and getting circled in by riot police after a soccer game. They laughed about mix-ups while trying to learn Polish, and entertained me with stories of food that were equal parts about the taste and the magic of the moment.
As rich as the memories were, it wasn’t until I had graduated college that we could finally afford to travel back and so, in 2019, I returned to Poland for the first time with my parents and younger brother.
The post-Soviet atmosphere of the 90s was gone, but the beauty of Europe is that the castles and church towers and parks tend to remain frozen in time. Food was a big part of our quest: paczki – pillowy donuts traditionally filled with rose jam, Krakow bagels covered in sesame or poppy seeds, and naleśniki – thin Polish pancakes filled with soft cheese and jam.
We snagged a table at Babci Maliny (literally: Grandmother Raspberry), a traditional Polish milk bar in a cozy basement that was the local hangout in my parents’ day and has become well-known since. I ordered bigos, a classic stew made of kielbasa and sauerkraut, with a side of creamy cucumber salad.
Our trip in 2019 was largely about visiting many of the places I had heard so much about growing up – the house where we lived, Wawel castle, the underground chapel carved out of salt in the Wieliczka mine, and even the eerie apartment blocks in neighboring Nowa Hutte, a 1950s planned city designed to be the perfect model of Soviet realism.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that trip was the very beginning of my new life in Europe. I left my parents at the airport and continued on to France to begin my teaching assistant job. In the months and years that followed, I fell in love, got married, started a business, and traveled the world. I knew I would visit Poland again when the time was right.
The opportunity arose this year when my husband and I got the assignment to produce this video about Chopin Polish potato vodka. We decided to take a week to explore more of the country accompanied by our new Polish friend Kasia whom we met in New Zealand last year.
After arriving around midnight, we were extra appreciative of the traditional Polish breakfast Kasia prepared for us the next morning – thick slices of soft bread to be eaten with a mayonnaise-dressed veggie salad, salty Polish pickles, and cottage cheese and chives.
In Krakow, we spent three days visiting museums and cultural sites like the historic synagogue in the Jewish district of Kazimierz and the Rynek Underground, a relatively new museum located under Krakow’s central square displaying excavations of market stalls from the middle ages.
When it was time for lunch, we made our way to another milk bar. These cafeteria-style establishments are known for local dishes and quick service at reasonable prices. The woman behind the counter spoke into a microphone and hot plates of cabbage rolls covered in mushroom sauce and a bowl of tomato-rice soup arrived through a small window before we had even finished our order. We helped ourselves to small plates of red cabbage slaw, tomatoes, and carrot salad with a glass of homemade berry kompot to wash it down.
After a few days in Krakow, we drove south to the Tatra Mountains, the beloved outdoor hiking and skiing destination of Poles from across the country. The region’s main tourist attraction is Morskie Oko, a beautiful lake nestled in the mountains, accessible by an “easy” three-hour hike. Having previously been carried to the top as a baby, it was magical to finally return, and on a gloriously sunny and warm September day no less.
Although a six-hour hiking day is short by Polish standards, it was enough to work up an appetite that could only be satiated by Polish mountain food. Several of the local restaurants had closed for vacation before the start of the winter tourism season, but we were fortunate enough have Szarotka Karczma all to ourselves, with its charming wooden interior and a menu of freshly prepared local specialities.
Since the beginning of our trip, Kasia had been on the hunt for the classic Polish stew Żurek, served in a fresh bread bowl. We found it on the menu and were not disappointed. It was thick and sour, filled with chunks of spiced white kielbasa. And to be extra sure we’d have to waddle out of the restaurant, we ordered two plates of cheese and potato pierogi topped with fried onions.
After three beautiful days hiking through the mountains, we loaded up our suitcases and a bag of local, smoked sheep cheese and drove to Warsaw to visit the city and prepare for our upcoming shoot. As a parting gift to myself, early on the morning of our final day, I stopped by the bakery to grab a piece of poppy seed cake.
I visited Krakow for a conference and loved the food and the deep history of the land. Thanks for taking me back there with the wonderful photos. ✌️
So many happy memories evoked of visits to Krakow and the Tatra mountains from our then home in Warsaw in the mid 1990s