POLAND: EATING IN KRAKOW

June 22-25, 2019

We ate so much good food in Krakow that our restaurant rambles are worth their own post.

WELICZKA SALT MINE
To begin with, there was this rich chocolate ice cream cone that we bought while we were waiting for our tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine to begin. It was not the first nor the last of an embarrassing number of ice cream cones we would have on this trip.

KUCHNIA U DOROTY
On our first evening in Krakow, we took a recommendation from our guide and planned to eat at Love Pierogi, Krakow's five-star pierogi spot, but when we got there it was closed. We were so disappointed! We were on a relatively busy street near Old Town, and we figured there had to be lots of good restaurants around us.

We checked Yelp and found a good review for a nearby restaurant called Kuchnia u Doroty, (Dorothy's Kitchen), so we followed the map to get there. Yelp gave it 4.5 stars and just one $. That sounded good, and we loved the look of it from the outside, so we went on in:

Their menu had English translations, which was good for us but also made us worried that this was a tourist spot.  However, the selection looked really good AND pretty cheap, as promised by Yelp (4 zl = $1).

We were seated in the basement. Everyone around us was Polish, which was a good sign.

The mint- and lemon-infused mineral water tasted extra good, and I made a note in my journal to make it this way at home:

The food turned out to be REALLY good. Clockwise from top left: salad of greens, goat cheese, orange slices, beets, and candied walnuts; a pork chop covered in morel mushroom sauce; bigos (basically a meat sauce over sauerkraut); and mushroom and feta pierogi. FANTASTIC.

Dessert was Polish cheesecake with sour cherry sauce--not our favorite.

The entire meal, including tip, was $27.50

We liked it so much that we went back for a second visit two days later.

This time we had soup, grilled Polish sausage with onion, and golabki (cabbage rolls with meat and rice).

Again, spectacular.  I would go back to this restaurant in a heartbeat. In fact, we did go back. On our last night in Krakow we went on a food tour. Guess where it ended? Yep. Kuchnia u Doroty.


THE JEWISH QUARTER

We arrived in the Jewish Quarter after having spent the morning walking around old town with our guide Chris. We were hungry, and he recommended Polish pizza, sold in a little shop named Pizza Osemka (Osemka means "eight"--maybe referring to how many types of pizza there are?) just across the street from the swap meet next to what used to be the kosher slaughterhouse. The pizza looked a lot like what we had seen in Italy and was quite good--loaded with unusual toppings and fairly wet, the way I like it:

At the end of the day and after we had parted from our guide, we walked around a little in the Jewish quarter and stopped for a "snack."  Bob had chicken and beef liver paté, and I had ice cream and berries.  That about sums up our taste buds.

OLD TOWN STREET FAIR

On one of our evening strolls in Krakow's Old Town, we came across a big, noisy street fair in the long, narrow platz behind St. Mary's Cathedral. There was a stage at one end with continuous folk music performances. The platz itself was filled with about a hundred booths selling woodcarvings, jewelry, various tchotchkes, and (of course) food. This photo shows the back of the booths:

One of the things Bob had read about and was anxious to try was smoked sheep cheese, which we found at the fair. He thought it was quite salty, but very interesting. I think I actually liked it more than Bob did.

There were so many options! It was hard to choose.

We decided to go for a kebab of "knuckle of pork." It was very flavorful, tender, and tasty.

To go along with the pork knuckles, we bought two potato pierogis and some Polish sausage. (Mind you, we had been eating a lot all day and weren't particularly hungry, but how could we resist?)

Then we hit the chocolate-covered fruit section. They had just about everything imaginable dipped in chocoate and skewered.  These rods of six large, juicy grapes dipped in smooth milk chocolate cost about $2.25.

They really seemed to like chocolate-dipped pears, and there were several varieties:

They sold dried plums (aka prunes) dipped in milk, white, and dark chocolate. Perhaps the most surprising item was chili peppers dipped in chocolate:

I did make one non-food purchase at the fair. I bought a couple of necklace and earrings sets from this beautiful and friendly artisan:

What better way to end the day than this (even though it was the generic Carte Dor brand seen all over Europe)? The name of the place, Czas na Cafe Szpitalna 26, translates to something like "Time for Hospital Cafe 26." I'm not quite sure what that means. Perhaps that ice cream is the cure for whatever ails you?

DELICIOUS KRAKOW FOOD TOUR

On our final night in Krakow we participated in a delightful food tour that Bob had discovered online. Our group had about a dozen people in it and a great guide. There was a LOT of walking, but it made the food taste that much better.

Our first stop was Przystanek Pierogarnia, or "Pierogi Stop."

We each sampled four different kinds of pierogi: cheese and potatoes, sauerkraut and mushrooms, spinach, and blueberry.  (I think Bob had already eaten one when he remembered he wanted to take pictures.)

Our next stop was Zalewajka, which is the name of a traditional Polish country soup of potatoes and sour rye:

Their sourdough soup, laced with dill and bits of mushroom, was absolutely divine:

We also had a bowl of borscht (beet soup) with two pierogi floating like icebergs in a red sea:

Our third stop was Krakoska, a version of the city name "Krakow":

We started with some smoked cheese, similar to what we had tasted in the marketplace the prior evening:

. . . followed by pickled herring, which I love:

Then came pork lard on slices of baguette, which was surprisingly tasty:

There was a plate of pickles for garnish:

. . . and finally a plate of thinly sliced kielbasa lisiecka, a local sausage:

For the imbibers in the group (not us), there was Bison Grass Vodka (does that sound good to anyone?) and some of kind of flavored vodka.  The Russians occupied Poland long enough to share their intense love of this alcohol beverage:

 Our fourth stop was Ursa Maior, or Ursa Major, the bear constellation:

This was a bar, and drinking guests had two kinds of ale. They kindly provided a glass of non-alcoholic apple cider for Bob and me, and I have to say it was some of the best cider I've ever had:

Our fifth and final stop was none other than Kuchnia u Doroty, or Dorothy's Kitchen, which we were proud to have discovered on our own earlier in the week.

We started out with compot, known to us as compote, a simple fruit juice made by boiling strawberries and sugar in some water:

Our salad, called buraczki, was chopped, pickled beets:

Next was placki ziemniaczane z gulaszem, or potato pancakes with goulash, which was one of my favorite dishes of the night:

We also had golabki, or cabbage rolls, which we had ordered on our own during one of our previous visits:

. . . and bigos, or stew made of chopped meat, sauerkraut, and fresh cabbage, which we had also had on a previous visit:

The dessert was racuchy, which translates as "pancakes," but was more like a scone:

They gave us a sweet sauce to spoon over it:

. . . and mixed together it looked like this.  Looks good, right? It was!

To sum it all up, I think it is safe to say that Krakow is a foodie paradise. I'd like to go back and eat at a different restaurant three times a day every day for about a week.  Soooooo good!