Food & Drink

Polish cuisine is a mixture of Slavic, Jewish and foreign culinary traditions. It is rich in meat (especially pork) cabbage, and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles and dumplings, the most notable of which are the pierogi. Dill, marjoram, caraway seeds, wild mushrooms and sour cream are added to many dishes. It also has a heavy influence of Turkic, Germanic, Hungarian, Jewish, French, Italian and colonial cuisines of the past.

A typical lunch is usually composed of at least three courses, starting with a soup, such as barszcz (beetroot) or zurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetiser of salmon or herring (prepared in either cream, oil or vinegar). Other popular appetizers include various meats, vegetables or fish in aspic.

The main course may be the national dish, bigos (made from sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, onions and leftover meat) or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Meals often conclude with a dessert such as ice cream (lody), makowiec (poppy seed cake), or drozdzowka, a type of yeast cake. Other Polish specialities include chlodnik (a chilled beet or fruit soup for hot days), golonka (pork knuckles cooked with vegetables), kolduny (meat dumplings), zrazy (slices of beef), salceson and flaczki (tripe).

Typical National Dishes

Soup

• barszcz - beetroot soup, ubiquitous among Slavic nations
• chlodnik - cold soup made of soured milk, young beet leaves, beets, cucumbers and chopped fresh dill
• czernina - duck blood soup
• flaki or flaczki - beef or pork tripe stew with marjoram
• grochowka - pea soup
• kapusniak - sour cabbage soup
• pomidorowa - tomato soup
• rosol - clear chicken soup
• zupa grzybowa - mushroom soup made of various species of mushroom
• zupa ogorkowa - soup of sour, salted cucumbers, often with pork ("dill pickle soup")
• zupa szczawiowa -sorrel soup
• zur - soured rye flour soup with white sausage and/or hard-boiled egg
• zurek - the same as zur but with the addition of potatoes (and occasionally mushrooms)

Main Courses

• bigos - a stew of sauerkraut and meat, similar to the French choucroute, but generally less acidic and including unfermented cabbage
• golabki - cabbage leaves stuffed with spiced minced meat and rice or with mushrooms and rice served with sour cream or tomato sauce
• golonka - stewed pork knuckle or hock
• gulasz - goulash
• kaczka z jablkami - roast duck with apples
• kasza gryczna ze skwarkami - buckwheat cereal with chopped, fried lard and onions
• kaszanka - Polish blood sausage, made of blood with kasza (buckwheat)
• kotlet schabowy - a pork chop, similar to the Austrian Wiener Schnitzel but usually thicker
• mizeria - sliced cucumbers and sour cream.
• nalesniki - crepes that are either folded in to triangles or rolled in to a tube; typical servings include sweet white cheese with sugar and sour cream, various fruits topped with bita smietana (whipped cream) or with bite bialka (whipped egg whites)
• pierogi - dumplings, usually filled with sauerkraut and/or mushrooms, meat, potato and/or savoury cheese, optionally topped with sour cream; sweet versions may include sweet curd cheese with a touch of vanilla, or blueberries or other fruits topped with sugar
• placki kartoflane/ziemniaczane - potato pancakes usually served with sour cream
• pyzy - potato dumplings served by themselves or stuffed with minced meat or cottage cheese
• sztuka miesa - a meat dish similar to the Bavarian Tellerfleisch or Austrian Tafelspitz

Desserts

• budyn - flavoured custard
• chalka - sweet white wheat bread of Jewish origin
• faworki / chrusty - light fried pastry covered with powdered sugar
• kisiel - clear, jelly-like fruit liquid
• krowki - Polish fudge, soft milk toffee candies
• makowiec - poppyseed-swirl cake
• paczek - closed donut filled with rose marmalade and other fruit conserves
• pierniki - soft gingerbread shapes iced or filled with marmalade of different fruit flavours and covered with chocolate
• sernik - cheesecake; one of the most popular desserts in Poland, made primarily of twarog, a type of fresh cheese

Regional Dishes

Galicia

• piszyngier - cake made of layers of wafer and layers of cream or filling; in the Swietokrzyskie area its name is kajmak and it's usually covered with chocolate
• strudel jablkowy - apple cake, identical to Austrian apfelstrudel

Eastern Poland

Kresy

• babka zoltkowa - yolk and yeast cake
• cepeliny - big long-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat and marjoram
• chlodnik - cold soup made of soured milk, young beet leaves, beets, cucumbers and chopped fresh dill
• grzyby po zmudzku - mushrooms Samogitian style
• kawior z baklazana - "caviar" of aubergine
• kutia - traditional Christmas dish, made of wheat, poppy seeds, nuts, raisins and honey
• ruskie pierogi - russian pierogies with quark and potato
• tort ziemniaczany - potato cake

Podlasie

• kartacze - big long-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat and marjoram
• kiszka ziemniaczana - potato sausage
• okon smazony, w zalewie octowej - perch fried in vinegar
• sekacz - pyramid cake, made of many layers

North

• szpekucha - small dumplings stuffed with lard and fried onion

Masovia (including Warsaw)

• baba warszawska - yeast cake
• bulka z pieczarkami - a bun filled with a champignon (field mushroom) stew
• flaczki z pulpetami (po warszawsku) - tripe stew with marjoram and small meat noodles
• kawior po zydowsku - "Jewish caviar" - chopped calf or poultry liver with garlic and hard boiled egg
• kugiel - found in the town of Ostroleka, made with potatoes and diced meat
• paczki - doughnuts with rose marmalade
• pyzy z miesem - round potato dumplings stuffed with meat
• zrazy wolowe - beef chops in sauce
• zrazy wolowe zawijane - chopped dill cucumbers and onions wrapped in thin strips of beef
• zupa grzybowa po kurpiowsku (z gasek) - mushroom soup made of Tricholoma equestre, a large mushroom with a cereal-like flavour

Pomerania

• pierniki - soft gingerbread shapes filled with marmalade of different fruit flavours and covered with chocolate

Silesia

• kluski slaskie - round shaped potato dumplings served with gravy, made of mashed potatoes, an egg and potato flour
• krupniok - kind of sausage made of kasha (buckwheat) and animal blood
• makielki or moczka or makowki - traditional Wigilia dessert, its main ingredients are: gingerbread extract, nuts and dried fruit, strawberry compote and almonds
• rolada z modra kapusta - stuffed meat roll with red cabbage, traditionally eaten with kluski slaskie
• siemieniotka - soup made of hemp seed, one of main Christmas Eve meals
• wodzionka or broltzupa - soup with garlic and potatoes
• zymlok - like krupniok but using bread roll instead of kasha

Tatra Mountains

• kwasnica - meat and sauerkraut stew
• oscypek - hard, salty cheese from non-pasteurized sheep milk

Greater Poland

• gzik (gzika) - cottage cheese with onion and/or chives
• kaczka z pyzami i modra kapusta - roast duck with steam-cooked rolls and red cabbage
• plendze - potato pancakes served with sugar
• pyry z gzikiem - boiled, peeled or unpeeled potatoes with gzik and butter
• rogale swietomarcinskie - croissants filled with poppy seeds, almonds, other nuts and raisins, traditionally eaten on November the 11th, St. Martin's Day

Drinks

Vodka (or wodka) drunk chilled, is the national drink; Wyborowa is considered to be the best.

Other drinks include:

• kompot - a non-alcoholic beverage made of boiled fruit (one type or a mixture), optionally also with sugar and spices (e.g. clove or cinnamon). It is served hot or cold. Any fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, sour cherries, gooseberries can be used - and a special type of kompot is made of dried fruit.
• liwowica lacka - strong (70% of alcohol) plum brandy
• miod pitny - mead
• podpiwek - very lightly alcoholic beer made of crumbled dark bread
• wino proste - a variety of alcoholic beverages made of fruit extracts and spirit, countless types and names of which exists