Gourmet Journey to Poland: Try Bigos and Zurek Soup
Are you going to Krakow or Warsaw for a weekend on business? Don't miss the opportunity to get to know the national cuisine of Poland better. It will be especially popular with meat lovers - they love it here and know how to cook it.
Zurek
Poland is rightly called the country of soups. In Krakow, for example, every year there is a whole soup festival. The king of Polish soups is żurek. This is a traditional first course that is prepared in all regions of Poland.
The main "highlight" of this soup is the use of a starter based on rye flour. Boiled sausage, egg, fresh vegetables, and various seasonings are added to it. Like okroshka, zurek is an ideal dish for a hot summer.
In addition, zurek is a very filling dish, so it is a great way to refresh yourself after a long walk. The soup is on the menu of any Polish cafe, and in some authentic restaurants zurek can be served in a loaf of bread.
Bigos
This dish is prepared in Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, but it is in Poland that bigos is treated with the greatest reverence. Every Polish housewife and every Polish café has their own recipe for making bigos.
Classic Polish bigos is sauerkraut with meat, smoked meats, mushrooms and prunes. The dish has a thick consistency and a slightly sour taste.
Bigos is considered to be a great dish to go with vodka. So if you decide to try Polish firewater, be sure to order bigos as an appetizer.
Looking at this dish, even inveterate vegetarians feel the desire to taste meat. In Poland, pork shank is a real secret weapon. They call it golonka or knuckle.
Golonka tastes especially piquant in beer. It is first boiled, then put in the oven and baked, constantly dousing it with beer. The result is a fragrant crispy crust, under which is hidden tender pulp with a beer flavor. Finger-licking good.
Don't be misled by the name of this dish. This Polish culinary masterpiece has little in common with our traditional pies. In addition, it is pronounced "perogi" (pierogi) with the stress on the second syllable.
Perogy in Poland are flour products similar to pierogi. Unlike our traditional pierogi, Polish perogy are fried in a frying pan and served sprinkled with herbs. We recommend trying perogy stuffed with potatoes and fried onions.
Beer with syrup
And since we are talking about alcoholic drinks, don't forget to try the famous beer with raspberry syrup (called Piwo Grzane) in Poland. It is served hot and has a very unusual taste. Even if you don't like alcohol, you should definitely try it. Book hotels in any corner of Poland on hotels.tochka.net
