Cuisine

While travelling around Poland you simply cannot miss visiting a traditional inn and tasting delicious home made food. Many Polish people still do shopping in small local markets, buying fresh food from farmers. Genetically modified food is not popular here, in most farms crops are produced in the traditional ecological way, which provides excellent quality food.
Traditionally Polish people have 3 meals during the day: breakfast – not very heavy with some sandwiches, cheese or eggs, dinner (at bout 1.00 PM) – rather heavy, with soup, the second course and kompot (stewed fruits) and a light supper. This is the reason why typical lunch bars are not very popular in Poland – you can find them in the big cities or tourist places, but travelling off the main roads will make finding sandwiches or a salad bar rather difficult.
The cuisine varies according to the region and although each of them has its speciality there are dishes that are well known in every single corner of Poland, considered as typical Polish: pierogi, bigos, barszcz, kotlety.

Soups

Poles eat a lot of soups and you can find a truly astonishing variety of them. One of the most popular is red barszcz (beetroot soup), eaten with potatoes or croquette, or sometimes served plain. White barszcz, known also as Zurek is prepared of fermented sour cream with potatoes, sausage, onion and eggs. It is very nutritious! Mushroom soup is especially popular in autumn, when lots of Poles go to forests to pick them. The taste of this soup made of fresh mushroom is really unforgettable! Mushrooms are very popular in Polish cuisine – dried mushrooms, marinated ones, dumplings with mushrooms, cabbage with mushrooms… Mushroom soup is always served during Christmas Eve dinner. Sauerkraut soup made of fermented white cabbage is especially familiar in the mountainous region, where it is called kwasnica. To the list of 'must taste soups’ you can add the beans soup (grochówka) with bacon or sausage and tomato soup (pomidorowa).

Dishes

Polish eat lot of meat – grilled, stewed, fried, roasted.. Barbecued spareribs (żeberka), pork chops (kotlet schabowy) and mince meat chops (mielony or sznycel) are obligatory dish for Sunday family dinner. Being in Poland try golonko (pigs knuckles), usually with garlic and beer – most of men really love it! Stuffed duck is considered a traditional dish, but today it seems to be less popular than before. You can still find it in good restaurants. One of the most popular traditional dishes is pierogi (dumplings): with meat, with cabbage and mushrooms, or so called Russian pierogi (filling made of potatoes, and onion). In the bars you can find also a seasonal version: with blueberries, raspberries or strawberries with cream on the top. Bigos is stewed sauerkraut with pieces of meat, mushrooms or dried plums. If you do not fancy a heavy dinner order placki ziemniaczane (a kind of potato pancakes) with cream or with gulasz, or crepes (naleśniki)– in Poland crapes are a main course and can be served with almost everything.

Drinks

Do not be surprised to see Poles drinking tea all the time – it seems to be one of the most popular drinks. Poles usually drink black tea, plain or with a slice of lemon. If you have a cold,order so-called „mountaineers’ tea” (herbatka goralska) with a shot of cherry vodka or spirits inside. It will really warm you up! In winter except for the warming up tea you can also get hot beer (served with a slice of orange or some spices) and hot wine with spices – the best one is grzaniec galicyjski, traditionally connected with the Krakow region.
The most popular alkohol is beer and its variety is surprising. Polish beers are usually lagers and quite strong (up to 7%). In Poland a lot of vodka is produced – it is made of rye, wheat or potatoes. If you plan to taste some vodka try all the most popular types: clear (any kind), żołądkowa (yellowish, made of herbs and dried fruits), wiśniowka (cherry vodka) and of course the famous Żubrówka – Bison Grass Vodka. The characteristic flavour of this vodka is given by the unique type of grass that comes from the Bialowieza Forest (Puszcza Bialowieska), the last remains of the oldest European primeval forest. The local herd of bison were the source of the revival of other bison throughout Europe and the name of vodka!