Edible and Audible

Poland – come for the culture, stay for the food. My wife and I recently took a week-long trip to Poland, partially because we’ve been intrigued by Poland for some time, partially because we really needed a vacation, and partially because the Unsound festival, one of the leading experimental music festivals in the world, was taking place in Krakow right around the time we were hoping to take a trip. Match made in heaven? Undeniably yes. Amazing food, fascinating history, beautiful architecture, rustic countryside, and a damn good festival acting as soundtrack. What’s not to love?

Krakow was the main focus of our trip as the festival was taking place there, but we did have a day on the front and back-end in Warsaw, and even though our expectations of Warsaw had been lowered by several sources we were determined to make the most of our first 24 hours in town before heading south. Our main focus in Warsaw this day was the Old Town – due to that supreme asshole Hitler razing 85% of Warsaw during WWII the Old Town had to be meticulously recreated (and I mean meticulously, the recreation was deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980)  in order for any sense of how the town once was to remain. En route we encountered a long line in front of a tiny window selling pastries and other baked goods. We’ve travelled enough to know that when locals are lining up for some type of food you get your ass in line and try it out – you might have to point to get what you want but it will always be good. We both ordered a danish-like item with jam in the middle – very good and a perfect pick-me-up with severe jet lag setting in. However, this would only be the second best thing we got from this bakery on this trip, more on that later.

After walking to and around the Old Town, which really was impressive given how hard it was to tell that some of the buildings were actually recreations, we were ready for our first taste of Polish cooking. Funny thing about that though – finding authentic Polish food in Warsaw and especially this part of town was not an easy feat. In a quest for modernity in the wake of years of Communist rule, Warsaw’s cuisine has been rapidly diversified, much like in any major American or European capital. For the Polish people this is great, for the non-Polish tourist it can be disappointing. Granted there are Polish restaurants but many, especially in the more touristy areas, feel like theme restaurants, a nostalgic look at once was. Obviously there are places in Warsaw where authentic food is served, and looking for it in a touristy part of town is certainly not the best strategy, but given our limited time you gotta do what you gotta do. The flip side of this is we stumbled on a small Georgian restaurant, a cuisine which I am mostly unfamiliar but sharing enough in common with Polish cooking to suffice for our first “Polish” meal. The food was delicious – we started with Georgian dumplings, sharing more in common with a Chinese dumpling in appearance but not dissimilar in taste from a Polish pierogie. I proceeded to have the beef goulash served with some fresh-out-of-the-oven bread:

I was expecting more traditional beef-stew like flavors in this dish but I tasted a distinct Indian/Pakistani influence in the seasoning (coriander? fenugreek? based on the color definitely some turmeric) which elevated this dish to something memorable. Wash it down with the first of many Zywiecs and you got yourself one fine meal.

By evening the jet lag was in full ass-kicking mode but we were determined to make an evening of it. After a more Polish-y dinner of pork tenderloin in a chanterelle mushroom sauce we set out looking for a bar. Set off of the main sidewalk of Nowy Swiat in the heart of Warsaw is a series of bungalows containing tiny bars or occasionally a tiny restaurant. No names to go by, as someone unfamiliar with the area you just follow your sense of what feels right for that particular evening. Walking into the last bar on the strip we hear the sounds of Herbert’s Scale and we know we’re in the right place.

A regional beer called Krelewskie, similar to the Zywiec we had earlier, was followed by sipping on Zubrowska, a vodka distilled from bison grass and one of of our staples of the trip. We quickly learned that the combination of our shitty Polish and a loud bar means “Zubrowska” sounds like just like the word for standard odorless/tasteless vodka (boooo) and leads to a comical exchange of pointing at the bottle we actually want. And of course, the evening ends with both the full recorded version AND full live version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida blaring from the stereo, back to back. Rock and roll.