Traditional Polish Foods

Not everyone wants to eat only Polish food? Maybe not all Pol-Ams would know what traditional Polish dishes there are? Especially if they don't speak the language.

For example. not everyone would know that Rosół is chicken soup.

Rosół and schabowy are a typical Polish dinner.

Probably. If it's a neighbourhood restaurant people don't want the same sort of thing every day, and it's worth mentioning that people from India who've settled in Britain don't necessarily eat Indian food every day of the week,

There was a Polish restaurant in my town in Yorkshire, quite popular until it got its food hygiene star rating and people said a collective "eww" and stopped going. They had a mix of Polish dishes, English ones and international ones like pizza, pasta, burgers.

Did they have rats and cockroaches?

I know, but how many Polish Americans generations later still eat traditional meals?


The couple of restaurants near me used to serve up very similar. Both have shut down now though.

Very few I suspect.The difference between Polish Americans and Anglo Poles is quite acute.Most Polish Americans are talking about great grandparents or even further back.
Anglo Poles mainly came to the UK during or after WW2.So much more recent, even my kids had Polish grandparents!

Possibly, given the old building they were in and it's location.


This one tried to repurpose itself first as a cafe and was actually a nice one but in the wrong location just to stop in for a cuppa. Then as a Polish bar to appeal to the local Polish population however of course they don't really go out much. Now it's a pizza shop that plays Polish football matches round the back but I've not seen people going in and out much.

There's one in Doncaster that used to be a shopping precinct cafe years ago (though the precinct has sort of died). I noticed it had become a restaurant with an upmarket menu and a few of the things on the menu suggested that the chef is Polish. The only times I've been past though it's been empty which is sad. Again, due to location and the wrong market positioning. The menu looks nice though, a mix of British and Polish stuff. A quick look online shows that it's still going though and has great reviews.

I just googled the menu. Most of the Polish stuff has gone now, just chicken sznycel and buraczka as far as I can see. It does look nice though and I'll try and go next time I'm there. Problem is, when I'm in that town with people, they always want to go to the Wool Market (a bit like Hala Koszykowa in Warsaw) where there's some very good Indian food and often live music. Plus there are pubs round it which this restaurant doesn't have.

It does look nice though and I'm feeling hungry just looking at the menu.

Here's the menu: thecitydoncaster.com/Menu/LUNCH%2030%20PDF.pdf

Yes. If they depended only on Polish customers, they would go bankrupt soon.
I read positive reviews by satisfied customers of this restaurant from early 2000s and some mentioned pierogis but most of them focused on universal dishes.

No more. Probably they read about sorrel badly affecting our kidneys.

That's what happened to one of the restaurants here too. Guess they were trying to just stay open but it didn't last long. Same with the Polish shops. We had 5 in a small area and now there are 3 remaining.


It's a good menu, there's a few things I'd go for for on it.


Always best to diversify ;)


Never tried it. Or know anyone else that's made sorrel soup for that matter.

It has an interesting flavour and I never made fuss when it was offered to me.
But again, I have never made it myself due to its harmful effects.
Another thing, it is a dish associated with extreme poverty, like the one in 19th century countryside or during and after Great Wars. . People ate this soup when there was nothing else available.

I ate it too.

Exactly, coz you are people after all. :):):)

I think you would have to consume it in large quantities. I doubt a bowl of soup is going to do much damage.

What if you eat it every day like peasants in the prewar period?? Or at least once a week like impoverished Poles/Polesses in communist times, especially after the war??? ):):)

I've had it (szczaw in Polish) a few times... I liked it because it reminded me of greens which aren't really a thing in most of Europe (turnip greens, mustard greens and collard greens are all eaten on a regular basis in the US South).

The same. We have it in Britain too, Sorrel, also used for soups, but it's not at all common. If people have it, they've grown it; it's not in the shops.

Sometimes at home in Warsaw if it's the other cooking rather than me we have sorrel soup though I'm not a big fan. As Paw said, there are problems. You really do have to be careful about having too much. It's high in Oxalic Acid (like rhubarb leaves) however some (Ukrainians anyway) say that putting sour cream in it mitigates that, I'm not convinced.

My dentist once said that dried szczaw in soups had historically kept a lot of poor families in the east alive over the winter but had also shortened their lives through overuse.


I'd like to try those. Mustard leaves exist in the U.K. because they're used in curries. Indian and Pakistani families used to plant them in the garden since they didn't exist in the shops until recently (and you'd only expect find them in a town with a significant south Asian population). There's something there called Spring Greens that I like but which are a bit old fashioned, sadly.

The leaves of young beetroot (as close as damn it to Swiss Chard) are a different thing. Botwinka is, in my opinion, the best of Polish soups and I make it often when the beetroots are young. I prefer it without buttermilk which swamps the delicate taste and the nice muddy dark red colour, however ours is a mixed household and Ukrainians always put buttermilk in it.

My Polish parents used to grow it in the garden and it was added to soups, often with hard boiled eggs.
My sister and I would go to the garden and eat it raw, because we loved the bitter, lemony taste!

To me, koperek (dill) tastes and above all smells, as traditionally Polish
as any cooking aroma wafting from a Polish kitchen!

Whenever my wife and I go to a Polish restaurant, we insist on having
our chlodnik with extra dill:-)

Very popular in Sweden too and other Scandinavian and East European countries.
I love it too!

But you're not going to do that.....


I've never tried any of the greens you mentioned!


I like dill but I have to say I think it's a bit overused in Polish cooking. It seems to go in everything.

It goes nicely with white fish and also as an ingredient in stuffing.


That and marjoram.


My sister-in-law's sorell soup, bubbling away. She calls it green borscht.

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Apart from pierogis, you can have other kinds of dumplings, called pyzy or kluski in Polish. Each region of the country has their own variations.

Here, kluski stuffed with minced meat. Check out their content.

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Thanks there, Milo, spot on!
Almost forgot just how usual indeed dill is
in Swedish cuisine, Jansson's Frestelse, for example,
practically a seafood Shepherd's Pie with herring, onions, and potatoes:-)

Polish cuisine though is far more red meat oriented by comparison, I think.
Would you agree?

I would.

Good, we're making headway here!

What's your favorite Polish dish?
Mine's bigos.

Of course and it is quite simple to explain - Polish climate forced people to eat high calorie food and pork is considered fatty. An old proverb of Polish bees says: A Pole/Poless eats as much red meat as 5 Italians.

Another old proverb: Gdy Polak jest glodny, on jest zly!

Yes, but we need to adjust it to suit modern times: Polak or Polka!!!

Merely quoting from an ancient Polish saying, political correctness notwithstanding:-)

Mine too!