Traditional Polish Soups.

Have you ever had czernina? I tried it and loved it. Had it a few times before I found out it's made of duck blood and a broth that's made by boiling duck gizzards and duck neck. Still liked it. I later found out it was traditionally served to a young man as a sign that if he asked for permission to marry a daughter of the family, he'd be knocked back (or if he had asked, the answer was no).

@Lazarus▲ 0▼ 0

Nothing beats proper żurek, prepared with homemade zakwas and served inside a small loaf of freshly baked bread.



@Torq▲ 0▼ 0

There's Żurek and Żurek.

I'm not bothered for the bread thing; it reminds me of early 90s suburban restaurants. When I do Żurek, mushrooms go in which is not typical but does work.

There's a restaurant in Kazimierz Dolny that serves lemon soup. Nothing like avgolemono, much more delicate. I wish I had their recipe.


Good czernina is excellent. One of the nicer things in PL. Bad czernina has little or no ducks' blood and uses pig
liver instead. I once had it with a group of posh mostly elderly Polish people who got really angry because of that.

About czernina, I'm sure a few PF posters have been served it by young ladies' parents when they went calling.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

Early 90s suburban restaurants were the best! Traditional food, hot waitresses and tracksuit-wearing gangsters... aaah, nostalgia...

@Torq▲ 0▼ 0

In PL, yes. Plenty still open on main roads between cities and usually good places to eat. I was thinking of other countries.

Most of that sort of restaurant has gone from Warsaw now and they are surely missed.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

In the early 1990s, every housewife in Poland could cook żurek or bigos. I can still do it until today.

@Alien▲ 0▼ 0

I don't know if that should be put here, but food is food after all:


@Ironside▲ 0▼ 0

.
Might give that a go then. I make a lot of soup in the winter for lunch at work.


It's one soup I would like to try. What's in it and how it's made doesn't bother me. I'm in Poland later in the year so will keep a look out for it when I go out to eat.

The only thing I can't stomach is flaki, so I wouldn't be choosing soup with that in.


I've tried it but there are better soups in my opinion. To be honest, when I've had soup in Poland it's never been served in those hollowed out bread loaves. I've only had that in Czechia.


That would be the problem if I ordered it then. I wouldn't know if I was getting the authentic soup or not.

@Feniks▲ 0▼ 0

He may not be Polish but his golapki looked amazing!

@Miloslaw▲ 0▼ 0

We once got this kind of żurek in bread at a restaurant on the market square in Jelenia Góra.

@Alien▲ 0▼ 0

Zurek, especially chlodnik with an extra dollop of sour cream topped with koperek, are my two favorite Polish soups!
Good solid country cooking, podsilek.

@Lyzko▲ 0▼ 0

Botwinka is very seasonal. Spring when the beetroots have just started growing. Tiny tiny ones and you also use the green shoots.

If you know anyone who grows beetroot, that's the best way to get tiny ones in England. Or use Swiss Chard if there's a posh shop near you.


Most are the real thing. It's a distinctive taste, not like blood and not like liver. Very worth trying.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

That would be the problem. Only time I've seen tiny beets over here are the ready prepared ones dressed up in plastic:( Can't say I've noticed Swiss Chard anywhere either.

@Feniks▲ 0▼ 0

Do you know the traditional significance of czernina? Back in the old days of the szlachta. Why that was sometimes served instead of other soups, to give a certain message to a male guest...


They grow nicely from seed in a pot in the windowsill. Picked really tiny so you don't grow them for long, and a small amount makes plenty of botwinka which is a fairly watery soup anyway, never thick.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

Is that not just for tourists?


Yes, I mentioned that in my post.

@Lazarus▲ 0▼ 0

Polish ones too. On main roads in the back of beyond, in restaurants with wooden windmills outside and various barrels and cartwheels.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

Nope.

Żurek in bread has been served by Polish housewives during holidays and for respected guests in the house. In Silesia (where a large part of my family is from) it is prepared for special occasions, and of course with home-made zakwas, not some monstrosity bought in a bottle in Biedronka.


Yip. That's for tourists and foreigners who don't have Polish families. The sad part is - most of them actually use supermarket ready-made "żurek" as the basis for their fake soup.

@Torq▲ 0▼ 0

What stands out is your consistency. Regardless of country, class, or generation, you're never the bystander. You're always fully embedded, always treated as a peer - the one person on earth who's never once been just passing through.

The note about blood substitution is interesting, as it's the sort of detail one tends to learn about czernina rather than from eating it, particularly in mixed company where such explanations aren't usually offered to outsiders like yourself.

As usual, your anecdote ends just before any actual interaction begins: no dialogue, no context, only the reaction. As if the experience were observed from a nearby table - or while you were working, serving theirs.

@Poloniusz▲ 0▼ 0

These are the ones marketed at Poles who live in cities. There wouldn't be enough trade otherwise.

@jon357▲ 0▼ 0

Yes, that's what I said - tourists.

In Poland, domestic tourism (Poles traveling within the country) greatly exceeds inbound tourism (foreigners visiting Poland).

@Torq▲ 0▼ 0