I rarely devote one special post for food in foreign countries, but man....Polish food is good.
Besides their famous pierogi (which I know it's just another name for VARENIKI, whatever they say:)), they have so many other yummy homey foods. I love anything with mushrooms, so it was great to be able to try new things with mushrooms on the side, in the gravy and in whatever. Robert tried the Polish sausage and cutlets, while the kids ordered crepes called nalisniki half a dozen times.
The food was cheap too. We could have a meal for all five of us under $15. Or a dinner for under $35 which had not happened in a very-very long time (we do drink only water though).
There was this one place that I wanted us to go for dinner, called U Babci Malini (At Grandma Malina's). So I read about it in Rick Steve's Krakow book. Good thing I read the part where it said that this inexpensive restaurant could be entered through a courtyard on Slawkowska St. That's the same street where we were staying. So we walked along our street, saw the sign for the restaurant, but it wasn't lit up, there were no windows or anything. I remembered the part about the courtyard, so we tried the heavy door--and it worked.
We walked pass the freaky sculptures down the empty hallway and somehow got outside again.
Then we saw this sign for the restaurant again but with no sign of it being open or anything.
We decided to keep going and went down the stairs, still not sure if the place is open. But it was!
It just has this "hush-hush" sort of atmosphere about it on the outside, but on the inside it's nice, warm, cozy and decorated like a vintage traditional kitchen.
The food was filling and very inexpensive. We AGAIN ordered too much (that never happens in England, by the way) and had to take some home for a late evening snack.
Sometimes you just have to be adventurous with these kind of places.
Oh yeah! One more thing! This is not about Polish food. We were looking for a place to eat lunch on our last day in Krakow and randomly saw a Japanese Fast Food Place that said "TAKOYAKI". As soon as the boys saw "takoyaki" we knew we had to stop by. Remember, takoyaki are balls made of octopus. Mark and Alex LOVE them and we never can find them easily here (except on the streets of London in China Town for twice the price).
We chatted with the owner while waiting for our takoyaki. He and his friend are Japanese, from Hokkaido. He couldn't believe we actually lived in Aomori-Ken:) He married a Polish woman and now lives in Krakow. They opened this Kyoto Takoyaki just a month ago and hoping that more Polish people will try this yummy quick snack. He said there are many Japanese in Krakow, actually, and that Japanese restaurants are quite tasty. Wish we had more time in Krakow to try more Japanese foods as well:))
This is the only picture we have from our favorite restaurant to get breakfast crepes and pireogies--Domowe Pryzsmaki.
Finally, we stopped by one of the dessert places and bought this delicious Kremowka. We actually bought four of them and had a hard time finishing them in two days. They were so yummy but so filling and huge! This is the Pope's favorite dessert:)
I also enjoyed lots of sweet memories from my childhood like hrustiki and waffle tart...I wish I could have brought more home to England!
On our last day in Krakow we seriously just ate through our whole day. Again, great food, great hospitality (except the grumpy old woman at the dessert counter who didn't want to try to help us since we didn't speak Polish:) She probably knew I was Ukrainian since I do look like one).
Lyana.
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