Polish cuisine — Slavic tradition, Jewish/German/Tatar/Lithuanian influences. Pork, potatoes, cabbage, pickles, sour soup. Hearty, seasonal, regional.
National Dishes
Pierogi (Russian-style with cheese and potatoes, with meat, with cabbage and mushrooms, with fruit). Bigos (cabbage stew with sauerkraut, meat, sausage, mushrooms — best after 3 days). Pork cutlet with potatoes and fried cabbage. Sunday rosół chicken soup (with noodles).
Soups
Soup is essential — different every day. Żurek sour rye soup with white sausage and egg. Red borscht (Christmas with dumplings). Cabbage soup. Rosół. Barley soup. Tomato with noodles (children favorite). Chłodnik cold beetroot soup (summer).
Bread
Polish bread — world class. Rye sourdough bread, pumpkin, sunflower. Kaiser rolls, Saint Martin Croissants (Poznań UNESCO), Krakow obwarzanek UNESCO. Bread loaf symbolic — bread and salt as welcome.
Cured Meats
Kielbasa — Poland is kingdom of sausages. Kabanos, krakowska sucha, juniper, Lisiecka, hunter's. Polędwica sopocka, Tatra ham. Lard with cracklings and pickled cucumber — cult appetizer.
Sweets
Krakow cheesecake, poppy seed roll, Toruń gingerbread (since 1380), doughnuts (Fat Thursday 2-3 pieces), faworki (Fat Thursday), sand cake, wuzetka, cream cake (Pope John Paul II favorite, Wadowice), apple pie.
Vodka
Polish vodka — Bols (1545), Belvedere (Żyrardów, world top), Chopin, Sobieski. World standard in vodka. Flavored vodkas — żołądkowa gorzka, żubrówka (with bison grass, tourist trap), starka (60 years aged).
Holidays and Traditions
Christmas Eve Dec 24: 12 meatless dishes (borscht with uszka dumplings, carp, cabbage with mushrooms, pierogi, dried fruit compote, poppy seed roll). Easter: blessed food, eggs, butter lamb, mazurka cakes, żurek. Fat Thursday — doughnuts. St. Andrew's Day — fortune telling + faworki.