Food and drink, part 1

As many of you will know, I have been involved in some form or another with the hospitality business for most of my working life. Whether it be as a bar man, waiter, assistant manager, relief manager, sous chef, line chef, breakfast chef, head chef or private chef, I have experienced the whole gambit of this crazy profession.

For this very reason I find it fascinating and very educational, when in another country, to observe how others perform their various jobs in this industry and how important they consider the idea of service, menu design, staff courtesy and professionalism when dealing with a very demanding general public.

My experiences so far here in Krakow have been very good.The main reason for this I put down to the lack of corporate chains. Thankfully, you will not find any Harvesters, Beefeaters, Prezzo, Nandos et al, serving up their ubiquitous formulated menus, served by robotic kids who are taught to say ' enjoy ' instead of actually constructing a meaningful sentence when talking to you.

It is a very interesting fact that apart from a few very few up-market restaurants, the Poles do not seem to think it necessary to have their staff dressed up like they are going to a boxing match. No white shirts and black bow ties. I have often thought that in the UK, far too much emphasise was always given to the staff uniform, rather than to the calibre of the staff. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten have been served by staff in jeans and a shirt and indeed the restaurants, bistros, roadside eateries and vans I have frequented, have often been in the less salubrious areas of town. 

In Phnom Penh, the fried chicken on St.52 was some of the best I have ever tasted, eaten by the road, with beggars everywhere. In Kampot, the pork ribs, cooked on an open fire outside the Rusty Nail Bar are world famous and are without a doubt the most succulent I have ever tried. On a dusty road in central Kuala Lumpur, the nasi lemak was sensational and people queued for hours every morning to partake in this traditional breakfast fayre. Anyway I digress... my point being, that it is advisable to look beyond what we, as English folk, perceive to be the most important thing about eating out, and experience the different traits and customs that make eating out abroad so different.

In Krakow there are many very old restaurants that either date back to, or are housed in, very old buildings, sometimes from the 13th, 14th, or 15th centuries and these of course do have a dress code of sorts and are rather magnificent in their decor, appearance and quality of service. I have already written about Pod Aniolami in an earlier post and there are a few other restaurants that are worth a mention.

Restaurant Sasiedzi in Kazimiersz, the Jewish Quarter, is housed under a 14th century apartment house and each chamber has its own unique decoration and it also offers an all year round garden for you to use. The menu is quite simple but offers the usual Polish favourites such as dumplings, beef tartare or mountain cheese, for starters. Soups are borscht with dumplings, traditional Polish sourdough soup with white sausage and a chef's special . Mains are traditional Polish duck with apples, confit goose leg, bigos ( a sort of hunter's stew of chopped meat of various kinds, stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage ), pork knuckle, beef tenderloin, lamb chops, rabbit in cream sauce or pike/perch. Most of these dishes would be served in a traditional Polish restaurant. I have not actually eaten here but it is on the rather long list of places to go. More restaurants to follow in subsequent posts. 

Eating seems to be a national past time in Poland and for those of you with a sweet tooth you are in for a culinary delight as there are hundreds of cukiernia  ( pastry shops ) selling a vast array of desserts, pastries, bread and cakes.

Above are just a few of the numerous cukiernia and the top picture was one of the stalls in the main square at Easter time. There are even public holidays associated with food , one of the most amusing being ' tlusty czwartek ' or ' fat Thursday ', which is the last Thursday before Lent. Traditionally it is a day dedicated to eating, when people meet in their homes or cafes with their friends and relatives and eat large quantities of sweets, cakes and other meals not eaten during Lent. Among the most popular all-national dishes served on that day are paczki which are fist sized doughnuts filled with rose hip jam and faworki, French dough fingers served with powdered sugar.

Shopping for food is more of a pleasure than a pain for me. I have always loved food shopping anyway but it takes on a whole new meaning here. There are so many places to choose from we are spoilt for choice. A ten minute bus ride away is the French owned hyper-market Auchan and the scale of this place is quite amazing as are the prices and the quality of the goods.Here are a few pictures.

It is difficult to gauge the size of this hypermarket but I would say the Mall in Plymouth would probably fit inside of it. Auchan is actually only a part of the Bronowice Galleria (Mall), which I think is the one of the largest in Krakow.

Apples are enormous and as such I was worried that they wouldn't be too tasty but oh, how wrong I was. Possibly the most delicious apples I have ever tasted and I was sure I had put the wrong code into the machine to weigh them because they worked at 40p for three huge red apples! No wonder apple pie spiced with cinnamon and cloves is a staple dessert here both at home and in restaurants. Fruit is used often as an accompaniment to pork dishes as well.

Red peppers are used in many Polish dishes and as such there are always plenty on offer and the cheapest way to buy them is 'luz' or loose. Things are made a bit easier for the shopper as every item of fruit and veg is numbered so you simply put it on the scales, select from the pictures the item you are buying and the ticket will be printed which you attach to the bag. Today I bought three very large red peppers for £1.

The ubiquitous Polish sausage, ' kielbasa '. More often than not smoked and usually made from pork meat, these are everywhere and the picture to the left show only a small section of the choices on offer here. Eaten in a variety of ways, one of the most delicious is in the traditional Polish soup Zurek, which is a traditional Easter breakfast soup and in this case a spicy white sausage is used in the soup that is made from soured rye flour. There are limitless variations of this soup and some call it ' Polish Hangover Soup!! '. The healing quality of this tangy, fortifying soup comes, ostensibly, from the fermented sour rye stock known as ' zakwas '. The hearty combination of root vegetables, kielbasa, pickles, sour cream and hard boiled eggs make this soup a meal.

The fish counter had so many species of fish that I have never heard of, however I did try pike and perch, both of which were very tasty. Customers stand behind the cordoned off area whilst an extremely knowledgeable assistant talks you through the vast array of fish on offer. Wonderful.

Below are some pictures of the banks of freezers containing approximately 70-80 products, all loose and you simply take as much or as little as you want , bag it up and weigh it. From shell fish to strawberries to broccoli, pastries, whole fish, fillets of fish, pasta etc. What a great idea.

Paying in this hyper-market is always pretty simple with about 100 checkouts. All in all, as I said, it is a pleasure to shop here. I realise I have not included any information about drink on this post but I will leave it now for a subsequent story :)

Food, part ll and Drink, part 1 will follow later. Next up is a football post about my first match at the Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Stadium to watch my adopted team Cracovia FC.