National Dish of the Week: Poland

  Various kinds of Polish kielbasa

Polish cuisine (Polish: Kuchnia Polska) is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances. Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian similarities. It is rich in meat, especially beef, chicken and pork, and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish bigos), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the kluski as well as cereals such as kasha (from the Polish word Kasza). Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. The traditional dishes are often demanding in preparation. Many Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to serve and enjoy their festive meals especially Christmas eve dinner (Wigilia) or Easter breakfast which could take a number of days to prepare in their entirety.

Traditionally, the main meal is eaten about 2 p.m. or later, and is usually composed of three courses, starting with a soup, such as popular rosół and tomato soup or more festive barszcz (beet borscht) or żurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetizer of herring (prepared in either cream, oil, or vinegar). Other popular appetizers are various cured meats, vegetables or fish in aspic. The main course is usually meaty including a roast or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Vegetables, currently replaced by leaf salad, were not very long ago most commonly served as 'surówka' - shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, beetroot) or sauerkraut (kapusta kiszona). The sides are usually boiled potatoes or more traditionally kasza (cereals). Meals often conclude with a dessert such as makowiec, a poppy seed pastry, or drożdżówka, a type of yeast cake. Other Polish specialities include chłodnik (a chilled beet or fruit soup for hot days), golonka (pork knuckles cooked with vegetables), kołduny (meat dumplings), zrazy (stuffed slices of beef), salceson and flaki (tripe). Great Polish national dish, it might well be bigos, pierogi, zrazy, roast and barszcz

After the end of World War II, Poland fell under Communist occupation. Restaurants were at first nationalized and then mostly closed down by the authorities. Instead, the communists envisioned a net of lunch rooms for the workers at various companies, and milk bars. The very few restaurants that survived the 1940s and 1950s were state-owned and were mostly unavailable to common people due to high prices. The lunch rooms promoted mostly inexpensive meals, including soups of all kinds and staples such as pierogi. A typical second course consisted of some sort of a ground meat cutlet served with potatoes. The kotlet schabowy is similar to the Austrian Wiener schnitzel.

With time, the shortage economy led to chronic scarcity of meat, eggs, coffee, tea and other basic ingredients of daily use. Many products like chocolate, sugar and meat were rationed, with a specific limit depending on social class and health requirements. Physical workers and pregnant women were generally entitled to more food products. Imports were restricted, so much of the food supply was domestic. Thus no tropical fruits (citrus, banana, pineapple, etc.) were available and fruits and vegetables were mostly seasonal; to be had only in the summer. For most of the year the Poles had to get by with only domestic winter fruit and vegetables: apples, onions, potatoes, cabbage, root vegetables.

This situation led in turn to gradual replacement of traditional Polish cuisine with food prepared from anything available at the moment. Among the popular dishes introduced by the public restaurants was an egg cutlet, a sort of a hamburger made of minced or instant egg and flour. The traditional recipes were mostly preserved during the Wigilia feast (Christmas Eve), for which most families tried to prepare 12 traditional courses.

With the end of communism in Poland in 1989, restaurants started to reopen and basic foodstuffs were once again easily obtainable. This led to a gradual return of traditional Polish cuisine, both in everyday life and in restaurants. In addition, restaurants and supermarkets promoted the use of ingredients typical to other cuisines of the world. Among the most notable foods that started to become common in Poland were cucurbit, zucchini and all kinds of fish. During communist times, these were available mostly in the seaside regions.

Recent years have seen the advent of a slow food movement, and a number of TV programmes devoted to traditional Polish cuisine have gained much popularity. In 2011 a nostalgic cookbook (written in English) combining a child's memories growing up in the Gierek era with traditional Polish recipes was published in London.

Fast food is growing more and more popular in Poland, most commonly with the McDonald's chain, KFC and Pizza Hut. Doner kebabs are also gaining popularity. Nonetheless, in most of Poland you can still get traditional Polish fast-food such as zapiekanka. There are also many small-scale, quick-service restaurants which usually serve items such as zapiekanka (baguette with cheese, sometimes meat and/or button mushroom and ketchup), kebap, hamburgers, hot dogs and kielbasa. In Warsaw, Poland's capital city, a 3-course meal in one of Warsaw's top restaurant's costs on average twenty-six GBP.

Poland has a number of unique regional cuisines with regional differences in preparations and ingredients. For an extensive list of the dishes typical to Galicia, Kresy, Podlaskie, Masovia (including Warsaw), Masuria, Pomerania, Silesia, Lesser Poland, the Tatra mountains and Greater Poland see the List of Polish cuisine dishes.