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Krakow
Foodstuffs
There is everything in Krakow shops nowadays,
even if it may happen that your favorite
artichoke variety is not to be found at every
street-corner grocer’s. Poland being one of
European major food producers, local staples
generally hold their ground against imports. Yet
the latter have largely taken to themselves the
up-market niches.
Bread.
Look for the output of a family-owned bakery. Some are in the business for the third generation or
more. A few of them run their own baker’s shop – they happen in the downtown area
too – while the rest mostly supply smaller
grocers throughout the city.
Vegetables.
Potatoes are Poland’s staple food
alongside the bread. Cabbage, carrots, beans, and
onions are other popular round-the-year native
vegetables. Polish field tomatoes, cauliflower,
lettuce, cucumbers, leeks, etc. are delicious yet
seasonal. For the rest of the
year vegetables are available owing to greenhouses and imports from the
Mediterranean but it is not the same. Best
produce usually can be found at any of Krakow’s
several marketplaces. But the exotic likes of
yams and cassava are easier to come by in a
supermarket.
Fruits.
The southern half of Poland, with Krakow as its
capital city, is the Western Europe’s major
supplier of fruits – apples, plums, pears,
cherries, etc., and berries – strawberries,
currants, gooseberries, raspberries, etc. Yet the
juiciest and tastiest varieties tend to be unfit
for the long-haul shipping, and they are meant
for the local market. Krakow dwellers also prize
much such forest crops as wild raspberries,
blackberries, hazelnuts, and above all – bilberries. The city’s marketplaces offer
the best choice, yet inexperienced customers may
fail to spot inferior merchandise. Imported
apples, pears, etc. as well as the fruits of
hotter climes are also widely available, albeit
those most exotic are sold chiefly in
hypermarkets.
Dairy
Products. Most Poles relish milk goods
churned out by the country’s dairy producers. And
those wealthier often opt for a French or an
Italian cheese twice the price of the domestic
equivalent. Yet some argue with good reason that
there is nothing like milk and homemade cottage
cheese, butter, and cream fresh from the farm.
They are still available at Krakow marketplaces,
sometimes sold directly by peasant women. Among
local specialties rank the “bryndza” cottage
cheese and the “oscypek” hard
cheese, preferably both of ewe milk.
Meat.
Poultry, namely chicken and turkey,
seems most popular with Krakow consumers
nowadays, before beef and pork. Veal also has its
admirers. Yet game is largely a dine-out stuff.
Lamb and mutton are also found mostly in
restaurants, and few native gourmands relish
them. The Krakow butcher’s shops sell local
produce, while supermarkets may well offer meat
processed in the other half of Poland or even
abroad.
Meat
Products. Poland is famed worldwide as
the country of origin of kielbasa. Yet the word
denotes all sausages here. As typically Polish
are recognized the spicy ones, smoked and then
dried (try the finger-thin “kabanos”!).
Polish ham is also delicious. And such domestic
specialties as the “salceson”
headcheese, the “kiszka” black
pudding, and the “pasztetowa”
liverwurst are recognized delicacies. But – surprise, surprise
– at the same time the
sausages and ham made of poultry (yes!) in the
Krakow region have become very popular throughout
Poland in the last ten years since their
invention.
Seafood.
Fish are quite popular, also freshwater
ones. And carp seems as much a Christmas Eve must
in Poland as turkey is a Thanksgiving one in the
USA, while herring serves as a traditional
fast-days meal. Shellfish are available in
Krakow’s shops but hardly a great treat for
most its inhabitants.
Mushrooms.
Poles are great connoisseurs of wild
fungi of which edible boletus varieties are most
sought after. Fresh mushrooms are available at
Krakow marketplaces in the autumn, whereas dried
or pickled ones throughout the year.
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Eating the Krakow Way
It is hearty indeed.
Krakow
Restaurants
Krakow is Poland’s mecca of
gourmets thanks to its many excellent
restaurants.
Popular
Krakow Dishes /Recipes/
Krupnik Barley Soup, Christmas
Borsch, Krakow Duck, Zrazy Beef Rashers
Food
Festivals in Krakow
Shopping
in Krakow
Krakow
Beverages
Everybody’s thirst to be satisfied.
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