Kraków Food Tour, Poland

Poland is one of my favorite countries to visit.  Part of it has to do with the food.  It is so dang good which my family has found out.  Many cities offer free walking tours but in Kraków there is a free Polish food tour offered by Cracow Free Tours.

Our guide Kasia took us to four different spots in the city and we tried something different in each one.  Along the way she pointed out various points of interest.  The tour itself is free (you just tip the guide at the end), and you pay a reduced price at each place.  The total for the food was only about 20 zł ($5.60 / €4,60) per person.  Quite the deal!

Pickled herring with sour cream & onions

Our first stop was at Ambasada Śledzia to try herrig.  Śledź is served two different ways in Poland.  Either with oil and garlic or with sour cream and pickled onions.  We had the sour cream and onion version with bread.

Żurek

Our second stop was at Kuchnia U Doroty for soup.  Żurek is a sour ryemeal soup that contains cabbage, potato, sausage and boiled egg.  This was really good and we'll have to find a recipe so that dad can ferment rye flour for the soup base back home in Arizona. 

Ruskie pierogi

Our third stop on the culinary tour was at Pierogi Mr Vincent.  Pierogi are Polish dumplings made from thinly rolled-out dough and there are many different kinds.  Some have meat, some have cabbage and mushrooms or spinach and cheese, some have strawberries or some other seasonal fruit, and some have a sweet cottage cheese filing.  The most popular are Ruskie pierogi which are filled with potato and cheese and topped with fried onions.

Gołąbki with mushroom sauce

Our fourth and final stop was at Warsztat for a cabbage roll.  Gołąbki is minced pork with rice, onion and mushrooms, all wrapped up in cabbage leaves.  It normally comes with either a mushroom sauce or a tomato sauce.

Everything was really good.  What's neat about the tour is that you get a very filling lunch, get to sample several Polish delicacies, and you get to see a bit of the city while you burn a few calories walking around.  The only thing that could have made it any better is if we stopped someplace for some Żubrówka z sokiem jabłkowym (Żubrówka with apple juice).  But that's easy enough to take care of on our own.