I thought you might enjoy a day reading about my experiences with what we ate and drank in Poland.  If I comment that I did not especially like something, it does not mean that it was bad - it just might be an acquired taste or something that to me tastes like broccoli does to my husband.  The tour group ordered many of our meals and the breakfasts were served buffet style.  They did a wonderful job and I think they attempted to have us try many of the regional specialties.  I ordered my own selections for lunch.  Overall, the food was wonderful and I never saw such large breakfast buffets in my life!

If you eat in Poland, you will eat potatoes.  I think we ate them nearly every way they could be served.  There were always potatoes at the dinner meal.  Boiled with dill was pretty common although we also had roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato dumplings, potato pancakes, french fries, and potatoes in some of the soups that were served.  Soup is as frequent on the menu as the potatoes.  As far as I could tell every food that we ate in Poland for lunch or dinner was fresh and made from scratch.  Meals were never a sandwich.  The soups that we tried included a special traditional soup (that I can't spell the name of.)  I will just call it sour rye soup with polish sausage and a hard boiled egg in it.  I think it requires an acquired taste to appreciate it.  I tried it both times it was served, but never ate the whole bowl.

Pierogies are a favorite of mine at home and although they were never served with our breakfast or dinner in Poland, I was determined to have some while I was there so I ordered some for lunch twice.  One time I got them with cabbage and mushroom filling and they were sort of roasted and another time I ordered a fruit filled version just because I had never seen any like that before.  Those came with a strawberry filling and with a heavy cream served over the top.

We had many versions of a delicious apple pie/cake/cobbler.  I was never sure what to call it.  Portions were huge and it was often served on a dinner plate with a scoop or two of ice cream and or meringue, and many times with chocolate or raspberry syrup drizzled over it.  We also had some delicious cheesecake and chocolate cake.  When ordering on my own, I ordered some ice cream (one flavor was kiwi) and also got a strawberry mousse.  Food was always beautifully presented on the plate or serving dish.  We also had a piece of the delicious kremówka, a cream cake, that was a favorite of Pope John Paul II. 

The drinks that came along with our meals included water, hot tea, and coffee - although one evening we ate at a microbrewery and there were several glasses of beer that had been poured for us so we could sample them.  I am not much of a beer drinker - although I found out that there is a "Polish way" to drink beer that involves adding raspberry syrup to it and it tasted a lot better to me once you did that.  (Okay, so if you like beer, you are probably disgusted by that comment!)  A few times we had wine or Coca-Cola Light.  Ice is seldom served with drinks and even the temperature at which the drinks are refrigerated seems to be a bit warmer than what we are used to in the United States, but we were in Poland so do as the Polish do! 

We were told that people do not drink tap water so we bought many bottles of water throughout the day and my friend and I learned to get "still" (or niegazowana) bottled water.  However, even "still" water sometimes contained some carbon dioxide.  One style of water that we were served surprised everyone.  There were pitchers of lukewarm water on the dining tables and what appeared to be large chunks of apples floating at the top of the water.  We were in an area that had miles of apple orchards so I think it must have been a regional specialty.  Anyway, most of us thought that was not so good.  I think I was unusual because I drank two glasses of it.  I think it would have been good if it was served cold, but my attitude was when you are thirsty, you are thirsty!

As for coffee, I had read about this before leaving on our trip and it happened at one meal - we were served coffee with the coffee grounds right there in the cup we drank from.  Odd to see that, but once the coffee grounds settled, it was fine to drink.  I usually do not make my coffee very strong and most of the Polish coffee was strong and we drank a cup of coffee after our late dinner --- I guess it was good we were tired after the long day or I never would have gotten to sleep.  Choices of tea bags for our hot tea were delightfully varied.  We shopped at a grocery store before we left and I bought a box of white tea flavored with fig and pear to bring home with me.  It's very good.

Breads were also varied and delicious.  Although I didn't get to try it, there is a bread shaped like a rooster that is special to one area of Poland.  There is a special bagel-pretzel type bread in Krakow as well.  Obviously rye and other whole grains breads were served.  Cheese was plentiful as well.  In Zakopane, we were served a cheese made from ewe's milk and it was quite good.

Three of our meals included traditional singing and dancing with the performers wearing their regional clothing.  The clothes are so beautiful and you couldn't help but enjoy the lively music.  At our farewell dinner, we even had games such as rolling hay, pounding a nail, and tossing eggs. 

I am writing this in the wrong order because I am ending with breakfast.  Our breakfasts were served buffet style and you have never seen such large breakfasts in your life!  There was table after table filled with all sorts of choices.   We always had several types of juice, a pitcher of water, coffee, the numerous tea bags for hot tea, several types of bread and rolls, usually eggs, yogurt, several types of sausages and various sliced meats, butter and jams of all sorts, fresh fruit, cereal, cheeses, and even things like tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, etc.  No one was going to leave the breakfast table hungry, that was for sure!