Tamarillo and other fruits in Krakow / Warsztaty z tamarillo w Krakowie

In my restaurant, Ambasada Pacyfiku, we educate people on the use of many exotic ingredients. We cook with them every day. One of the events are Fruity Tuesdays. On most of Tuesdays we held 1-hour workshop on one fruit. We tell how to choose the ripe one, how to cut it and what dishes you can make of it. You will learn what health benefits every fruits brings. You can taste some of our recipes and take them home as well. We don't make obvious things like guacamole but rather avocado icecreams and not a fruit salad but a fish salsa out of a starfruit. Plus you meet other foodies that turn out to be regulars in our premises. Please follow us on facebook so you will know what fruit is next. This week it is the tree tomato or tamarillo as it is know in New Zealand. 

W mojej restauracji, w Ambasadzie Pacyfiku, edukujemy ludzi na temat użycia wielu egzotycznych składników. My używamy ich codziennie. Jedną z naszych inicjatyw są Owocowe Wtorki. W większość wtorków prowadzimy 1-godzinne warsztaty na temat jednego konkretnego owocu. Wyjaśniamy, jak wybrać w sklepie dojrzały owoc, jak go pokroić i co z niego ugotować. Dowiadujecie się także, jakie właściwości zdrowotne ma dany owoc. Macie okazję spróbować niektóre z naszych przepisów i zabrać je do domu. Realizujemy ekstrawaganckie pomysły: zamiast guacamole proponujemy lody z awokado, a zamiast sałatki owocowe na przykład salsę z karamboli do ryby. Poza tym spotkacie innych miłośników jedzenia, którzy są już naszymi stałymi bywalcami. Aktualne spotkania ogłaszamy na facebooku. W tym tygodniu opowiadamy o drzewiastym pomidorze, znanym także pod nowozelandzką nazwą tamarillo. 

Zapraszam!

Ilona Zdziech

South Pacific Embassy in Poland

I won't say much.

My dream came true. I am the headchef of Ambasada Pacyfiku (South Pacific Embassy) in Krakow, Poland.

We serve dishes from various countries: Vanuatu's lap lap, Hawaiian haupia or Australian kangaroo steak among others.

We have nice selection of Australian and New Zealand's wines.

You can follow us here: https://www.facebook.com/AmbasadaPacyfiku?ref=hl
Our English version website is here: http://www.ambasadapacyfiku.pl/en

See you in Krakow!

Regional Polish Cuisine - Maloposka - Maczanka krakowska

Caraway is very popular spice in the Malopolska cuisine. Caraway seeds have many opponents and supporters in Poland due to its characteristic, slightly scorching and spicy flavour.

If it is added with caution, it gives the dish unique taste. Caraway was often used in traditional Polish cuisine for its medicinal properties. It improves digestion and has antibacterial qualities and it was often added to greasy meat or bean dishes. Currently, caraway is often used in dishes in Malopolska. Caraway is added to many dishes: salads, white cheese, baked apples, sauerkraut and bread. It is used in soups from mushrooms, potato and cabbage soups,. We can add it to meat dishes but it can also be used to make flavoured vodka. I like caraway seeds and I often use them in my kitchen.

Now I wish to introduce one of my favourite dishes with caraway – Maczanka krakowska.

In the past Maczanka was a good way to utilise remnants of roasts as food .

It lies in the fact that meat is cut into small pieces, heated in the sauce and eaten with bread. You dip pieces of bread in the sauce and eat them . You can eat them with your hands. So my grandparents ate it this way in a restaurant in Krakow before the war, and now I serve it this way in my home.

I prepare this dish with fresh meat rather than from the remaining roasts from dinner.

80 grams pork meat,

1.5 tablespoons lard or butter ,

3 large onions,

salt and pepper, to taste

bay leaves, 2

a half tablespoons of caraway,

spoon of flour,

6 buns

1. Rub the meat well with salt, caraway and pepper and put in the fridge for a few hours, preferably at night.
2. In an oven-pan dissolve fat , pour water (a few tablespoons), put the meat, cover and bake in the oven for about 1.5 h at 180 degrees.
3. In the middle of baking the meat, add the onions sliced .
4. After baking, remove the meat and thicken the sauce with flour.
5. Cut the meat into slices, serve in a deep plate with sauce and a bun.

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My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 3 - My zone around Bagatela theatre.

The cross of the streets Szewska, Karmelicka, Krupnicza, Podwale was my middle part of Cracow.



I love this point where one can meet tourists and real Cracow live. My favourite places were situated around Bagatela theatre. There are theatre bakery, bookshops , photography and clothe shops, library, churches, colleges, touristic office, tram stops and of course restaurants, pubs and coffee shops. This area has many places where I can eat something and enjoy and meet with my friends.

On Karmelicka street close to the theatre there are three bars where sometimes I had lunch. There are “Polska kuchnia”, “Bar rybny” and “ Lunchowisko” in the neighborhood. “Polska Kuchnia” serves traditional polish food. There is a menu in English. I liked to order pierogi and meals with herring. Decor inside is still in communism style, but it is clean and nice.

Opposite to Kuchnia Polska is “Bar rybny” (fish bar) where only fish is served. Maybe they don't have wide selection but they always have fresh fish. All are served with frying or cooking potato and salads. I remember this bar from my childhood when my granddad took me there for dinner. My granddad loved fish. When I was five years old I tasted salmon and cod first time in my live. They were delicious and very expensive because that time sea fish was a luxury stock.

There is also a sweet bar “Czarodziej” on the same street. They serve a wide selection of sweetness and polish cakes, desserts and beverages. It is good place for evening coffee and talking with friends. The “Sweet bars” offer delicacies so popular in Poland like kremówka, ekler, chocolate cake, cheese cake, doughnuts. I loved to eat there a cream dessert with raisins which is called “deser słutański”, it is so tasty.

The best place for me for meeting and eating is “Dynia” on Krupnicza street. It is austere place with beautiful garden. All there is simple: decor, garden, and also food but everything is tasty. The front of this restaurant suggests small interior but inside it is huge and there is lots of intimate tables. I love so much a green garden which looks like a wonderland. During spring and summer this place is a piece of forest in heart of the city.“Dynia” is very good place for breakfast, lunch, diner and meeting over coffee or wine. Menu is typical Mediterranean with polish influence. Chefs serve healthy and light food. When I had a bad day I used to go to “Dynia” and I order coffee, sit in the garden or near the window in winter and contemplate silence. It was good therapy for me.
I recommend you this place when you visit Cracow. This coffee bar is open all day.


Next to Bagatela Theatre we find “CK- browar”.This is a pub where I often went with my friends and guests.
It is situated in deep cellar and it makes impression of the gate of hell. Underground this place is dark, noisy, stuffy but enjoyable. It is typical beer pub but there is also a restaurant and night club area. There is a good selection of old polish food, I recommend you especially schabowy with cabbage. There is small brewery as well and you can try beer which is served in special way. The waiter brings a pipe with beer to use it by yourself. This is good idea for budget party of any kind: birthdays, graduate party, stag party, hen night or other. The parties are often sponaneous and don't require advance booking. This pub houses about 500 people in the some time. History of this place is short. It was open in 1996, but owners furnished pub in nineteen century style when Cracow belonged to Austria- Hungarian empire. CK means Imperial King it was knighthood of Austrian emperor. We can find the marks and traces of Habsburg's empire in the whole pub. There are portraits of last Austrian king and decor is like art nouveau style. I love the atmosphere of this deep cellar.


It is my Cracow: modern and vintage, old and young, fast and slow, magic and realistic.

I invite you to visit my city and see this miraculous place. See you.

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My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 1

My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 2

My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 2

Part 2:My fast food on Grodzka street.

In Kracow Grodzka street is very important place for everybody. This street connects Market square and Wawel castle. When I lived in Cracow I was on this street every day because it was my way to my job. Grodzka street is beautiful and has long and rich history. But today I'm not going to write about it.

Today I'm writing about one place on this street. This place is a milk bar “Temida” (eng. Themis). I like this bar and it was important for me. “Temida” isn't sophisticated but it always has fresh food and staff serves quickly. I know “Temida”since my childhood. My parents took me sometimes for diner after city walk. During communism time this place was open for everybody and was cheap and good and it was in the city center. When I was a student often I had a fast lunch and also ate there in the breaks in my city guide job.


What does Milk bar mean? “Bar mleczny” (direct translation – milky bar) was a government owned place to sell as many fast meals as possible. Something like a Communistic Fast Food – a McDonalds for working class, always hungry people, students who wouldn't`t have much money or homeless people. After that time places like that became famous for cheep and good meals, so the same class of people would eat there. In this particular one you can still see an university lecturer along with students, or people straight from work. Food remained good and really cheap, maybe not the most sophisticated but really tasty.

Why this common place has name of an ancient Greek goddess? I'm not sure but I guess why communist governors called that place in this way. They usually called milk bars with ordinary names like “Daisy”, “Miner”, “Central” etc. It was different in Crakow, where council had and still have high opinion of oneself so all milk bars in Crakow had fancy names like "Barcelona", "University", "Europe", etc. Probably the Themis (pol. Temida)milk bar owe its name to location. There is a university faculty of law in the same street so maybe the name of Greek goodness of law was the best name for this place.

What can we find in Milk bar menu? We find Polish food, simple and tasty cuisine. In “Temida” I recommend “pierogi”. There are a few kinds of pierogi. Pierogi with meat, cabbage and mushrooms, with cottage cheese, and “ruskie”. “Pierogi Ruskie” are my favourite, there are stuffing with potatoes and cottage cheese and this dish is served with fried onion and malted butter. I loved them.
There are many kinds of soups. Soups in Polish tradition are very important and we can find all soups which are traditonal meals served during important Polish holidays. There are mushroom soup, beet root soup, żurek, and of course rosół, tomato soup and borsch.
Sometimes I took my visitors for fast lunch and we ate typical Polish dinner composed of soup, main course with meat and salad and kompot. Kompot means a drink with cooked fruits served sometimes hot, sometimes cold - as you like. Typical meats in main course are kotlet schabowy (meat with pork breaded), kotlet mielony (like hamburger), zrazy (beef roulade), and others.
But I also like vegetarian food there. There are many kind of salads, I recommended salad with beet root, spring salad, or salad with lentils. My favourite dishes are: placki ziemniaczane, they look like pancakes made of potatos, dumpling and pancakes with cottage cheese and strawberry.In the second branch of “Temida” on Poselska street they serve variety of pancakes, but this is only kind of meal that you can order in that branch.
There is also a wide selection of breakfasts in “Temida” milk bar. We find there eggs served of many kinds, sandwiches, sausages and other meals.

“Temida”has still the same style of decoration typical for the communism. Even though it is busy place it's always clean and tidy inside. There are four rooms: the first room is serving area. Milk bars are always self-service. You'll take a tray and line up. Queues are sometimes long but don't worry, staff works very quickly and you have a meal in a few minutes. Once you paid and got your meal, you need to find a free seat. Sometimes it may be a problem because people don't like strangers at the table but when you are alone you'll find a place quickly. When you are with companionship it's a good idea to split a task. One person is looking for a place and the rest is waiting for a meal in queue.
Currently in “Temida” we can meet students, professors, workers, clerks, homeless and turists but all are kind and polite to each other. I met a lot of interesting people there and I heard amazing stories.
I recommended you “Temida”if you need to eat during a tour. Maybe we meet there? Enjoy.



P.S.
Ilona thanks for your help. Your photos are really great.

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My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 1

My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 3 - My zone around Bagatela theatre.

My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 1

My Irish friends asked me to recommend Polish restaurant in Cracow. So I thought it is a good topic for series of posts in my blog. Cracow has many guides on restaurants. These posts will be my subjective guide on Polish restaurants in Cracow. I ate in every described place.

Part 1: Around Market Square

One time somebody asked me - “ What is a smell of Cracow?” The answer is easy – old Cracow smells of food.It is true. When you are on Market square in Cracow in summer afternoon you will be feeling like in restaurant room. You will find open air restaurants around you.Food smell wafts up every old town street every afternoon. Cracow has about thousand restaurants but where can you find good Polish food? In the old town there are many good restaurants - cheap and expensive ones but only a few of them serve traditional Polish food. We start our trip on Market Square. There are very expensive and tourist restaurants on Market square, this is a good place only for coffee time in open air restaurant during listening a bugle-call.

The most famous and the oldest restaurants Wierzynek and Hawełka are very expensive and with menu which is variation of traditional Polish food. If you persist with eating there I suggest those places for exclusive dinner in beautiful old interior.

My favourite place for a morning coffee or hot chocolate (the best chocolate in the world) is “Prowincja”. “Prowincja” is small and cute cafe on Bracka street. That is a place where students and famous people meet.

Close to Collegium Maius on Anna street there is “ Chimera” restaurant. “Chimera” has two branches on that street: the first is a salad- bar, the second is a restaurant.The salad- bar is big, old and very popular bar in Cracow. The salads are fresh and made with Polish vegetables and fruits but sometimes chefs use exotic ingredients. I ate there often and I always order different salads. There is a big selection of salads there. Chimera salad-bar is a good place for a quick lunch. The second “Chimera” is a restaurant which serves Old Polish Cuisine. It is expensive, but this restaurant is very good if you want to try real Old Polish food which was served in aristocratic families.
I recommend:roast duck with apples and Polish style rabbit with sour cream sauce. This restaurant serves east European wine, and Polish nalewki and wódki, of which my favourite are: wine - Tokaj, nalewki - “Piołunówka” ,Nalewka porzeczkowa and “Krupnik”. If in the menu you find dishes which you know or sound strangely non-polish it is still an Old Polish cuisine, because Polish cuisine is cosmopolitan. I will write about it soon.

The second place which serves Old Polish food is “U Babci Maliny” restaurant (Grandmother Malina). This restaurant has a few branches in Caracow and they serve Country Old Polish Cuisine. The first one is in the building of Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk). Beforehand it was typical cheap restaurant for students but it was very popular among Cracow citizens and the owners changed this place and they started to serve country food. Next, tourists who sought real polish foods found this place and this small cheap restaurant evolved into today’s form. Now the owners have 6 branches in Poland.
The restaurant in Polish Academy of Sciences on 17 Sławkowska street is self-service restaurant with good food and average prices. It is always quite full. If you wait and find free place, you can eat very good polish food. It tastes like my grandmothers food I recommend all soups, pierogi and kołduny. The second branch is on Szpitalna street opposite Słowacki theatre. This place has two floors. There is a self-service restaurant on ground floor and typical old restaurant underground where they serve a little expensive food of the same taste I ate there good pork and lamb.

My sentimental place where I ate dinner only twice is Jama Michalika on Florianska street. Jama Michalika now is a restaurant and a museum at the same time. That place have long and famous history. In nineteenth century this place was open as a cake shop where painters often met. Michalik expanded his own shop and next he changed the shop into a restaurant where artists were still meeting. The artist had a bigautonomy in Michlik restaurant and they started to decorate rooms and organized a cabaret. That cabaret was known in the whole country and now students are taught about it. The interior of the restaurant is a little dark like a cave (jama means cave or hole) but decor is fabulous and it comes from art nouveau (19th century), and we can see old pictures and puppets. Food in this restaurant is normal like in cheap restaurant, but prices aren’t low. Managers still think like during communism time. I recommend this place if you love history and you want to absorb the old magic atmosphere of Cracow.

... to be continue.

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My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 2

My subjective guide on restaurants in Cracow - part 3 - My zone around Bagatela theatre.