Beet Soup and Krakow Style Pork

Interrail Stop Number 2

Our second city stop was the lovely Polish city, Krakow. We toured around the castle, admired the Old Town streets, square and market, as well as paying our respects in a visit to Auschwitz (which was truly haunting but I would strongly recommend it as I learned so much from our tour guide and cannot begin to describe the scale and feel of the place in words or photos).

The day and a half we had in this city felt short, and it is somewhere that I would like to revisit for a longer period, but it was a great stop and we tried some traditional food...

After the yummy dumplings we tasted in Warsaw on the first of our interrail stops, we were looking forward to sampling more Polish cuisine in Krakow. We went to a tiny restaurant/cafe called Kuchnia u Doroty, recommended by the free walking tour group, and shared the famous Polish beet soup with croquette (Barszcz z krokietem) as a starter before two hearty main dishes - a Beef Stroganoff (Strogonoff) and Roast Pork with toast and Krakow style gravy (Maczanka po krakowsku).

Beet Soup

Croquette

We were unsure about ordering the the starter - beetroot soup, what was that going to taste like? But it was on nearly every Polish menu, so we went for it and it was absolutely delicious!! Satisfyingly salty and full of rich flavours, this warming soup had a winter food feel but without the stodge. The croquette was unusual, with undefinable meat in a pasta-come-pastry-come-potato roll, in a light crispy batter. It was a nice accompaniment to the soup, and soaked up the beetroot flavour when dipped in, but perhaps not the tastiest thing on its own!

Beef Stroganoff

Krakow Pork

The main courses were very large, very filling and unnecessarily carby (as was the case with a lot of the local food!). The stroganoff was good, but quite watery and lacking in flavour. The Krakow style sauce had plenty of flavour, but not entirely sure what flavours they were!! The pork was nicely cooked, as were the mushroom and potato accompaniments,but the toast was literally two slices of plain white bread sandwiching the pork. Obviously, with this much sauce it was just soggy bread, resulting in a very strange main course! 

So all in all, we were pleasantly surprised with the beet soup, and unpleasantly surprised with the mains!! Perhaps we were a little adventurous in ordering one of the only dishes on the menu that we had not heard of, but isn't that the point of trying food in new places?? Anyway, we had a great time, the staff were very friendly, the price was unbelievably low, and the cosy traditional setting made the meal a good one!