My seek for the proper Polish dumplings in Gdańsk | Poland holidays

I used to reside in Poland. I labored in a fish-and-chip store within the western metropolis of Poznań, boning cod and peeling potatoes for £1.50 an hour. With the exception of that job, I loved all the things about my time within the nation, not least the meals. I favored the rooster broth with noodles, the slippery herring, the knuckles of pork the scale of basketballs, the chilly beetroot soup that beats gazpacho palms down.

One factor I used to be much less delighted by had been Polish dumplings – pierogi. It wasn’t that they weren’t good – they had been – it was extra that they didn’t appear to warrant the intense ranges of affection and esteem Poles typically bestow on the doughy parcels. By being ambivalent about them, I used to be going towards a well-established grain.

It is claimed by some that pierogi arrived in Poland through Marco Polo (truly a fantasy), and that the oldest written Polish recipe dates to 1682 (true). In quick, this stuff have pedigree, and also you denigrate them at your peril. I nearly misplaced a Polish buddy as soon as for not being smitten with Poland’s reply to gyoza and ravioli. Such was her response, you’d have thought I’d denigrated the late Polish pope, John Paul II.

“I don’t understand this mentality,” stated Paulina. “Have you tried the ones filled with cheese and potato?”

“Yep.”

“Have you had the ones from the fancy place on the old square?”

“Yep.”

“Have you had the frozen ones from the supermarket?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Have you had the ones from the milk bar near Freedom Street?”

“More than once.”

“Hm. Have you tried my grandmother’s?”

“Erm, no.”

“Well there you are. Mystery solved. That explains your mentality. You have to reserve judgment and stop talking nonsense until you’ve tried the dumplings of a babcia.”

I had variations of this dialog a number of occasions when telling Poles that I was merely keen on pierogi quite than hopelessly devoted. On every event, the babcia (grandmother determine) in query was both useless or in any other case engaged, which means that their dumplings couldn’t be examined, and my opinion – that pierogi are simply OK – couldn’t be validated.

Until now maybe. Having loved trying to find the proper steak frites in Paris, I set myself the duty of giving pierogi a correct crack of the whip in one in every of Poland’s most interesting cities – its jewel on the Baltic coast, Gdańsk. Could the outdated port metropolis remedy me of my pierogi scepticism? Would the dumplings of a neighborhood babcia bowl me over? The reply was sure … and no.

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Gdański Bowke

After a mooch across the picturesque outdated city (throughout which I realized that Daniel Fahrenheit, inventor of the temperature scale, spent his first years in Gdańsk earlier than leaving as a teen, having realised how chilly it acquired in winter), I pull up a pew on the riverside terrace of this well-regarded institution. I’ve a combined plate of the classics: potato and cheese, cabbage and mushroom, minced pork. They’ve been boiled then shallow fried, making certain a barely crisp end, and are served with the standard accompaniments: bitter cream and bacon bits jostling in their very own lardy juices.

The very first thing that strikes me is the scale of those parcels. Boy, are they plump. Of the choice, potato and cheese triumphs, with the optimum mouthful requiring a contact of every topping: the bacon bringing a salty crunch, the lard including an umami word, the bitter cream resolving the entire. In quick, strong grub in a stunning spot.
£13, 7.5/10, gdanskibowke.com

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Panorama

No likelihood of simply occurring on this restaurant: it’s on the sixteenth flooring of what is likely to be charitably known as a nondescript constructing. The view isn’t postcard-perfect nevertheless it’s highly effective: the vista is dominated by the town’s well-known shipyard, the place in 1980 commerce union chief Lech Wałęsa and his unmerry males downed instruments and gave communism the chilly shoulder.

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The boiled dumplings have been blackened with charcoal or squid ink, stuffed with a raspberry discount and white Belgian chocolate, then adorned with strawberries and cream. This is a principal course, by the best way, not a dessert. I’ve enjoyable urgent a fork by way of the foreboding dough and watching the innards spill. Gory however gratifying. There’s a pleasant sourness from the raspberries, the chew on the dough permits the flavours to journey and mix, and I just like the crunch you get from the tiny raspberry seeds. I had been tempted by the savoury pierogi possibility – rabbit with thyme sauce – however I went with madam’s suggestion and I’m glad I did. After all, babcia know finest.
£11, 7.5/10, panoramarestauracjagdansk.pl

Mandu

The dumplings listed here are made on website and it’s a stunning factor to witness – the craft, the tradition, the ability of the babcia. The menu is intensive: 40 sorts, with baked, boiled and deep-fried choices. Some of the fillings require a double take: chorizo, potato, mascarpone and … truffle paste, anybody?

I’m happy to see selection, although. As with the sandwich, conceivably a dumpling will be stuffed with something. (In Cleveland, Ohio, I as soon as encountered bacon cheeseburger pierogi – which I interpreted as proof that multiculturalism was working simply effective.)

I have a baked half-dozen, stuffed with a mingling of beef, cheese, purple onion and pickled cucumber. Small pies they’re, befitting the etymology of pierogi. The filling is superb, however the heavier carriage of the yeast-risen dumplings begins to weigh on me, and I discover myself digging out the inside and foregoing the case. I’d have appreciated a combined plate possibility, to keep away from issues getting samey.
£12, 8/10, pierogarnia-mandu.pl

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Stary Młyn

This pierogi specialist is housed in an outdated mill – therefore the identify, which interprets as outdated mill – on the sting of what has develop into referred to as reserving.com island, on account of its recognition with vacationers. I’ve the combined plate – 9 iterations of Poland’s beloved consolation meals. There’s a half-hour wait after ordering, whereas the dumplings are “cooked on the fly”, the ceaseless prep obvious behind the eating room. The wait provides me an opportunity to learn a children’ ebook I discover on the merchandise stand (yep, there’s merch) a few dumpling that goes on an journey and finally ends up as prime minister.

The fillings are respectable: beef rib, cod fillet, rooster and cheese – however they’re considerably overpowered by the dough. One shortcoming of Polish dumplings is {that a} plate of them, even a combined one, can get a bit repetitive.

Here’s an thought: particular person dumplings, barely enlarged, handheld, simply taken away and munched on the transfer? The largest pierogi ever made, by the way, was about two metres lengthy and weighed practically 100kg, although the biggest recognised by the Guinness World Records weighed 55.7kg – each, unsurprisingly, within the US.
£15, 7/10, pierogarnie.com

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Oberża 86

Gdańsk is formally in a relationship with two different cities – Sopot and Gdynia. Together they’re referred to as the Trójmiasto, or Tricity. I take a brief practice trip to Gdynia, the ugly sister of the three. After vainly wandering round for an hour seeking pierogi, I’m about to abort the mission after I likelihood on Oberża 86. I confess my head is turned much less by the identify or the constructing and extra by the phrase Michelin on the signal. I pop my head in and ask in the event that they do pierogi. They do, as a starter, simply the three items, stuffed with broad beans and served with a shallot sauce, which they counsel pairing with a wine from the north-west of Poland.

I’m bought. And quickly I’m smitten. The sauce has a zing that comes from the onions being slow-cooked with wine and lemon. The dough has the standard of pasta. The filling is mild, and balances the tangy sauce. And there may be the correct quantity – a lovable trio, quite than a testing half dozen. The wine helps, I have to say. It’s lairy, with apple vibes and a slight fizz, the Johnny Rotten of the white wine world. After crowning Oberża 86 my winner, I waddle to the native seaside for a swim, questioning if I’ll be kind of buoyant after all of the pierogi I’ve taken on board the previous couple of days.
£12, 9/10, oberza86.pl

Ben Aitken is the writer of A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland. To assist the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery fees might apply