polish restaurants

[justin]

I'm new to the area and really want to try some good polish food. Where's a good place to get something authentic that's moderately priced? Atmosphere not too big of a deal, I'm all about the food.

[RST]

Try Smakosz 5619 W. Lawrence.

I will write a review soon (trying to catch up: I'm almost 10 posts behind now).

If you prefer a place already reviewed here, try searching the website for "Halina's" and "Smak-Tak".

There are dozens of excellent Polish buffets around with all-you-can-eat lunch running at about $6 and dinner a dollar more. The buffets include daily specials which might turn out to be roast duck, oxtail etc. A buffet is a good way to sample a wide range of Polish specialties. Consider Grota's to start. It's in the 3100 N. Central block, Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. (It's just south of Belmont, on the west side of Central). Scroll back a bit to read the long thread on Smak-Tak and on the rich Polish neighborhood around Belmont and Central.

Or consider exploring the Avondale neighborhood (Milwaukee going south on Belmont) where you will find large Polish supermarkets, bakeries, several fantastic delis with a mind-boggling array of sausages and cured meats. There's also a handful of restaurants in this area that specializes in the Polish buffet. Search website; "Avondale" "Kurowska" etc

I hope that Anna Sobor sees this thread and adds a word or two on her favorites. I'm specially interested to know about unique regional Polish specialties/dishes that might be found in certain restaurants around town.

Richard

[Nancy]

The absolute best is Tatra Inn at 6040 South Pulaski.
Polish buffet or menu.

[RST]

Nancy, thanks for the tip. While we're talking about Southside Polish places, care to expand the field by naming a few other contenders? Bobak's is a well-known quantity of course and has been posted on with some frequency. But I know so little about Polish (and for this matter, Lithuanian, Latvian etc) in the far west 50s (Midway area) 60s, 70s, 80s. Any gems in the south suburbs?

[Anna Z. Sobor]

My Polish Highlander (those from the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland) friends swear by Szalas, 5214 S. Archer, 773-582-0300. There is also a restaurant and bar in the Dom Podhalan (Polish Highlander Home)named Biolo Izba (the white room), 4808 S. Archer, 773-523-7632. The Bobak family, Gil family (own Gilmart) and Wally Mulica (of Wally's) are all Polish Highlanders. Since I'm a northwest-sider, that's my extent of southwest side knowledge. Anna

[Bruce]

I just got back from trip to Chicago, during which I sampled Lithuanian from "Healthy Foods," 32nd & Halsted. My friend and I (both originally from "the old neighborhood") ordered tons of stuff: Potato pancakes, kugelis, sausage, kraut, meat dumplings, cheese dumplings, hot beet soup, etc. Sad to say, it was OK, but no comparison to mine and not even much of a comparison to the old, now defunct restaurants that used to line 69th St. (Tulpe, Ramune's) and nearby Western Ave. (Ruta's, Palangas). I've tried (a few years ago)Mabenka (sp?) in suburbs (79th & Wolf Road??--not sure about address at all) and it was also OK, but again kind of mediocre.

While at Healthy Foods, the matron there advised that there was still a Lithuanian restaurant operating around 71st & Washtenaw or Talman, quality unknown.

I CAN vouch for excellent fresh Lithuanian sausage from A&J meats, 99th & 1 block east of Central Park. Anyway, that's all the Lithuanian stuff that I've kept current with since becoming an expat. Now make my own beet soup (hot and cold), saurkraut soup, kugelis, meat dumplings--who needs restaurants?

[Bruce]

I mentioned Mabenka maybe at 79th & Wolf, I think--more like 79th & Roberts Rd.?--Check first.

[RST]

Bruce,
Thanks for your Lithuanian update.

Tell us what you know about Clarendon Hills Butter. As far as I know you're the only person EVER (in any medium of information exchange) to make a comment (in this case, an enthusiastic one) about this brand. (Google gave your post on this board from 2001? as one of the few results). This butter is commonly found at supermarkets and groceries outside the central areas (say, on Devon, Harvestime at Lawrence etc). I actually visited the address on the label (8200s S. Commercial) to find an old brick building with the name Danish Maid Butter Co. I looked up Danish Maid and it's possible that Danish Maid may not have such a pristine history (but this is unconfirmed). Could it be possible that Clarendon Hills is a brand name they are using to "make good"? The Danish Maid website does not mention Clarendon Hills at all. I tried the butter (unsalted) and found it quite good, and comparable at the least to most of the superior commercial butters available. In your own old post, you said something to the effect of "it's better than the crap butter we have up here in milk-producing Wisconsin". Care to fill us in on what else you know?

Richard

[RST]

Here's the link. It's from 2002. It's great to read tough opinionated posts like these. Wish you were still around.

Mr. Novi and his .38 sounds like a lot of fun ;)

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

[Bruce]

One other thing--you speculated that this company might be using a new name ("Clarendon Hills") to offset some bad reputation--but I think that this is unlikely, as I have bought Clarendon Hills on & off, when available & when I've seen it for about 10 or 15 maybe even 20 years. So, I don't think there has been any kind of recent renaming effort.

I enjoy the irony--better butter from some gritty brick building in Chicago than any I've found from the cheesehead state.

[Bruce]

My last brief foray into town, I picked up Clarendon Hills at the Berwyn Fruit Mart, on Harlem around 39th or 40th. Have seen it also at Bobak's, the one on Archer, but have not been there in about a year or so. If I recall, Bobak's did also have a number of imported butters, I think from Poland, France, Denmark, may also have had one from east coast? Cannot recall names except for Clarnedon Hills.

I really really miss the food sometimes, and I get sick of trying to duplicate (sometimes badly) the stuff that I miss. Oh, well, trade offs in everything I guess.......

I should make a point of trying to get together with some hounds when I visit (now that I'm on the lth thing)--this past time, had family/social obligations, few or no hounds among them, and much of the time & stomach space wasted on 3rd rate slop.

[Zaria513]

stumbled upon this thread that is several years old and was excited to see such interest in "Clarendon hills Butter"!! I actually work at Danish Maid Butter Company (a family business). No, we are not trying to cover up anything by using the Clarendon Hills name. I'm not sure of the history of "Clarendon Hills" but a story I remember hearing as a kid was that the company may have at one time been located in Clarendon Hills, IL and the owner wanted his specialty whipped product to be associated with that. It wasn't long after that he named his company "Danish Maid Butter," but wanted to keep the Clarendon Hills name since it meant so much to the product.

[Nancy]

IMHO, Mabenka's is terrible. I am 100% Polish, and Tatra Inn has them all beat.

[Anna Z. Sobor]

In answer to Richard's questions and Justin's query: I've been to Smakosz, and the food is fine but it's just too smoky inside for me. Other suggestions: Staropolska on Belmont between Laramie and Lockwood and Przybylo's House of the White Eagle on Milwaukee in Niles. In addition to banquet halls, they have a restaurant serving surprisingly good food at moderate prices. The Przybylo family has recently spent time in Poland doing research, changed their menu and redecorated.

History of Polish cuisine, Cliff Notes version: what people in Poland ate depended on what they could grow and store in root cellars, and what social class they were. The peasants living in villages (wies), relied on potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, beets, eggs, grain, etc. and chicken and pigs, if they were lucky. The gentry/nobility living in the manor homes (szlachta--dwor) incorporated the wild game they hunted into their cuisine. Those in cities were influenced by traders coming through Poland on their East-West travels. And the kings, well, ate like kings! Since there was a lot of intermarriage at that level, Polish haute cuisine has French and Italian influences as well. To this day, the herbs and vegetables added to stock are called "wloszczyzna" (Italian stuff), brought to Poland by Queen Bona.

To this mix, add the large Jewish population in pre-WW II Poland, the largest concentration in Europe, and the fact that Poland as a state did not exist for about 200 years, finally regaining its independence in 1918. It was partitioned and ruled by Germans, Austrians, Russians and Prussians in various combinations. Regional foods were influenced by whoever was ruling you. Poland, in turn, had previously been in a union with Lithuania, and at some points in history ruled Byelorussia, Ukraine and parts of Russia. This explains why a potato is a "kartofel" (from the German) in some parts of Poland, and a "ziemniak" (ziemia = earth, i.e. from the earth) in others, a blintz is identical to a "nalesnik" and weiner schnitzel is also a "kotlet schabowy". Think fluid culinary boundaries.

Regional specialties: to the best of my knowledge, the only region that seems to have made an imprint on the Polish dining scene in Chicago is Podhale, the southern mountain region, home of Highlanders (gorale). Distinctive dishes such as "kwasnica" (soup made with the brine of naturally fermented sauerkraut)should be on the menus of Tatra Inn (see Nancy's post about southside restaurants), Szalas and the Dom Podhalan (see my post in reply), along with other specialties. Since many Highlanders were sheep herders, another specialty is "oscypek", cheese made from sheep's milk, cured in oblong, carved molds. An acquired taste.

The Highlanders have a tradition of operating B&B's and pensions, with three home cooked meals a day, catering to tourists. I know the summer guests from Krakow kept my mother's family afloat. My grandparents were able to grow enough to feed the family in the steep, rocky soil, and there was some income from logging, but the tourists were key (as well as the money sent from relatives who'd emigrated to America). There appear to be a disproportionate number of Highlanders in Chicago's Polish deli, restaurant and bakery businesses, probably because they were just using the skills they brought from home. Smacznego! Anna

[RST]

Anna, thanks for all the leads you've given us in the past week-on this thread and on several other ones! So so much to catch up on. You should write a book on eating Polish food in Chicago!

Re: oscypek, sheep's milk cheese cured in oblong carved molds
Where does one find it in Chicago? This sounds really intriguing. Is it an aged, hard cheese? Are there any other Polish cheeses worth keeping an eye out for?

[RST]

I looked up an old reference The World Atlas of Cheese (Nancy Eekhof-Stork, 1976) and the (full) page on Polish cheeses discusses mostly (I think) popular, mass-produced cheeses (made at collective farms) like Grojer (Gruyere), Emmentalski, Edam, Gouda etc. It mentions one "real Polish cheese" called Podhalanski, "from the lower Carpathian mountains, from a mixture of cow's and sheep's milk,brick-shaped, with moderately large holes in the paste and a solid rind." It does not mention oscypek at all.

It also claims: "The choice of cheeses in Poland is rather limited, and cannot be compared to a country like Yugoslavia, where cheese recipes were handed down as part of the family heritage."

In the Czechoslovakia section, it discusses a certain ostepek cheese which I assume to be similar to or the same as oscypek. Ostepek is described as "a sheep's milk cheese with good keeping qualities, weighing between 300 & 500 g, made in an egg shape, has a solid to hard paste, and the characteristic sheep flavor. The curd is formed while covered with the whey, and is afterwards immersed in hot water to give it a smooth surface. Finally, the cheese is put into a decorative mold, brined and then smoked above a wood fire in the shepherd's mountain hut; in 3 to 6 days, the cheese becomes dark-yellow to brown."

Re: cheeses from the former Yugoslavia

I have tasted a few here and there around town: brined "Balkan" cheeses, feta-type cheeses, sheep's milk mountain cheeses, Travnicki Sir (available at various Serbian delis: try George's Deli) which is supposed to be one of the best cheeses from these areas. The quality is variable: there are some very delicious cheeses, but at the same time, there seems to be a lot of mass-produced, improperly-handled and transported (vacuum-packed etc) products.

Since there is a greater mass of Poles in Chicago and that there are very strong transport networks (frequent flights, package couriers and transport companies such as that huge one in Avondale), I am wondering if top-quality artisanal Polish cheeses DO make it to this city.

[Anna Z. Sobor]

Richard--instead of writing a book about Polish food in Chicago, I'd rather eat my way through! One call to Gilmart deli(5050 South Archer, 773-585-5514) confirmed that they sell sheep's milk "oscypek" imported from Poland--$15.99 for a whole one; check for availability.

The description of Czechoslovakian "ostepek" in your cheese book matches how the traditional Polish one is made. The Tatry and Karpaty mountain region has its own culture which doesn't recognize national boundaries. Gilmart may also be a place to start your hunt for Polish artisanal cheeses, which unfortunately I don't know much about. Good luck! Anna

[RST]

Thanks again! Lots and lots of new places to check out! (Had not even heard of Gilmart!)