Prior to my trip, I had signed up for a food tour in Krakow hoping to get a chance to try out some of Poland’s most popular dishes. I had never been on a food tour before but people seemed to rave about them online, so I thought that this trip would be a perfect opportunity to try one.
The tour costed 50PLN, and lasted roughly 3 hours. It started near the Old Synagogue and ended around the same area as well. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative and it had rained heavily right before the start of the tour. The rain continued to be an issue during the tour and at one point, it rained hard enough that we had to hide out inside a restaurant for a bit. Likely due to there being a cost attached to this tour, there were only 4 people in total, which is a huge contrast to the 2 other Free Walking Tours I’d done in Poland, which drew crowds of 40 plus people.
Our first stop was a tiny restaurant where we were provided with a samples of two popular soups. We tried zurek, a sour soup of vegetables and sausage, which I had actually had for supper the night before. Although sour, it has a light flavour which made it quite easy to eat. The second soup we tasted was a beetroot soup, which I really liked. It was very subtle, but flavourful and I wish we could have tried a whole bowl of it.
Right outside the restaurant was a stand selling obwarzanek krakowski, a traditional and cheap snack food sold on the streets. I had seen many street carts selling these pretzels throughout Krakow and our guide told us that it is a very popular breakfast item, especially for students, because they only cost the equivalent of $0.50-$0.60CAD. The pretzels are all made at the same place and then delivered to the street carts throughout Krakow to sell. I ordered a sesame one and can’t say I enjoyed it at all. It was hard and dry and quite unappetizing for me. Our guide mentioned that they do taste much better in the mornings when they are fresh.
We were then taken to a local market selling everything from fruits and vegetables to clothing. We tried some smoked cheese, which was delicious and was then given 10 minutes to look around the market as our guide went to prepare the next food items. Likely due to the weather, the market was very quiet and there didn’t seem to be too many customers around, with the exception of the few I saw near the vegetable section.
We met back up with our guide and she handed each of us a bag of pickles and sauerkraut. Both items were extremely sour so I couldn’t eat too much of it, but they would be a good side dish to a meal. We then went to the back of the market where a butcher store was located and we got to try a few different cuts of sausages with some local rye bread. Our guide explained that bread is very important to Polish people and would never be thrown out. If there is bread that is about to go bad, Polish people would rather feed it to the pigeons than thrown it out.
From the market, we walked for about 10 minutes to a tiny little restaurant to try some pierogis. The restaurant was so tiny that only 3-4 people could be inside at any given time, so our guide ordered take out and we ended up eating just outside the restaurant. I had already tried the Ruskie Pierogi (cheese, potato and onions), but it was the first time I got to try a sweet pierogi. I didn’t think I’d like it but in fact, it was quite delightful, and not what I expected at all. The sweet pierogi was light and the little bit of whipped cream on top really elevated the taste. In fact, I liked it so much that I went and ordered some for dinner that night. I later heard that you can also put sour cream on sweet pierogis, but I have yet to try that.
The next stop was a little bakery where we sampled a piece of traditional Polish cake as well as some dark Polish chocolate.
We were then taken to a pub, (which was quite busy for 3pm in the afternoon) where we were taught about vodka and herring. They served the herring with some lard on the side to help the vodka go down, and it was very interesting to learn about this, and a bit of a culture shock! I can’t say I loved the herring and lard, but it was definitely interesting.
Our next stop was at a restaurant where we could sample Bigos, a traditional hunter’s stew of sauerkraut and meat. I had tried this previously and quite enjoyed it, even though it was on the salty side. Our last stop was at a bar where flavoured vodka was introduced. 4 different kinds were served, including lemon and elderflower.
All in all, the tour was exactly what I had hoped for – a taste of some traditional Polish foods. Some of the more expensive tours actually included a sit down meal but I was quite alright with this type of tour where we could walk a bit and then have just a taste of everything. By the time we got to the second last stop, I was quite full and was very glad that we didn’t have an actual meal anywhere.
Krakow Food Tour
November to February – Every Monday & Friday at 1:30pm. Every Saturday at 10:30am
March to October – Every Monday to Friday at 1:30pm. Every Saturday at 10:30am
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