01 Dec What to buy from the Polish shop and what to do with it, part 3

Polish shop season continues…

The Polish shop, now in every UK town I imagine, can feel like a labyrinth of strange and interesting products. When I go an Asian store, I spend ages trying to figure what I to buy. I have my favourites, of course, that I recognise from my times in Thailand and those I have learnt about from my Chinese, Japanese and Korean friends, but there are still so many unknowns. The Polish shop is a completely different experience for me. I also stay for ages, but this time it’s because I feel so at home. I want to share this knowledge and open the doors for more people to go to their local Polish shop regularly. If you would like to learn what Polish shops are all about, you can listen to BBC radio 4’s The Food Programme.

What was in my basket and what I did with it

Let’s start on the top left and go clockwise. Ogòrki kiszone are gherkins in brine. They taste different to the ones in vinegar and go really well with any cold cuts or Polish sausage. Next to them is my favourite mustard. You will find many mustards int he Polish shop and it’s worth picking a few to try, but my bet is that “Sarepska” will be a firm favourite for most, as it’s mild yet full of flavour. Even my kids love it! “Kwas chlebowy” is a fermented rye bread drink from the Lithuanian borderlands. It’s can be a non-alcoholic beer alternative, or a healthier Coco Cola. I used to drink Kawa Inka throughout my childhood, instead of coffee. I now drink it instead of my second coffee of the day (along with some mushroom powder). Below that, we have the famous Oscypek cheese from the Tatry mountains. The way we ate Oscypek in the said mountains, was grilled over a bbq with some cranberry sauce. The sausage is “kiełbasa kozacka” – a dried sausage in the Cossack style. I have been eating chunks of it with the mustard and gherkins, but today I also made a delicious breakfast with it, which I will post about soon. Paluszki are just a lovely snack, covered in sesame seeds and the jam above them is “Sour Cherry”, or wild/ Morello cherry as it’s sometimes known.

Happy shopping!