Pierogi

Background

Pierogi are dumplings of unleavened dough wrapped around a filling and boiled; common fillings include potato and farmer's cheese, sauerkraut, minced meat, mushrooms, and fruit or berries, and savoury ones are often topped with sour cream or fried onions. English Wikipedia notes that their exact origin is unknown and hard to trace: dumpling-type foods probably originated in China and spread in Europe in the Middle Ages or later. One claim is that Marco Polo brought them along the Silk Road; another is that the Polish St Hyacinth (Jacek) brought them from Kievan Rus' in the 13th century; still others think they came to present-day Ukraine from the Turkic peoples. All of these are unproven claims. Every summer Kraków holds a pierogi festival on the Small Market Square, where the jury prize and the audience prize are named after St Hyacinth and King Casimir the Great respectively.

Local customs

• When ordering you can choose boiled or fried, and a portion is usually eight to ten
• "ruskie" are filled with potato and farmer's cheese and are the most classic
• sweet pierogi (such as cherry or blueberry) come with cream and sugar and can be eaten as dessert
• sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi also often appear in the meatless Christmas Eve supper.

Religion & beliefs

• In the Polish Catholic tradition, the Christmas Eve supper contains no meat, and sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi are one of the common dishes
• St Hyacinth was a Dominican friar popularly called the "patron saint of pierogi", and the stories about him are folk legend. Pierogi themselves are not a religious food.

Rules that apply here

Travel tips

• Kraków's Old Town and Kazimierz district have many pierogi restaurants and traditional “milk bars”
• a meal takes about half an hour to an hour. The Pierogi Festival is usually held in mid-August on the Small Market Square
• check the official dates for the year. You can combine it with the Main Market Square, Wawel Castle and Kazimierz. Dietary notes: the dough contains wheat and egg
• the potato and cheese filling contains dairy
• meat fillings are mostly pork or beef
• the topping is often pork cracklings (skwarki), so tell the staff if you do not eat pork or are vegetarian
• sweet pierogi are quite sugary. Milk bars are inexpensive and good for a simple lunch. Prices and opening hours are set by each restaurant
• popular old shops often have queues, so going outside peak mealtimes is more relaxed.