Four years ago, June 2008 while standing in the middle of Stare Miasto, Warsaw’s Old Town, I thought never in a million years would I imagine myself traveling to Warsaw, Poland; and there I was strolling through the main square. I was pretty fortunate to have found a job right out of college that allowed me to travel pretty extensively all around the world. I am grateful for all the friendships, experiences, and travel memories I gained throughout my 4 years there.
A couple months ago, I was meeting a new friend at Polonica, a Polish restaurant in Bay Ridge Brooklyn for lunch. (Yes, very very late post) Prior to our lunch meeting, I was trying to conjure up the meals I had while in Warsaw but I couldn’t remember a thing! I resorted to looking back at my old photo album and then I knew why nothing was floating back from memory. For some reason, my coworkers Alicia, Evan, and I ate everything but Polish food while in Poland! The pictures showed that we had pasta the first night, Chinese food the second night, and Mexican another night. I can’t quite remember why we didn’t go for more Polish food. Maybe we thought it would be fun to experiment foods of another culture in a foreign country.
Polonica has good Polish food. The perogies were soft and tasty with sour cream. They brought back memories not of Poland but more of Rutger’s dining hall lunches. The dining hall always served perogies for some reason. Sausage wrapped in bacon was interesting; but anything with bacon is always good. The stuffed cabbage were the size of softballs stuffed with ground pork and rice. They were huge! My favorite part was the colorful mixed salad dish that they give you with your meal. There was a little bit of cole slaw, pickled cabbage, pickled carrots, and chopped beet salad. I love beets and I loved how they cooked it that you can taste the natural sweetness without the earthy taste. The food was good, but I don’t crave Polish food enough to make another trip to Bay Ridge. But for those of you that do, I would recommend you make a stop here.
Polonica, 7214 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
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