I fell in love with pierogi when I was eight years old and the Polish grandmother of my best friend made these delicious little stuffed dumplings as an after-school treat. Sometimes she'd fill them with ground beef and onions, sometimes with cottage cheese and black-cherry preserves, but one way or another they were always delicious. So having been deprived for a long time, I was glad to head to Krakow over a recent weekend. Though hole-in-the-wall kebab stands and pizzerias are popping up everywhere, what really tastes good in this stunning city on a bitter-cold winter afternoon is a plate of pierogi.
Everyone in Krakow seems to speak English now, a big change from my first visit ten years ago, and while buying shearling slippers, wooden toys, and amber jewelry, I asked the stallholders in the winsome Sukiennice, the covered market in the middle of Rynek Glowny, the largest medieval square in Europe, where to find the best pierogi in town. Three out of four gave me the same address: Polakowski (Ulica Miodowa 39), a homey restaurant in an old groceryin the former Jewish Quarter. The windows were steamy when I arrived, and two cheerful young woman wearing ruffled blouses and straw hats at the counter in this tiny dining room quickly ladled me up a vivid bowl of borscht to tide me over before my sauerkraut-and-mushroom pierogi arrived. Sprinkled with amber-colored cubes of sauteed pork rind, they were delicious, and I was enjoying this $3 feast enormously until an old woman sitting next to me piped up, "You like pierogi, the best place for them is Zapiecek Polskie Pierogamie (Ulica Slawkowska 32)."
Cheery Polish music was playing when I reached my second pierogi palace, which was crowded but well worth the wait. I had a mixed plate of four meat and four cottage-cheese-and-potato pierogi, garnished with melted butter and deep-fried onions. After one forkful, I knew I'd found pierogi paradise, and walking home I looked at the people sitting in the McDonald's as though they were mad.
P.S. In an elegant old mansion, the new Hotel Stary is now the best place in Krakow to stay, and it has one of the most dramatic hotel pools in Europe, built into the vaulted brick arches in its basement.
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