About the author

Originally from London, I moved to Poland to absorb as much of the culture as humanly posssible. Maybe the biggest influence on me has been the food and I credit my adopted babcia, (Polish for grandmother) Ania, with much of the information here. I lived in Zielona Gora and Szklarska Poreba which are in the west and south-west of Poland respectively.
Please feel free to leave any comments, contact me at polishrecipes@gmail.com or visit my other site An Englishman in Poland

Monday 16 July 2007

Zapiekanka




This is not traditional but it is one of the first 'fast foods' to appear in Poland and common throughout the country. Basically it is a halved baguette covered in meaty toppings and cheese and then heated to melt the cheese. To finish off lots of ketchup (Polish people love ketchup) and mayonnaise are added. The two shown in the picture are topped with ham and garlic, but toppings vary just like pizza (which is also very popular here). We had these in a cool wooden restaurant in Zielona Gora.


I was not overly impressed by these. It is not that original as I have often eaten melted cheese with toppings on French baguettes in England and the huge amount of sauce did not enhance the experience, it was rather sickly. But a good snack if your ravished, or as an inferior alternative to a kebab after drinking.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zapiekanka is the best food ever. You can make it yourself easly or buy it in other countries but they def DON'T taste the same as a POLSKA zapiekanka.

I had one in London b4 and it was NASTY!

You gotta learn to make a GREAT polish one and the best place to make it is POLAND!

dude, i am polish and it totally doesnt sound like you " KNOW" polish food at all. Pizza is popular in poland? OH PLZ, its known but def NOT popular!

It sounds like you only stuck with the FAST food in poland so i guess to YOU it may have been popular.

jw connolly said...

Hi thanks for comment.
I never claimed to know Polish food, I am merely an outside observer immersed in this culture offering my humble opinion.

In my opinion, I have tasted things similar to this before coming here and consequently found it uninspiring. This is in direct contrast to the vast majority of Polish cuisine which offers me a very unique taste and it was my aim to explore these tastes which are more traditional and more complex than hot melted stuff on bread.

I base my statement that pizza is popular due to the fact that there are multiple pizzerias on every street and is very often eaten (by the younger generation...not just me by the way especially as I am not that keen on it). I have never seen such an abundance of places selling pizza. I thought it was obvious from the rest of the site that I have not lived on nor want to live on just fast food.

I have observed the west and south-west, and north-west. Perhaps it is different where you are, I would like to know as I do not want to make generalisations about Poland as a whole. Where are you in Poland? Do they crush little pills with smiley faces on there which could explain the magic and why you feel the need to defend it so strongly. I think I should try a zapeikanka there to have a more balanced opinion. What do you think?

Thank you again for your comment, hope to hear from you again.

Anonymous said...

Ignore him, I'm polish as well and you are right about pizza being popular here, it is also quite good compared to other countries.
as for zapiekanka i'm guessing you had really bad one because it really is great tasting food.
good give away that it wasn't good place to have one is amount of sauce, I figure they used it to mask poor quality product because we sure as hell don't like lots of tomato sauce as you mention and this is first time i seen anyone serving zapiekanka with mayo, unless you asked for some it seem very odd.

Regards

Anonymous said...

I spent 2 months in Poland with my Polish family and I had delicious zapiekanka.I'm so sorry you had a bad experience! You are right, pizza is popular. The first poster has no idea what they are talking about. Pizza in Poland is some of the best I have had--and I have travelled throughout Europe.

Aleksandra Rybinska said...

I have been studying in Zielona Gora! Wow! Now I am living in Liverpool. Are you still in Poland?
The best pizza in Zielona Gora is in restaurant "Roma". Maybe you've been there? Greetings!
I love zapiekanka with champignon and cheese. So Yummy!