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Poland is famous for its cabbage rolls and pierogi but there is so much more to enjoy when you come to a Polish table for dinner! Here we go through traditional Polish food and some of the etiquette tourists should know about eating out in Poland from tipping to what to drink to starting your meal with a great bowl of soup. Filmed in Krakow, Poland #poland #visitpoland #polishfood Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel. Copyright Mark Wolters 2026 Our Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Wolters World on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/woltersworld Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
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Hey there fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Walter's World, and today we're here in Poland, the land of Purogrim Paczki, and today we're going to talk about what you should eat and drink when you come here to Poland, because there is a lot of food you can enjoy when you're here
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And I mean a lot of food, I don't just mean a lot of options, I mean a physically lot of food, because here in Poland, they feed you until you explode
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You do not have to worry about leaving the restaurant hungry. And you definitely don't have to worry about leaving Baba's house, Grandma's house, hungry
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Because she will feed you until you explode. But anyway, let's talk about some of the foods you should definitely try when you're here
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And one thing I think is really important. This list is more like general things you want to eat around Poland
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But the thing is, there's lots of regional foods as well. Especially the kielbasa. You have different sausages around the country you want to try
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But I just want to give you kind of the overall. Here's Polish food 101
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So you have a rough idea of what's going to be on that menu. So you have an idea what you should get when you do come here whether you're going up to the coast of Gdansk
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Get the fish soup or you're here in Krakow get the bagels from the blue carts or if you're in Warsaw
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There's a lot of fantastic stuff. All right, so let's get started
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And if we're gonna get started I think it's important to realize when you get started eating in Poland you start with soup. Zupa
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They love soup here. Look whether it's in the summer, the fall, the winter, the spring
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If you're going out to eat you're gonna have a big meal You're gonna eat a lot of stuff You're probably gonna start with a bowl of soup and there's a lot of different soups you can have when you're here
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Probably the most famous one is Jurek and Jurek is basically it's sour rye soup
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Think of it as a soup with sausage, potatoes and of course you got the boiled egg in there
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But what's probably most famous for is you'll see it served in a bread bowl But that's kind of like the most famous one you're gonna see around but not necessarily the most tasty one
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But for me, there's other soups I prefer. Like when I'm in Gdansk, I love the fish soup
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And the fish soup here, you can be near the Baltic Sea like in Gdansk. Or if you're anywhere that there's rivers nearby, you get that fresh fish soup
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That's actually my go-to. If you're here in the summer, sometimes you can get cold borscht
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Not all the time. And I've seen here in Krakow, it's been on a lot of the menus, but they actually don't have it
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But basically what it is, it looks like Barbie soup. It looks like Pepto-Bispo. It's like bright pink
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You're like, oh, I don't know if I have that. It is fantastic. And if you can't get the cold Borscht, just getting the normal Borscht, the beetroot soup
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that's a really good one there. Also, you'll see like a chicken broth kind of stuff that'll have dumplings in it
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That's another great soup you want to have when you're here. But there's just tons and tons and tons of soups when you are here you're going to have
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But that's how they kind of start your meal. Soup is a thing. Okay
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Now, another kind of maybe starter thing you might grab at a restaurant
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or you're going to see it more like on the streets, you'll see people like grilling cheese. And there's smoked sheep's cheese from the Tatras Mountains
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You'll see like a distinct shape they have and they grill it up on there. It is fantastic
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I'm not even going to try to say it because I'll butcher it, but I've had it many times when I'm here
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It's got a distinct flavor that the rind is all crisp up and the niceness inside
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And you know, when I've looked online, people go, oh, we compare it to Brie, but it doesn't taste like that
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Yeah, don't compare it to Brie because it doesn't taste like that and it's nothing like that, but it is a really good cheese and they do have really good cheeses when you are here
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especially local farmer's cheese. Nice. Okay. And I'll talk about the cheese and the farmer's cheese outcomes and the cheesecake later
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But I got to talk about those starters first. Okay now probably the most famous Polish food out there is the pierogi
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You know those dumplings that are out there and they are wonderful What's cool about the dumplings whatever you want inside pretty much goes, you know if you want to get meat inside
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Yep, you can do that. You want to get cheese inside. Yep You can do that you want cabbage and mushroom in there Yep You can do that if you tired of the savory ones it be really nice if can get a sweet one Yep you can get them with jams inside and so you can have a sweet version too Oh it so good especially in the summertime having the ones with the fruit in it
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So good. But pierogi, they really are something, like when you go around the world, you talk about Polish food, pierogi always come up, okay
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Now, if we're going to stick with the kind of main course kind of things when you're here, the next thing we have are cabbage rolls
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Basically what it is, minced pork with rice in a ball, and they wrap it in a cabbage leaf
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and they cook it in a tomato sauce. This has been the go-to to all my friends' babas, the grandmas, making stuff for me when I visit
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I remember one time, we literally came up at like 3 in the afternoon. We come back, and my buddy's like, oh, my grandma's making us some cabbage rolls
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I'm like, didn't we just teach? She's like, no, dude, we can't say no. And she literally was like, have more, have more
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I think I had four before I thought I was going to die, because literally they're going to feed you until you pop when you're here
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but the cabbage rolls a nice simple thing you can grab when you're here very traditional Polish
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thing you have in other countries too but I just like the ones here in Poland you can do that another thing if you're looking at meat dishes they have the cutlets that are here the Polish
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pork cutlet so you know if you know your Wiener schnitzel kind of stuff that kind of theme with
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the pork cutlet is hammered down and then battered and fried usually made with some sauerkraut and
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they the sauerkraut here I've actually liked it better than in other countries because it got more
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flavor in it that way which is cool probably some boiled potatoes with it you can do that
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lots of different meats when you're here pork will pop up a lot you can get that
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but you'll see steaks we've had duck when we've here been here we've had a rabbit when we've been
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here so you can have that so lots of different meat dishes you can have probably another famous
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polish dish is kielbasa we think of kielbasa you think oh it's a polish sausage well yes kielbasa
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is a polish sausage but it is all of the polish sausages you have to realize is the sausages can
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be different different places you go so here in krakow you have the krakow kielbasa you go other
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Parsons, they have their own version. So the flavor is going to be in different and different places. But kielbasa in general is just sausage, okay? It's just the word for sausage, and there's
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a lot of different flavors with it. So do get it. And sometimes you just grab one on the street
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and it can be a nice tasty treat when you have. And when you go around, you know, I talked about
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that cheese can be a little thing off the street. But another little street thing you can get
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is actually the bagels. Like here in Krakow, you'll see these little blue carts, and they've
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got these bagels in there, like little twisted bagel with seeds on there. Yeah, that is a famous
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thing from here in Krakow, but in Poland in general, you can grab the, you know, grab a bagel
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you know, the street eat. There's another thing, I like to call it my, like, French bread pizza
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Basically, when you walk around, whether you're at the gas station or you're at the train station
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or go around, they have this bread. It's like a flat, bready kind of thing, and it's basically a
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Polish version of pizza on top, which is a very popular, like, on-the-go snack. Again, another word
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that I cannot pronounce, but it is actually really tasty. I can't tell you how many times I had one
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of those at the Warsaw bus station because I used to take the bus from Warsaw to Vilnius like back
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in the day when I lived here 20-25 years ago and so that was like my go-to snack. I'm like oh I'm
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going to go there to have one of those so you can have that for street eats and like I said the
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kielbasa the sausage on the street always good right you have that. Now some other tasty treats
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I think you should have when you're here the pancakes. Now when I say pancakes there's different
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ones because you can have the potato pancakes when you come here. Think about they shred up the
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potatoes to make a little fantastic little potato pancake out of it you might have sour cream on it
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some people put goulash on there some people put mushroom sauce on there but the potato pancakes
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are actually really really good you can do that and if you want more of a traditionally pancake
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you crepey kind of thing you have the blintzes here and the thing is when you have the blintzes here it looks like a crepe but then it filled and they fold it up And what cool is they then pan fry it to like make it crispy and warm up the inside So the cheese is a little bit meltier
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The fruity stuff's a little bit warmier and lummier and tastier and lovelier
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But those are really, really good. I mean, I'll get those, just the cheese one with a little sauce on top
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Oh, oh, oh, you can't go wrong with that. Now, another famous thing you're going to see here is hunter stew or bigos
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and Biko's basically, think of it this way, sauerkraut and fresh cabbage and pork sausage
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and mushrooms and this kind of rich stew and it is quite filling when you are here. I would say in
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the summertime for me it's just too heavy but I've been here in the wintertime and haven't really
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enjoyed it so that's another famous dish from here in Poland. And when you're eating when you're here you're going to get a lot of food and they have a lot of side dishes as well. I mean potatoes galore
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like potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes. That's a guarantee you're gonna have stuff there. Pickles
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will show up in a lot of things as well. Rye bread, like that dense rye bread, they really love that
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And hey, when you get like a roll or something, don't like put it upside down on the thing. Just be respectful with the bread here because they respect their bread
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But the rye bread, really good when you are here. Maybe just grab it at breakfast if you're not going to have it at a restaurant
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But it is really nice. Another thing they have here is buckwheat, okay? And basically buckwheat, if you see it, it looks like, wait, it's like exploded
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I think this is what oatmeal would look like if it didn't have the liquidiness to it
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and buckwheat it how do i explain it like you see it and it looks like curt like cook kernels of
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moistness but actually it's really really good like i love it when i used to live in thuanian
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and come here for work a lot of times that was like my go-to side dish because it was much more
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of a different texture but really robust flavor i mean it's hard it's hard to explain i'm sorry but
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buckwheat really really nice side dish you can have when you're here as well obviously like i
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said sauerkraut comes up a lot here too you know cabbage kind of stuff because cabbage is a big
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part of the diet here. But sauerkraut as a side dish is also another big one when you are here. But let's think about
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some of the sweets you're gonna have when you're here. Now, the first thing obviously, I'm gonna talk about the pochki, the
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donuts, you know, the big old Polish jelly filled donuts, you've got great bakeries around here and you can grab all kinds of
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great snacks, whether they've got poppy seeds in them or chocolate in or whatever. And I'll be honest, if your hotels
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charge you what you feel is too much for breakfast, you don't need to there's enough bakeries, you can go get really good
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baked goods when you're here. And even just get a big old pochki, a big old donut and just enjoy that with a jam inside. You can't go wrong with it. But the pastries
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here are really, really nice. Next up, we have Polish cheesecake. Now, if you're thinking cheesecake
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like New York style cheesecake or cheesecake factory cheesecake, this is not like that
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Think of this more made with actual cheese, not just dairy, but actual farmer's cheese kind of
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stuff. It's much denser. It's much drier out there. Okay, so be aware of that. So you might want to
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have a drink while you're, you know, have the kava, have the coffee or more important, they're about to
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have the tea while you're having your slice of Polish cheesecake because it is a bit drier. But it is really a tasty
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thing. Another thing I'm gonna have here is the Polish apple pie or it's more apple cake when you come here, which is
9:55
really good. You can have that in all kinds of like those are kind of like go to like you're gonna find pochkies all over the
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country, you're gonna find the cheesecake all over the country, you're gonna find the apple cake all over the country. That's
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really good. But there's a lot of regional dishes as well. Like here, you have the poke cake, which is basically layers of like
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layer of cream and puff pastry kind of stuff. You can have that when you're here, but that's another regional thing
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So look on the menu to see what they have and ask, Hey, which one's the regional one here
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Because it's probably going to be good. And of course you had the little Kolachkis, you know, the little like
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rolled up fold up like almost like cookie with the with the jam inside cookie kind of stuff here Very popular as well Cookie or pastry I guess you say more of a pastry than a cookie You can get that that kind of like another go to thing you gonna see probably at your hotel on their breakfast
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table or when you're going around when you go into friends houses as a little snack they might serve you. So that's
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another nice thing there. Now, let's talk about the drinks you come to Poland and yes, they do drink when they're here. And if
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we're talking about alcohol, pivo, beer and vodka, vodka are the two biggest alcoholic drinks you're gonna have when you're
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here. And one of the important things you need to realize when you're here in Poland, if you're with other people and you're drinking, you don't drink before you
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cheers each other. And also when you cheers each other, you have to make eye contact. Okay. Otherwise
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bad things will happen in your life, let's say. Okay. So be aware of that. But the big ones
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the beer and vodka, that's the two big like alcoholic drinks that are here. Another thing
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you might see is what's called compote, which is basically like a fruit drink. You can have that
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when you're there. Sometimes you'll miss the compote. You'll put your alcohol in there and mix it together. It's like a fresh fruit with vodka mix or something else. You can do that
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You can drink the water here. No problem when you go to restaurants a lot of times
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They're not bringing you tap water or anything You're gonna buy bottled water and you can easily get bottled water all over the country
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So there's no problem here with that now I mentioned the coffee the kava and they're about to the tea earlier
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But that is another thing for breakfast your hotel You'll notice they'll have actually tea in your hotel because the poles like to have tea like my buddies
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That'll go out and drink with at night if we meet during the day We might just go meet for tea like seriously. That is a thing here
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They love their tea but kava coffee also very big here as well Asia what's called Kwas and Kwas is basically think of it as a rye bread drink when you drink
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it's almost like you think like oh this is some type of beer that doesn't have alcohol maybe like
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a stout without alcohol ish in that direction it's an acquired taste I'm not the biggest fan but I
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know people that really love it and it's something that's very traditional thing when you're here in Poland you might want to grab it when you're here and the thing is when you go around Poland there's
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a lot of different restaurants you can go to outdoor seating in the summer and springtime it's
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always good to go do because you can take in the beautiful architecture, see the people go by
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the very beautiful people going by when you are here. Another thing I think is important to
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mention, if you go around, they're not as popular as they used to be. You don't see them as much as back in the day, but milk bars, basically think of it as like a cafeteria that sells old school
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Polish food and good portions at a good price. It's worth to go at least once when you are here
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because locals do go there for like a cafeteria style lunch. So you can do that. But in general
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when you're going out to eat here, it's very meat heavy. It's very big portions. Like you don't
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walk out of a Polish restaurant, not feeling like you're going to explode because that is kind of
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how it is when you are here. Now, in terms of eating times, you know, lunch is noon to one
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Dinner time is more like six to eight is more of the traditional dinner times when you are here
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In terms of days that are off, you know, most restaurants, especially in tourist places
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they're open every day. So you can do that. If you're here in the summertime, a lot of the
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restaurants will stay open later, or especially drink places will stay open if they have outdoor seating to enjoy the beautiful evenings here in the summertime. So you can do that. But I'll be
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honest with you, when you come here to Poland, you will pop, you will pop in Poland because the
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Paczkis and the pierogi and the potato pancakes and just all the fun you're going to have when
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you're here and the babas, the grandmas, they literally just feed you and feed you and feed you
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You're really going to enjoy it. So I know I did not get a lot of the regional dishes like the
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pulled pork sandwich here in Krakow or other things around the country. What are other things
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people have to eat and drink when they come here to Poland? Please put it down in the comment
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section below so we can have other travelers explore more of the culinary treats of Poland
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And I'll say bye from here in Krakow because now it's time for me to go have breakfast
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because I'm hungry after making this video. Bye
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