Tips & Tricks

Public Holidays:

• January 1: New Year's Day
• Easter Sunday and Monday (first Sunday after the first spring full moon, 2004: Easter Monday is April 12)
• May 1: Labor Day
• May 3: Constitution Day (on the anniversary of May 3, 1791 Constitution proclamation)
• Corpus Christi: (Thursday of the ninth week after Easter; in 2004: June 10)
• August 15: Assumption of Virgin Mary, Polish Army Day (on the anniversary of the victorious battle of 1920 against Russian army fought on the outskirts of Warsaw)
• November 1: All Saints' Day
• November 11: National Independence Day (Poland regained its independence in 1918 after 123 years of partitions)
• December 25, 26: Christmas

Among other less official feasts belong:
Fat Thursday - the day of eating doughnuts (the last Thursday of the Carnival), International Women's Day - 8th of March (originally communist feast when men should show their appreciation of women with a flower or a gift).

Polish Cuisine:
Polish cuisine is a traditional one, abundant in meat dishes prepared in a variety of ways. The basic ingredients used in it include: sauerkraut, beetroots, kohlrabi, cucumbers (pickles and sour), sour cream, eggs, mushrooms, dill leaves, marjoram, caraway seed, smoked meat.

Soups:

• Barszcz biały: sour thick wheat and potato starch soup with marjoram, sometimes with cream
• Barszcz czerwony: hot refreshing beetroot soup, sometimes with dumplings, a hard boiled egg or beans
• Żurek: sour rye soup with potato, sausage or an egg, sometimes served in a bread loaf
• Krupnik: barley soup with smattering of vegetables and smoked meat
• Kapuśniak: sour cabbage soup
• Rosół z kurczaka: golden chicken consomme with noodles

Main courses:

• Baranina: roasted or even grilled lamb - great especially in the mountains
• Bigos: appetizing, seasoned sauerkraut "hunter" stew with various kinds of meats and sausages, extremely traditional
• Dziczyzna: wild game
• Fasolka po bretonsku: cheap bean 'nd sausage stew
• Gołąbki: "little pidgeons" - cabbage parcels originally from Lithuania, they are stuffed with mushrooms
• Kotlet schabowy: breaded pork cutlet (a tasty choice if you do not want to risk), very traditional
• Kiełbasa: Sausages - especially white sausage - are very tasty in Poland, they go well with ogórki kiszone (pickled gherkins) in combination with beer, vodka and fresh air. You can try them in tomato sauce as well.
• Krokiet: deep-fried pieces of potatoes, rice or meat stuffed with spinach, cheese etc.
• Pierogi: small white dumplings larger than ravioli filled with meat, cheese, mushrooms, strawberries or anything else, very traditional
• Szaszłyk: originally Caucasian dish: chunks of meat grilled on a spit
• Wątróbki drobiowe: chicken liver with mushrooms
• Zrazy zawijane: rolled fillets of hashed veal in a spicy sauce

Appetizers:

• Kopytka: - hoof-shaped dumplings
• Kluski śląskie: - Silesian dumplings
• Kasza gryczana: - buckwheat groats
• Placki kartoflane: - potato pancakes

Desserts:

• Faworki: - pastry twisters
• Galaretka: - very sweet jellies
• Makowiec: - sweet poppy cake
• Naleśniki: - omelets stuffed with meat and many more things like jam, fruit, etc. very similar to crepes
• Pączki: - doughnuts
• Sernik: - delicious fat cheese cake