Zakąski Culture in Poland: What to Eat with Vodka?
The Spanish have their tapas, the Italians have their aperitivo and in the Middle East they feast on mezze. Small plates, which you most often share with friends and which – at least in countries where it’s generally accepted to consume alcohol – are usually accompanied by a fair share of drinks, are a part of many food cultures worldwide. In Poland, these dishes are known as zakąski and go exceptionally well with vodka.
Zakąski have long been a tradition in Slavic countries, and, as one might assume, their main purpose is to mellow the effect of strong spirits and provide a powerful, intense counterpoint. Therefore, flavour-wise, the two most important elements of this type of dish are acid and fat.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
A carnival party in the 70s, photo: Zenon Zyburtowicz / East News
At weddings
The simplest application of this rule is the combination of lard (smalec), spread on a slice of rye bread, and dill pickles, or pickles served with some other fatty cured meats. You can see just that in the following scene of Andrzej Wajda’s The Wedding, where Kasia, played by Bożena Dykiel, takes her vodka with bites of pickle and sausage.
Traditional Polish weddings, especially in rural areas, are occasions where the culture of zakąski still reigns supreme. While we’ve observed a cultural shift in past decades, and people in big cities tend to drink more wine and often prefer a more Mediterranean or French approach to banquet canapés, smalec, sausages and other cured meats, meat jellies, pickles, and herring are still among the most popular items included in traditional wedding buffets – sometimes known as wiejski stół, ‘a country table’.
Mandatory herring
Some other, more curious culinary inventions were served during the times of the Polish People’s Republic. For a certain period of time, it was actually mandatory to sell alcohol in bars with something to eat, so that clients wouldn’t get drunk so quickly. This led to some unappetizing practices, such as ‘serving’ the same, untouched but slightly stale slices of cheese, greyish hard boiled eggs with mayo – or even, according to some, fish heads – to several customers at once. Other surprising inventions included the so-called ‘oyster’ – an egg yolk served in a shot glass with black pepper and Maggi seasoning, – or the slightly more elegant steak tartare with finely diced onions, gherkins, pickled mushrooms and an egg yolk on top.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Herring in Przekąski Zakąski, 2011, photo: Krzysztof Żuczkowski / Forum
One of the most famous combinations of the time was the delightfully named lorneta z meduzą (binoculars with a jellyfish), which was two shots of vodka with a serving of jellied pigs feet. In Warsaw, one can still try the now forgotten river lamprey, which was a great delicacy during the Interwar period. Yet the king of all zakąski was herring, served with a tomato and onion sauce (the ‘Kashubian’ way), with mayonnaise and peas (curiously named Japanese herring), or simply in oil with some onions.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Meat jelly (meduza), photo: Piotr Jędzura / East News
The legend of Przekąski Zakąski
This love of herring has lasted for decades: it was the favourite snack at the legendary Przekąski Zakąski bar, which was used to be on Krakowskie Przedmieście St., opposite the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. The bar only operated from 2006 to 2013, but in this short amount of time it became one of the most important spots on the capital’s culinary map, where people met 24/7.
The idea was simple yet genius: all beverages – both alcoholic and not – and all appetizers cost the same (respectively 4zł/1eur and 8zł/2eur). The drink of choice was definitely vodka, sometimes with an orange juice chaser, since the wine was not the best and beer drinkers had their own bars to go to. Plus, it was not a spot where you hung out for hours: you might’ve gone there for a shot at 6pm on a Saturday before a party, or come back at 6am on a Sunday morning to end your night with something hearty to eat.
Picture display
standardowy [760 px]
Mr Roman in Przekąski Zakąski, photo: Sławomir Olzacki / Forum
As for the food, the menu was equally straightforward: other than herring, they offered a steak tartare, ham, jellied pigs’ feet and gzik. The latter a rare delight for vegetarians, which consisted of half a boiled potato with a spoonful of Polish cottage cheese flavoured with garlic and chives.
Przekąski Zakąski was so successful, that it became an inspiration, truly original gastronomic concepts, not unlike the milk bar. Soon enough, there were bars with 4zł/8zł menus all around Poland. Some of these places became quite successful, although none could compare to the original. None of them had as good a view, as many glitterati coming in (including international superstars such as Bill Nighy and David Hare), nor the one-and-only Mr Roman, who recognised all returning guests and quickly became the most famous waiter in Warsaw.
Vodka pairing – is it a thing?
In the last decade ongoing efforts have been made by some Polish chefs, bartenders and spirit connoisseurs to start looking at vodka from a new perspective. Not just as something to get drunk on, or dissolve in a cocktail, but an interesting local product, which has the potential to become as important to Poland, as whiskey is to Ireland and Scotland, or champagne to France.
To do so, passionate chefs started to think about much more refined zakąski, which would go well with artisan vodkas. Chef Aleksander Baron and food writer Łukasz Klesyk even wrote a book about it entitled Między Wódką a Zakąską (which literally means ‘Between Vodka and an Appetiser’, yet also refers to the idiom wcinać się między wódkę a zakąskę – to meddle or interfere).
The authors claim that the most important rules in creating new zakąski are following the contrasts created by the pairing of the sweetness of vodka with either salt or acid. At the same time, keeping in mind that the appetisers should be rich and complex enough to handle high levels of alcohol. It can be achieved by adding fat but also by enriching the flavours by grilling, roasting, adding herbs, spices or mushrooms.
And so, Baron and Klesyk pair different Polish vodkas – mainstream ones like Sobieski and Wyborowa, more exclusive ones such as Chopin and Belvedere, as well as artisan, flavourful products such as Młody Ziemniak and Ostoya – with Polish dried or smoked sausages, smoked trout or mackerel, but also with fermented radishes, tomatoes or even… raspberries with black pepper. They even play with the old idea of the Polish oyster, adding flavourful beef stock and lovage to fresh egg yolks. And yes, there’s herring as well, with cinnamon, cloves and black pepper.
Zakąski are part and parcel of Polish culinary culture. Whether it’s at a wedding, at home, at a bar, or even in a fancy restaurant – a shot of vodka needs a flavourful partner to dance with.
Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, Nov 2020
[{"nid":"5688","uuid":"6aa9e079-0240-4dcb-9929-0d1cf55e03a5","type":"article","langcode":"en","field_event_date":"","title":"Challenges for Polish Prose in the Nineties","field_introduction":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary\r\n","field_summary":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary","topics_data":"a:2:{i:0;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259609\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:26:\u0022#language \u0026amp; literature\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:27:\u0022\/topics\/language-literature\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}i:1;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259644\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:8:\u0022#culture\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:14:\u0022\/topic\/culture\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}}","field_cover_display":"default","image_title":"","image_alt":"","image_360_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/360_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ZsoNNVXJ","image_260_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/260_auto_cover\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=pLlgriOu","image_560_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/560_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=0n3ZgoL3","image_860_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/860_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ELffe8-z","image_1160_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1160_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=XazO3DM5","field_video_media":"","field_media_video_file":"","field_media_video_embed":"","field_gallery_pictures":"","field_duration":"","cover_height":"991","cover_width":"1000","cover_ratio_percent":"99.1","path":"en\/node\/5688","path_node":"\/en\/node\/5688"}]