Polish Food 101 – Flaki | #polish cuisine

Polish Food 101 – Flaki

Tripe soups and stews are eaten in many parts of the world, in a variety of methods. In Poland, tripe soup, known as ‘flaki’ or ‘flaczki’, is one of the heartiest and spiciest on the menu.

To compare with others countries: the French bathe stomach linings in calvados (tripes a la mode de Caen), the Italians stew them with vegetables and wine (trippa alla fiorentina and alla romana), the Mexicans spice them with red chillies (menudo) and the Hungarians with paprika and bacon (pacalpörkölt).

And although tripe’s taste (or even more so, its smell) requires some getting used to, using the whole animal is very much in tune with the modern ‘nose to tail’ ideology, so important for many of today’s chefs.

Yellow tripe on the royal menu

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

Saffron, photo: Marcin Klaban / Agencja Gazeta

Picture image

szafran-fot-marcin-klaban-ag_21-07kuchnia-062_2.jpg

The name flaki is not too appetising – it literally means ‘guts’. And yet these guts have had quite a strong presence on Polish tables. Apparently, tripe was already being enjoyed in the 14th century by Polish king Władysław Jagiełło. Beef stock with cleaned and cooked tripe was thickened by either a white (plain) roux, or a yellow one, coloured with saffron. Not everyone knows that heavy spicing was actually a very important feature of Old-Polish cuisine: 17th-century poet Daniel Bratkowski wrote:

Text

It’s a custom nowadays, to eat saffron-spiced tripe at a lord’s table.

Author

Trans. NMR

Thumbnail — Portrait of Maria Gonzaga, photo: Zofia i Marek Bazak / East News

French travellers who came to visit Poland at the time were shocked by how much saffron and other spices were used in local dishes; according to courtier and historian Jean Le Labourerur, when Marie Louise Gonzaga arrived here to marry the king Władysław IV Vasa, she didn’t enjoy it at all, since ‘everything that was cooked a la polonaise was almost ruined by too much saffron and other spices, and only two partridges baked a la francaise were satisfactory’.

Spicy tripe all around

This has changed; nowadays Polish cuisine is not usually associated with spices, but flaki are actually somewhat of an exception. Ginger, nutmeg, pepper and marjoram are all used in large quantities, making tripe soup one of the spiciest in the Polish repertoire (one might argue tripe has to be spiced to be palatable at all, but we shan’t get into that).

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

People standing in a queue at the Pyzy, Flaki Gorące restaurant in the Praga Północ district of Warsaw, photo: Szymon Starnawski / East News

Picture image

kolejka-do-lokalu-pyzy-flaki-gorace-praga-fot-szymon-starnawski-en_01304102_0009.jpg

There are many regional varieties of tripe soup. Flaki po warszawsku – Warsaw-style tripe – is one of few specialties very much typical of the Polish capital and is characterised by the addition of veal meatballs. In the region of Zamojszczyzna in the east of Poland, green peas are sometimes added. In Radziwiłłów Mazowiecki they are called krezki and made with calves’ stomachs – which are much more delicate – and thickened with bread soaked in milk and butter. Tomato paste is one of the most controversial additions – some swear by it, whilst others believe using it to be an utter sacrilege.

The most famous tripe in Piaski

Yet possibly the title of the Polish capital of tripe should go to Piaski, a small town right next to Lublin. The restaurant Rarytas (Polish for ‘delicacy’), owned by a municipal cooperative, was opened there in 1966. It was run by Ryszard Sieczkarz, who created his own original recipe for tripe. First, a flavourful bone stock is made. Then, well-cleaned, blanched tripe is boiled for four hours in the stock, and julienned vegetables – celery root, parsley root, carrots, leeks, onions – are stewed with a bit of water. Then, the soup is spiced with marjoram, pepper and nutmeg, thickened with flour and served with copious amounts of fresh butter (which was Sieczkarz’s original idea).

In the 1960s, eating tripe and having a glass of vodka at the restaurant was a custom for people visiting Piaski’s horse market, which was organised in the town every Sunday. Then the bar became an important stop for truck drivers, who passed Piaski on the way to or from the Ukraine. Since 2008, a ‘Tripe Festival’ has been organised in the town, along with a contest for the best tripe of the Lubelskie region. Each year, hundreds of people come not only to taste Sieczkarz’s original recipe, but also to try the many other variations prepared by local cooks.

Vegan tripe online

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

Vegan tripe made with oyster mushrooms, photo: Agnieszka Kukieła / Reporter / East News

Picture image

flaczki-z-boczniakow-fot-agnieszka-kukiela-reporter-en_01371462_7398.jpg

Culinary mimicry is not a modern invention at all – long ago, in baroque times, royal chefs aimed to surprise their esteemed guests, whilst in the Polish People’s Republic era, home cooks used their creativity to make something out of nothing. And now, vegans cheat the senses, creating plant-based versions of traditional Polish dishes – from sausages to smalec. Tripe is no exception, and a recipe for vegan tripe has been a big hit on vegan blogs for a few years now.

Oyster mushrooms usually play the part of the stomach linings, and, with their slightly chewy texture, they do it surprisingly well. Obviously, they don’t have to be cleaned so laboriously, nor boiled for as long (so it’s much quicker to make as well), but otherwise cooks use similar vegetables and spices to reference the flavour of the original.

As you can see, Polish tripe soup can be enjoyed in a number of ways… even if there’s no actual tripe in it.

Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, March 2021

cuisine

polish cuisine

contemporary polish cuisine

Polish Food 101

traditional Polish food