Milk Bar

​I also think I mentioned before that my Cousin Dawn was a teacher in Poland for several years. So of course we’ve been texting since I’ve been here, and she’s mentioned a couple of places she thinks I would enjoy. She also happened to mention a ‘milk bar’, which she described as ‘a restaurant where you can buy a meal for about a buck,’ adding that the meals were home-cooked and generally very tasty. I knew my time in Poland was dwindling, and the chance of finding a milk bar would be slim. So I checked that off my list as something I wouldn’t even attempt. Imagine my surprise last night when we stopped in front of a simple, non-descript building that had no resemblance to a restaurant whatsoever.  Kuba said, “This is a traditional Polish milk bar.”  Of course, that’s not what they are called in Polish, but he said it was the name we could pronounce😂😂😂. 

Kuba adding surgar onto ‘dessert’, which reminded me of my German grandma’s case knoephle (cheese buttons). He described them as ‘lazy man’s pierogi’.  Soft noodle with sweetened cottage cheese inside. They usually top it with buttered breadcrumbs and sugar.☺️  The primary meal consisted of potato filled pierogi, meat filled pierogi, and watered down cranberry juice, which they call ‘compote’. 

(Fastest shut down EVER! 😂😂)

Jakub continued to explain that milk bars are the last remnant of the communist regime, which wanted to provide a place to ‘go out to eat’ for families at a minimal cost (probably to keep up morale among the comrades 😳). The food was very good, and I would’ve compared it to one of our Woolworth cafeterias of yester-year…no frills dining. He laughed when I said my cousin told me that a meal cost about a dollar. He commented that ‘they’re a little more than that now.’

Before long, the staff were stacking up chairs on top of the tables all around us. He looked a little nervous and said ‘they’re closing.’  In my mind, that was another little remnant of the communist regime. ‘You’re done. Get out and go back to work.’😬😬😂. Uff da!