AMWF couple: Street food in Poland

Finding street food in Poland is not as easy as in Taiwan. Typically, you will come across food booths selling kebabs, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, or zapiekanka. However, different regions in Poland have their own unique street food offerings, such as knysza, obwarzanek, and oscypek.

Zapiekanka is an open-face sandwich made with half of a baguette or long roll of bread. It is topped with mushrooms, cheese, and sometimes other ingredients, then toasted until the cheese melts. It is usually served hot with ketchup. The zapiekanka originated in the 1970s and is associated with the austere times of Poland's Communist regime.

Knysza is a type of fast food that consists of a bread roll filled generously with various ingredients. The bread is a sliced sponge cake, sometimes grilled beforehand, and is filled with a variety of ingredients, including vegetables and cutlets. It is then topped generously with sauce. Knysza is particularly popular in Wrocław, where its popularity rose in the 1990s. Unlike kebabs, knysza does not use roasted meat.

In Krakow, obwarzanek is a popular street food. It is a braided ring-shaped bread that is boiled and sprinkled with salt and poppy seeds before being baked. Obwarzanek has a white, slightly sweet, moist, and chewy crumb beneath a crunchy golden-brown crust. In Krakow, it holds the status of a regional food with protected geographical indication. Although it can be found outside of Krakow, it is usually available during specific festivals.

When visiting the Tatra Mountains, you will come across another street food specialty called oscypek. Oscypek is a cheese made from salted sheep's milk, with the addition of cow's milk. The unpasteurized salted sheep's milk is first transformed into cottage cheese, then rinsed with boiling water and pressed. The mass is then molded into decorative, spindle-shaped wooden forms. These forms are soaked in a brine-filled barrel for a night or two before being placed close to the roof in a special wooden hut, where they are cured in hot smoke for up to 14 days.