My husband and I braved the bitter cold earlier this week to visit the little town nearest our place here in Wisconsin. There is a sizable Polish immigrant community in this town of less than 950 people. It's common to overhear folks carrying on conversations in Polish in businesses, the library, etc.
After lunch, Mr. Britches and I popped into a little downtown deli where they have pottery and groceries for sale that originate in Poland. I couldn't resist picking up a few small items.
It was great fun to come home and play a guessing game with our family as to what each item is. Some were fairly obvious and others, not so much! Google Translate was generally a great help.
Przyprawa Do Leczo was a mystery to all of us. The photo suggests a peppers-based broth. As I typed in the first word, Google Translate said "relish" but then switched to "spice for" as I entered the second word. When I added Leczo, it came up with "Spice for Leczo". Not very helpful! The ingredients include salt, paprika, onion, tomato powder, garlic, and more. Any directions that might be present on the back are covered by a label that won't peel away. I'm going to give this a whirl in a soup soon and see how it tastes.
Papryka Slodka Mielona seems fairly straightforward. It must be a type of Paprika! Google Translate says "Sweet Ground Pepper". The ingredients simply say Sweet Peppers. I'm in Wisconsin so this belongs in chili.
Kurkuma Mielona immediately brought up guesses of Curcumin and Turmeric. Google Translate said "Turmeric Ground" so we nailed that one.
The green packet looked to be a tea or coffee; no one hazarded a guess as to which. The first question was which word(s) is the company name and which is the product type. Kawa Zbozowa translates to Cereal Coffee. Fascinating! The ingredients include roasted rye, barley, chicory, and sugar beet. It looks like we need to add 4 Tablespoons to a liter of water. I don't know if this can be used in a conventional US coffee maker. As expected, Kujawianka has no translation, and must be the manufacturer.
These are pictured as cookies, so our question was what the flavor profiles may be. It smells like spiced cookies. Katarzynki translates to Catherine so we think that may be a common name for this type of cookie. None of the other words were much help, either. It was then that I spied tiny little white words across the bottom front. Torunski Pierniki! They are Gingerbread cookies!
Finally we have Serca Torunskie. These heart-shaped cookies are visible through the packaging. It translates to "Torun Hearts". Legendarny Smak is "Legendary Taste". The word Lukrowane means glacé which makes sense since the cookies have a sugary glaze.
We had great fun choosing these little grocery items and will enjoy working them into our pantry. I look forward to popping into the Polish Deli again soon.
