Polonia Polish Restaurant

One of my favorite places to eat good Polish food--for lunch or dinner, is Polonia Polish Restaurant in Longwood. And, since my parents were in town to visit, we went there on a recent weekday for lunch. We were not disappointed and had a wonderful lunch.

For my lunch I ordered the Polish platter so I'd have a nice sampling of Polish food, and I shareda  good 1/4 of it with my Mom. This was a sampling of four traditional Polish foods, all equally wonderful. The sausage was a "white sausage (bialy kielbasa), a sausage that is not smoked. It was fantastic, spicy, fully of flavor, and quite meaty, not overly fatty. The bigos, hunter's stew, was tangy and tender, with bits of meat and mushrooms, truly a delight. The golabek--a cabbage roll--was served with the requested tomato sauge. Ground meat and rice were wrapped in a cabbage leave, then slowly cooked until very tender. The cabbage leave and the tang of the tomato sauce combined to make this dance in the mouth! Yumm. And finally, there were the pieorgi. I've never had a pierogi I didn't love (unless it came from the mega-market's frozen foods section), and these were great as well. I had the potato and cheese, lightly pan fried, served with some caramelized onions. They were wonderful, nice and creamy.

I started out my meal with Zurek, a flavorful Polish sour rye soup--also known variously as Easter Soup or White Barszcz--though there are no beets in it. Zurek is make from a sour rye, so it's a tangy soup, It's served with kielbasa and some boiled egg, and also may contain potatoes and carrots. The zurek I had a Polonia was wonderful, about the best I've ever had, both here and in Poland.

For their starters, both my folks had the special soup of the day, Navy bean with ham. It was excellent. For his lunch, Dad had a special sandwich, roast beef with mushrooms, onions, and provolone cheese. It was wonderful. Both Mom and Dad had some, and both liked it a lot. As a matter of fact, it was a large sandwich and Dad brought some back to eat at a later time--which he did, and said it was just as good as the first time.

I've eaten at Polonia a number of times and will continue to return, time and again. On our way out, Rob, the owner, tried to entice us with some fresh made paczki, a Polish yeast-dough donut, traditionally made just before lent. They looked awesome and so I snapped a picture. But, having just eaten and mindful of the calories, we declined. Now I'm having second thoughts.... Lent is still a week or so away, I could swing on by there one day....