We kinda unpacked a little and hung out a little. The girls had a look around the house. Now we decided to go for a walk and get something to eat. We are going to do a lot of walking here.
We walked down Nowy Świat to Krakowskie Przedmieście. Past the statue of Kopernicus and passed the Church of the Sacred where Chopin's heart is interned. Than passed my old alma mater, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych. Julek decided we need to eat at the u Kucharzy restaurant, a place his best friend recommended. The name means "at the cooks place".
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It's quite the spectacle - the kind of place food magazines talk about - very "slow food" trendy. Most of the meat comes from their own farm outside of Warszawa. The actual restaurant is located in what used to be the kitchen of an old, great hotel, Hotel Europejski, back in the 1920s. Lots of small, funky, weird rooms that used to serve the needs of the once very large kitchen. We ended up in a little, white tiled room just by ourselves.
The waiters and cooks are dressed in, what looked like to me, 1920s staff outfits. Lots of them and lots of hustle and bustle - we walked past the bakery to get to our seats. The staff was making pastries and bread.
The lunch menu is very short. 4 to 5 appetizers and as many main dishes. Julek was disappointed that they where not serving the crispy, roast duck that day. All the dishes are very traditionally Polish but with a upscale/trendy twist. Michal and Julek ordered the steak tatar, I had the blood sausage with fried onions and the girls looked worried and just wanted to stick with the bread and excellent, farm made butter.
The steak tatar was prepared at the table - a waiter rolled in with an old wooden table and started chopping a fine piece of beef tenderloin, he added the diced onions, pickles, spices and than the eggs. It got all mixed in a bowel and served. It was spectacularly good with a very different texture than when the meat is ground. Michal said that this was the best steak tatar he ever had.
My blood sausage was served straight from the pan - well browned with a slightly crispy skin, swimming in bacon grease and covered with nicely browned onions and bacon bits - yummm. It was excellent. The sausage was of the absolutely highest quality and although I prefer a more rustic style of preparation this was very fine.
Too wash it down we had Zubrówka with an apple juice chaser.
With such a stellar start I had high hopes for the rest of the meal. The serving of the food was quite a show but the waiters and cooks have to work out some kinks in their shtick. They were arguing about how to plate the food at the table. On the other hand they could be going for a reality TV atmosphere.
The food needs some work too. My zrazy nadziewane with buckwheat were to big and salty, the roast chicken stuffed with liver and parsley was OK but it didn't sit well with Tasia and the tomato soup with noodles, Rachel ordered, was not bad if just little too ordinary for a fancy place like this. The parówki I ordered for the girls didn't go over well - they didn't look or taste like hot dogs. The buraczki (beets) had too many additives but the carrots with orange peal were spectacular. Michal really liked his gołąbki (stuffed cabbage).
All in all, for the money, I would have wanted better. It is a new restaurant and the idea is fun but it seems they need to work out the details.
To walk of the meal Julek took us the long way home. We went down Krakowskie Przedmieście towards old town. Than down the steps to Marymont, a cute little old townish neighborhood at the bottom of the embankment that is a feature of the Waszawa landscape. All along the Vistula river, on the left bank, is this steep drop off to what, i guess, used to be the flood plain.
Along the way Julek showed us the place where he first kissed my mother. That was very sweet - the old man must be going soft in his old age. He never talked to me about stuff like that.
Now back up the hill and through the park to the house on Gałczyńskiego. It was starting to sleet and to get cold. We where glad to be in the house. Michal got picked up by his mother and me and the girls, despite our best efforts, were overcome by the sandman.
Our internal clocks are so out of synch. Me and Tasia woke up around 10 pm and went out for a walk downtown. Warszawa was hopping on a Friday night. We walked around looking at stores and people as Tasia listened to a rolling commentary of stories always starting with "And over here I...". We stopped at an excellent book/media store, the Traffic Club, where I bought the latest Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa cds.
Finally it was Friday morning in Long Beach so we took a tram back to the house and tried to fall asleep again.
