Prądnicki bread used to find its way to kings’ dining rooms. Today, together with honey from Nowy Sącz, sausage from Kraków, or tomatoes from Lisice and Krzeszowice, it will make for an excellent start to your day. Morning breakfast may also be enriched by the mountaineer’s selection of cheeses – smoked oscypek, salty bryndza or bundz. A long wait for the main course will be eased by Kraków’s obwarzanki or raciechowice’s apples and fruit juices from Tymbark. Not far from Tymbark, in a charming location, there is a small village called Jodłownik fa-mous for its golden kołacze pastry with a gentle hint of cheese. Then it’s only 4 km to Szczyrzyce, where, whilst waiting for a meal, one will drink a pint of bear brewed according to an old monastery recipe.
A two course meal can be started with żurek (a fermented rye flour soup) or a beetroot soup, which is homemade and still available in the town’s markets. The taste is enriched by smoked sausages already mentioned before. The main course in Kraków since medieval times has been St. Jack’s dumplings or grule – mountaineers’ potatoes sprinkled with sheep’s cheese and served with Zator carp, famous in the times of Bolesław III Wrymouth (12th century). All meals are of course seasoned with salt from either Bochnia or Wieliczka.
For connoisseurs of a more fatty diet, kwaśnica is an excellent choice – a thick mountaineers’ soup made from sauerkraut and pork ribs. For desert one must not miss the Wadowice cream cake made famous by Pope John Paul II. Your thirst after the meal will be quenched by mineral water from Krynica-Zdrój, Muszyna or Piwniczna. They will also prevent stomach problems after too much indulgence in local cuisine. For something a bit more fiery to add to your meal, Okocim beer that has been brewed for the last 150 years will be an excellent choice, and in the evening you can ‘adorn your face’ with łącka śliwowica – a drink with a very high alcohol content.

Restaurants with Polish Traditional Food.