What to eat in Warsaw
Polish food in the capital: pierogi, żurek in a bread bowl, bigos, zrazy, a milk bar lunch for pocket change, pączki before Lent and infused vodkas.

[ ] Eat pierogi
    Dumplings filled with potato and curd cheese (ruskie), meat, cabbage with mushrooms, or fruit. Boiled, or pan-fried after boiling — the second is better and has to be asked for.
[ ] Try żurek
    A sour soup made on rye starter with white sausage, boiled egg and marjoram, often served in a hollowed-out loaf. The sourness is soft and lactic rather than vinegary.
[ ] Try bigos
    Fermented and fresh cabbage stewed for hours with several meats, sausage, prunes and mushrooms. The longer it sits and the more often it is reheated, the better it gets.
[ ] Eat kotlet schabowy
    A plate-sized breaded pork chop with boiled potatoes and mizeria, a cucumber and sour cream salad. The Sunday lunch and the milk bar's headline dish.
[ ] Have lunch in a milk bar
    A subsidised canteen with the menu on a board, a serving hatch and prices half of any café. You order at the till, collect at the window and clear your own tray.
[ ] Try gołąbki
    Cabbage rolls of fresh cabbage with meat and rice under a tomato or mushroom sauce. Home food that costs very little in a milk bar.
[ ] Try zrazy zawijane
    Thin beef rolls filled with pickle, bacon and mustard, braised in a dark sauce. Served with buckwheat, which is a classic Polish pairing rather than an experiment.
[ ] Try pyzy
    Large potato dumplings with a meat filling, served with crackling and fried onion. A Warsaw street classic, sold to take away in jars.
[ ] Drink barszcz from a cup
    A clear beetroot broth without meat or vegetables, sour and concentrated, drunk from a cup. With uszka, tiny mushroom dumplings, it is the Christmas Eve dish.
[ ] Try smalec with bread
    Rendered pork fat with crackling, onion and marjoram, spread on rye bread with a salted cucumber. A free or near-free snack in old beer halls.
[ ] Eat pączki
    Plump doughnuts filled with rose jam and glazed with candied peel. Eaten all year, but on Fat Thursday before Lent the queues run around the block.
[ ] Try sernik
    A dense cheesecake made with twaróg curd rather than cream cheese, which is why it is grainier and less sweet. It comes baked, usually on a shortcrust base.
[ ] Try kremówka
    Two sheets of puff pastry with a thick layer of custard between them, dusted with icing sugar. The Wadowice version is famous across the country.
[ ] Drink kompot
    A lightly sweetened brew of dried or fresh fruit, served with lunch in canteens and at home. In a milk bar it comes in a glass with the set meal.
[ ] Try nalewka
    Home infusions on cherry, sloe, quince, walnut or honey: sweet, thick and strong. Old bars make their own and serve them in small glasses.
[ ] Try Żubrówka with apple juice
    Vodka infused with bison grass from the Białowieża forest, with a hay-and-vanilla note. The classic local mix is with apple juice, and it is called szarlotka.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-warsaw