Thursday, January 14, 2016

Polish Cottage

My siblings and I are rarities in that, while we were born here in the US as were our parents, we are pure lineage Polish. No other blood, at least for a few generations back. Who knows before that. Our maternal and fraternal grandparents were all born in Poland and lived there until the imposing threat of the Iron Curtain had them take the well worn pilgrimage trail to Ellis Island in New York and the path to freedom and US citizenship. Babcia, our maternal grandma had 8 kids. Four boys, four girls. That ended up producing one great array of wonderful cousins. One of my fond memories of childhood and our large family gatherings is the array of Polish food specialties that graced our plates at meal time. Things like Pierogis, Polish dumplings of various fillings. Kind of like the Chinese potstickers. Golabki, which we knew as Galumpki, which is a boiled cabbage leaf stuffed with , usually, rice and a garlic and herb infused ground pork, rolled up then baked in a mildly seasoned tomato sauce. Very different from Italian style tomato sauces. Almost tomato soup with some subtle herbs. There was Placki, the wonderful potato pancake, and of course, the famous Kielbasa, Poland's heritage sausage.
So I was thrilled to stumble upon the existence of The Polish Cottage, a restaurant in Tucson. The reviews were good so we had to try it. So glad we did. All the food was beyond expectations with flavors that took me right back to my youth, especially the taste quality of their Galumpki.
Mom, if you are reading the blog on the Heaven Internet Wifi, it took me near 7 decades to find stuffed cabbage like yours! Thinking of it, maybe suggest to Gabriel that you would like to make dinner for the angels? If you are up for it and it happens, they will absolutely know they are in Heaven.

The restaurant was a cute little space. here is a pic of a sidebar with typical Polish pottery items.
 The book of Polska.
 And what might be a typical hearth in a Polish cottage...


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