Midtown Lunch

I’m not that well-versed in Polish cuisine, so I decided to check out the Traditional Polish Cuisine Truck one day — kielbasa and pierogi for $10? Sure, why not? I know kielbasa very well, but pierogi… let’s just say the few times I’ve had them, I’ve been wildly disappointed with their texture and taste, while other people around me seemed to be happy with them.

$10 gets you a kielbasa and either meat or potato/cheese pierogi, though there’s a mushroom/kraut pierogi that doesn’t seem to be offered in the kielbasa combo. However, when I lamented this later to friends who’d been to the truck on other occasions, they suggested that if I ask, the extremely nice woman manning the register probably won’t have a problem accommodating that request. Anyone ever tried this? Any success?

Noah ordered the meat lovers, which also had a big splosh of brown mustard, a pickle, and (not pictured) a slice of bread. I tried one of his meat pierogi and didn’t like the slightly tinny taste to it – but this is a personal preference thing that has to do with the tendency of Eastern European cuisines to mix offal (liver, blood, along those lines) into their ground meat mixtures to stretch it. He thought they were fine.

I had the light combo, though it’s anything but; I struggled to finish my entire sausage and when I had, I lamented that I could have eaten half and not felt so disgustingly full. However! I finished it because it was so freakin’ good. Perfect snap, but juicy, overflowing with flavor, this is the kielbasa that people who dream about awesome food dream about when they dream about kielbasa. Too complicated? It’s GOOD. You should eat it. My pierogi were also excellent: where previously I’d lamented thick, soggy, boiled/water-logged skins on my pierogi, these did not have that problem. The skin on these was thinner than I’d had; not to say these were thin at all, but they were thin enough to not feel soggy or mushy when I bit into it. Just cooked, and filled with a potato and cheese mixture that was mild, bordering on bland, but eaten with bites of the kielbasa were perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, and though I felt grossly full at the end, I presume for the big eaters of ML that will not be a problem.

Seriously, if you like kielbasa but haven’t been to the truck yet, you are doing yourself a serious disservice. Get thee over to the truck, stat!!!

Old Traditional Polish – check their Twitter to see where they are!