Eating and Dancing in Nowa Huta: Restauracja Stylowa
After a long day of touring, I was ready for a big meal. I was walking back to the tram station and passed by this restaurant - I recognized the name from my guidebook (more on this guidebook later) - Restauracja Stylowa. I decided that it was time for dinner.
Reportedly one of the most elegant restaurants in working class Nowa Huta, it had a decor that seemed familiar to me. Certainly the tiled floors and especially those hanging lamps reminded me of the time I spent in mainland China.
I read in my guidebook that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings are dancing nights, where there's flashing lights, "pensioned locals strutting their stuff on the dancefloor," live singing to "disco polo." What's disco polo? It's a musical genre specific to Poland that mixes folk tunes and '70s disco. I was so happy that I came on a Sunday and was able to witness this. Try as I might, I couldn't get a picture of the grey-haired seniors dancing in pairs - they were too fast for the camera!
So what did I have to eat? I started with zurek, a soup made from fermented rye flour. I absolutely loved its sour flavor, and was packed with "stuff" in it - potatoes, sausage, and boiled eggs. I knew I had to have this again before leaving Poland.
For my main course, I had a pork chop which was breaded and fried, and a celery (root) salad. The pork was simple and tasty, even though I wasn't expecting it to be fried; the celery root salad, tangy and refreshing.
At this time, I have to mention that I've become a big fan of the "In Your Pocket" guides, at least the ones for Warsaw and Krakow. The Hilton Warsaw gives out both the Warsaw and Krakow guides, and the Hilton Garden Inn Krakow gives out the Krakow guide. I'm usually highly skeptical of free guides, because I usually assume that the editorial content is written by the advertisers. But these guides are not like that. They have real, valuable information like what I learned about Restauracja Stylowa on Fri-Sun evenings, that Wawel Castle tickets have a daily cap per attraction, in depth history, and real tips on navigating public transport. I much preferred these guides to the Lonely Planet guides I had with me, as they seemed to be written by actual locals, but locals who are experienced enough with traveling to be able to translate local insight to visitors. My Lonely Planet guides to Poland seemed to come more from the point of view of tourists giving insight to tourists.
