For four days in mid-August, the Old Square in Poznan becomes a culinary center in the heart of the city. I’m so glad that this occurred while our friends were visiting from the US so they got to see it and sample some of the treasures offered. Like most festivals in the old square, you’ll find arts and crafts, live music, and food.
This festival also included cooking demonstrations. I found this pierogi demonstration amazing. This young man made as many pierogi in the few minutes that I watched him as my friends and I made in a afternoon! His colleague on the right is cooking the pierogi and offering them to the crowd as fast as he can.
It was also the first time I’d seen kurtoskalacs, a Hungarian sweet bread known as chimney cake. A delicious sweet and it was fun to watch the preparation and baking process. The dough was cut into a spiral and wound onto the wooden. . . bobbin is the word that comes to mind. After the bread has baked and the sugar on the outside caramelized, the bread is sprinkled with more sugar or chopped nuts. I would consider sacrificing my rolling pin to try this at home.
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| wikipedia photo |
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Stardust
It's amazing how much can you learn about a traditions at such festival. But let me tell you, I'm Polish but this man is a master:) We had a "pierogi day" here in my house couple years ago. Three of us (I, my husband and son) were making pierogi for a whole day. We start with small, but on the end they were enourmous:)) just to get the job done. We had so much fun. You know my husband is American, had no clue what to do :)) Some of his first pierogis blew up in cooking. It was hilarious 🙂
Lois B
Stardust – I was so worried about my first pierogi coming apart in the water that I crimped the edges with a fork twice.
Ege
Oh, that kind of cake is very good! When I was in Prague, I found several places where they made that cake, and I fall in love with it! :)Yum!
Miasto Poznan
Hi Lois,
big pleasure to read your view on our city and country. We hope you will like your stay and feel here like home:)
Stay tuned with what's going on in Poznan thanks to – http://www.facebook.com/MiastoPoznan
Best
City of Poznan 🙂
Lois B
POZ – Dzięki!
Anonymous
Welcome in Poznań !
Lois B
Anonymous – thanks, we love your city!
Lori
Having lived in Hungary for six months, this looked very familiar.
madkasia
wow! Quite impressive performance with pierogi! I definitely belong to the same group of peirogi makers that Stardust does…. whole day affair 🙂
polishhousewife
Me too, madkasia, me too! 🙂