Shopping For Polish Food

When Grant and I had lunch in Kilburn, we noticed there was a Polish grocery shop next door. We were keen to try homestyle polish food so we looked for foods to try like cheeses, dumplings, cured meats and pantry foods. I don't think the salesgirl was expecting to be bombarded with questions like: "Which _____ is best/more popular?" 

Aside from grilled kielbasa sausage, (which we're fans of from Camden market), we haven't eaten much Polish food. In fact when we were in Krakow, the only traditional food we ate was grilled cheese, like halloumi. 

There wasn't much for vegetarians. So here's my haul. Smoked lard (yep, the fat off the pig's back), 2 types of kielbasa, smoked cheese (unfortunately not the grill-able kind), broccoli pierogi dumplings and herring fillets in sour cream.

This is the lard, or szalonna. It sounds gross but it can be eaten as is, with rye bread or used for frying. I first found out about it when my ex-flatmate who's Lithuanian brought back huge hunks of it when he visited home. It's basically bacon fat. As a snack, he'd slice it and eat it like it was cheese. 

I used the lard to fry the pierogis for dinner. And potatoes and kielbasa the next day. I was a bit heavy handed with it at first because the food left a greasy film in my mouth. This was comfort food. Tasty, perfect fat-to-stodge ratio, and fitting for cold weather.