[Leica] Nathan's PAD 21/9/2022: Bar Mleczny Flisak

[Nathan Wajsman]

I was on a business trip in Poland from Sunday till Wednesday, with some free time at the beginning and end of the trip. I am still editing the photos, but my PAD for Wednesday is a pictorial record of a piece of Polish culture that has survived from Communist times, and a piece of travel advice.

In every Polish town you will find one or more modest establishments called Bar Mleczny. Literally it means “milk bar”, even though the food on offer is normal Polish food, not particularly heavy on dairy products. I think the term originates from the fact that they do not sell alcoholic beverages; in Poland milk is traditionally something children drink, as opposed to real stuff like beer and vodka. In any event, those places are by far the best lunch deal in Poland. They existed when I was a small child in Poland in the 1960s, and have survived the transition to a market economy and are holding their own by providing tasty, nutritious and cheap food in a setting that has not changed much in the past decades, except that the quality of the food and the service is better than in the bad old days, and they take credit cards today. The people who eat in milk bars are a mix of pensioners on low incomes, students (another low income group) and just ordinary people who appreciate the offerings. I count myself in the latter category, and a couple of hours before heading to the airport in Kraków to fly home to Alicante, I went to Bar Mleczny Flisak next to my hotel for a late lunch.

This is the general view of the place. You queue at the counter, order from the menu on the wall, pay, and are given a number. Once your food is ready, your number is called and you go to the counter to pick it up. It is all quick, and you are expected to have made your selection when it is your turn to order so as not to hold up the queue unnecessarily:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-vmNsQ8f/A <https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-vmNsQ8f/A>

While you wait, you can look at the salads in the display case:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-vBvP4Hd/A <https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-vBvP4Hd/A>
(1 EUR or USD equals approximately 4.75 złoty)

This is what I had for lunch, a celery salad, cucumber soup and pierogi:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-ZP5vNKL/A <https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-ZP5vNKL/A>
It was filling, delicious and set me back just under 29 złoty, including a soft drink.

The staff at these milk bars are usually women of a certain age who went to school at a time when the only foreign language taught in schools was Russian, so forget about English menus etc.—a modicum of Polish, at least enough to understand the names of the dishes, is necessary (or going with a local).

Bon appétit!

Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
photo at frozenlight.eu

http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.frozenlight.eu

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