Pod Samsonem

Two days before we arrived in Warsaw, tragedy struck. Most of the Polish government perished in a plane crash that sent the capitol city into mourning. For this reason, I thought I'd better do some research on places to eat, thinking much of the city would be shut down and not wanting to have our options completely limited. Turns out not much of anything was shut down, though the research paid off. We found Pod Samsonem just outside of the ghetto wall, and it seemed more of a local eatery than a tourist destination (which can't be said for the majority of restaurants around our hotel.)

We started with a combination platter of "Jewish caviar" (chicken liver, onions, hard boiled egg,) egg and onion salad, beef tartare and salmon in spinach (lox and cream cheese wrapped in a spinach souffle.) Nothing very exciting, but very fresh and seemingly traditional. The caviar was the highlight for me, having never seen anything quite like it, and very easy to eat with only a subtle liver flavor.

For dinner I ordered the meat bouquet with rice and salad, a mixture of different cuts of pork fried in a variety of concoctions and doused with strange sauces. Each bite of meat was consumed with a bit of the cabbage and slaw, and despite the fact that this meal seemed very Polish, the impressions left on my tongue were nothing short of... chinese. Imagine General Tso's chicken as interpreted by a Polish chef with no such intentions.